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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 323946" data-attributes="member: 23">Star Wars continued In a film with a remarkable main cast, Shelagh Fraser as Aunt Beru is perhaps my favourite of the smaller roles. A proper character actress with a warm, expressive, almost pained face. She has that look of someone who might have appeared in an early episodic episode of Dallas. Even at the point this was made she has an impressive CV of film and TV work going back to the mid-Forties, and it looks like she appeared in small roles in practically every main British drama series of the Fifties and Sixties, as well as a number of comedies. Everything about her performance here tells us there’s more to the story. It makes me want to know more, but it also comes with the suggestion that to find out might spoil things and take away some of the precious mystery. It’s possible - probable, even - that she appears in the prequel triology, but I’m kind of hoping she doesn’t, because - as Shelagh proves here - less is more.Shelagh is one of many Brits who seem to frequently steal the show. There’s Anthony Daniels as Threepio whose questions and concerns at the very start of the film echo our own, making him something of a narrator. Many members of the council have British accents, while both Artoo and - famously - Darth Vader are played by Brits physically, if not in voice (I’ve seen that infamous footage of Darth speaking in a Bristolian accent and thought it quite charming).Probably the two most highest profile Brits present are Peter Cushing and Alec Guinness. When I think of their names, I think of Hammer and Ealing respectively. Both are so well-known to me for their earlier film work that Star Wars is far from the first association I’d have on hearing their names, though I can understand many fans of the Star Wars series may not have seen them in anything else.I’d forgotten - or hadn’t known to begin with - that Peter Cushing was in this film. He’s as reliable as ever, delivering his lines with a classic RP - complete with tapped R-sound - that is possibly perceived by many as sinister, but which I find terribly (or should I say “teddibly” reassuring). His character didn’t leave a huge impression on me, but I’m so glad he appeared because he brought a real gravitas (and I’ve just read that he later quipped that a Grand Moff “sounds like something which flew out of a cupboard” which gave me a huge laugh).Alec Guinness in particular is a classic example of an actor taking on a somewhat definitive role later in life. He’s as wonderful as ever here and definitely one of the best things in this film for me. Though I’d urge anyone who knows him only from Star Wars to seek out his other work. Kind Hearts And Coronets is a masterpiece of comedy thanks to his numerous roles in it.One slight irritant (and it’s a bugbear of mine) was that, in line with British acting etiquette of the time, the dialogue is delivered verbatim. And while this means we don’t get all those annoying “you know”s and “I mean”s and “OK”s which now saturate scripted drama, it also means that the Brits were probably too polite to change Americanisms in Lucas’s script. Fortunately, Guinness manages to make words like “gotten” sound rather more like archaic British usage rather than the Grey Squirrel Kills Off Red Squirrel thing that permeates today, which goes to show how truthful his delivery makes the wording on the page. continued…</blockquote>

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