Youtube revives Lee Remick in Jennie

(Updat­ed from 2012.) It is hap­py news that one of the finest-ever Churchill films, Jen­nie, star­ring the late Lee Remick, is avail­able in all sev­en episodes on  YouTube.  Click here for episode 1. 

The film was orig­i­nal­ly a tele­vi­sion doc­u­men­tary, “The Life and Loves of Jen­nie Churchill,” broad­cast on ITV in Britain and PBS in the USA in 1974.

Gregory Peck on a great actress

Twen­ty-five years ago the old Churchill Cen­tre held a din­ner for Lee Remick on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. We want­ed to present her with our Blenheim Award for notable con­tri­bu­tions to THE under­stand­ing of Win­ston Churchill. It was a bit­ter­sweet occa­sion, because she was dying of can­cer. Indeed it was her last appear­ance in public.

I am glad to say we suc­ceed­ed in rais­ing her spir­its at a ter­ri­ble time. But we could not have done it with­out Gre­go­ry Peck. He began with a recollection:

It was my priv­i­lege to work in only one film with Lee Remick. It was called “The Omen.” The plot involved Satanism, with some hor­ri­fy­ing spe­cial effects. It was a spine tin­gler, excru­ci­at­ing­ly sus­pense­ful. It was com­plete nonsense—and a block­buster! Peo­ple lined up for blocks to see it.

The stu­dio exec­u­tives took bows as the mon­ey rolled in. But only Lee and I knew the secret of the film’s extra­or­di­nary success:

We did it! It was our spe­cial artistry, our sen­si­tive por­tray­al of a mar­ried cou­ple very much in love, to whom all these dread­ful things were hap­pen­ing. We pro­vid­ed the human ele­ment that made it all work.

Mr. Peck said all this very much tongue-in-cheek. Then he added what he had real­ly come to say:

There can­not be anoth­er Amer­i­can actress so well suit­ed, by her beau­ty, her high spir­its, her intel­li­gence, and more than that, by the mys­tery of a rare qual­i­ty which I would call a depth of wom­an­li­ness, to play the moth­er of Win­ston Churchill….

Play­ing oppo­site this clear-eyed Yan­kee girl with the appeal­ing style and fem­i­nin­i­ty that graces every one of her roles just sim­ply brings out the best in a man.

She was irreplaceable

Lee Remick was one of the most remark­able actress­es Amer­i­ca ever produced—from her debut in “A Face in the Crowd” (1957) and “The Long Hot Sum­mer” (1958) through her Oscar nom­i­na­tion as the wife of Jack Lem­mon in “The Days of Wine and Ros­es” (1962) and her final film, “Emma’s War” (1986).

She won sev­en Emmy nom­i­na­tions for her out­stand­ing roles in tele­vi­sion docu­d­ra­ma, includ­ing the role of Eisenhower’s wartime chauffeur/mistress, Kay Sum­mers­by, as well as Jen­nie Churchill.

Although it was a great hon­or to wel­come Gre­go­ry Peck, it was a very sad night, because we all knew she would not long be with us. Her hus­band, the British film pro­duc­er Kip Gowans, made sure to advise Mr. Peck, who hadn’t seen Lee in years and would oth­er­wise have been tak­en aback. Great man that he was, he nev­er hint­ed he had observed any change in his one-time co-star. And what a trib­ute he gave her.

From Hillsdale College Churchill video reviews:

Thames Tele­vi­sion, sev­en 52 min. episodes, 1974, star­ring War­ren Clarke as WSC and Lee Remick as Lady Ran­dolph. Pro­duced by Andrew Brown, direct­ed by James Cel­lan Jones, writ­ten by Julian Mitchell. Despite what strong temp­ta­tions have tempt­ed oth­ers to give a skewed por­trait of Winston’s moth­er, Mitchell proved that the truth is as dra­mat­ic as fic­tion, pro­duc­ing one of the top five Churchill bio-films. Lee Remick was not a Jen­nie looka­like, wrote crit­ic Stew­art Knowles: “What cast the illu­sion were clothes, wigs, and the tal­ent of a great actress.” View­able on YouTube start­ing with Part 1. You will not be sat­is­fied with just one episode.

“Churchill in Film and Video,” Part 1: Dramatizations
“Churchill in Film and Video,” Part 2: Documentaries

Further reading

“Remem­ber­ing Lee Remick,” 2021. (With more on our 1991 tribute.)

“Amer­i­can Jen­nie and Oth­er Books on Lady Ran­dolph Churchill,” 2021.

“His Mother’s Son,” edit­ed by David Lough,” 2018.