The petite singer became a star in Britain at the age of 11, entertaining the troops during World War II. Further theatrical and film success followed, as an actor, composer and singer.Īnother child star of the era, Petula Clark, played the headmaster's daughter and the object of Dick Bultitude's affections in Vice Versa. In 1961, he co-wrote and starred in the musical Stop the World I Want to Get Off, which was a hit in both London's West End and on Broadway. In the 1950s Newley made a successful transition to adult roles, and by the early 1960s, he was also a successful pop singer. The part in Vice Versa was Newley's first major film role, and he followed that with the role of the Artful Dodger in David Lean's film version of Dickens' Oliver Twist (1948).
He was 14 and working as an office boy when he saw a newspaper ad for "boy actors." He auditioned, and was offered not only a job, but also free tuition at a prestigious acting school. Like Ustinov, Anthony Newley, who plays Dick Bultitude in Vice Versa, was multitalented and began his career at a young age. Ustinov recalled a school evaluation of him that noted, "He shows great originality, which must be curbed." Fortunately, it wasn't, and Ustinov went on to a long, illustrious career as actor, director, producer, screenwriter, playwright, raconteur, adventurer, and one of the wittiest and most erudite men in show business. Ustinov was not so far removed from his own boarding school days, which, like young Dick Bultitude, he hated.
Vice Versa was his second film as a writer-director. At 23, he co-wrote (with Eric Ambler) the screenplay for The Way Ahead (1944), which was directed by Carol Reed and at 25, he directed his first feature, School for Secrets (1946), which he also wrote. A published author at 14, Ustinov made his stage debut at 17, and wrote his first play and made his screen debut at 19. The London-born son of Russian parents, Ustinov was as precocious and multitalented as the young Orson Welles. Peter Ustinov was the ideal writer-director to keep the whimsy and comedy flowing in Vice Versa. Chaos breaks out at both places, and an elephant, a seal, and some monkeys add to the confusion, and to the fun. A magic stone from India brings about the body switch, and the man in the boy's body is sent off to boarding school, while his son runs the household and business. The senior Bultitude is a stuffy businessman his son is a reluctant schoolboy. The 1988 remake was set in modern times, but Vice Versa, like the novel, is set in the Victorian era. But for many fans of the story, the definitive version is Vice Versa (1948), written and directed by Peter Ustinov and starring Roger Livesey as Paul Bultitude and Anthony Newley as his adolescent son Dick.
Anstey's Victorian novel, Vice Versa: A Lesson to Fathers (1882), first filmed as a British silent in 1916. The latter is actually the third film version of F.
That's been the basis for at least four films over the past 30-odd years: Freaky Friday (1976) and its 2003 remake Like Father Like Son (1987) and Vice Versa (1988). A parent and child who are at odds switch bodies, thanks to a bit of magic, and find they have a better understanding of each others' lives.