Originally published 1937 | Playwright Terence Rattigan | |
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Adaptations French Without Tears (1941) Similar Terence Rattigan plays, Other plays | ||
French without tears 2016 trailer
French Without Tears is a comic play written by a 25-year-old Terence Rattigan in 1936. It takes place in a cram school for adults needing to acquire French for business reasons. The play was a success on its London debut, establishing Rattigan as a dramatist. Critics thought it 'gay, witty, thoroughly contemporary ... with a touch of lovable truth behind all its satire'. It ran for over 1,000 performances in London and over 100 in New York. It also established Rex Harrison as a major star. Scattered throughout are Franglais phrases and schoolboy misunderstandings of the French language.
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A film version, directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Ray Milland, was released in 1940. In 1960 Rattigan himself refashioned the work as the musical Joie de Vivre but it was not a success.
A television production was featured in the Saturday Playhouse TV series on 7 June 1958, with Denholm Elliott, Elvi Hale, Colin Broadley and Nicholas Parsons, and another in the BBC's Play of the Month series on 16 May 1976, starring Nigel Havers, Anthony Andrews, and David Robb.