The Vortex

A tale of fraught emotional intrigues set among the wealthy and sophisticated: a prig, pianist and wimp Nicky has a hard time with journalist Bunty, who's still attracted to old flame and cad Tom, who is Nicky's age - concealing mother's paramour. First staged in 1924, Nöel Coward's succès de scandale about incest, promiscuity, and morphine addiction was not surprisingly toned down for the screen; and now the hoohah about adultery on the tennis court, pill popping in the studio, and other such beastly japes, seems stale and dated. Novello as Nicky is irritatingly wet, while the succession of hounders, rotters, and chic shams looks like the creation of a posturing moraliser with a puritannically reactionary message. A dreadfully stagey curio.