good back-story, and good acting

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

A BBC Play of the Month. A good example of Chekhov's cheerful skewering of the upper and bourgeois classes with wit, edge and humor. Very impressive for a first full length play (although I've read this two hour version is edited way down from a script almost 3 times as long – which would have been quite hard to take). Rex Harrison plays Platonov, an intellectual, teacher and sharp tongued ex-soldier who seems to have women throwing themselves at him left and right. Harrison is excellent and great fun, but arguably a bit long in the tooth for Platonov – he was 63 when this was made. But he makes it work with his warm, perversely fatherly charm. The whole cast is strong, crucial to any Chekhov play working. Patsy Byrne is wonderful as Platonov's unsophisticated wife who manages not to see her husband for the cad he is, until it's too late. Sian Phillips is terrific as Anna, a sort of proto-feminist who desires Platonov, but only on her own terms. In the end, it's a comedy (with a touch of tragedy) about how hypocritical we can be when it comes to matters of our heart (and loins). You can clearly see Chekhov's influence on, for example, some of Woody Allen's comedies. The production is fairly rudimentary technically, not pretending to be more than a filmed play, but that doesn't stop it from being highly enjoyable.