Documentary Captures Coward’s Originality

Noel Coward was sophistication personified--a society playboy dressed in Savile Row’s finest and a haughty smirk.

He wrote the part for himself to portray in such sparkling comedies as “Private Lives,” and he kept playing it after the curtain came down. It fit him as comfortably as his Sulka dressing gowns, but was it the real Coward? Yes and no, according to “The Noel Coward Story,” tonight on KCET.

Produced and directed by Adam Low, this documentary chronicles Coward’s stunning make-over, from son of a financially precarious South London couple to society wag. The point is not to reveal Coward as a fake, but to celebrate him as a true original--a breezy writer, composer, actor and singer who, in the words of biographer Sheridan Morley, “was very clever at knowing, just before the public did, what they really wanted.”

Coward (1899-1973) possessed much the same style and wit as his predecessor, Oscar Wilde, and his contemporary, Cole Porter. A gay sensibility suffuses the writing of all three, fueling much of their playful anarchy. Though Coward managed to live a bit more openly than the others, he didn’t go public with his orientation, either. He did, however, have fun tweaking noses with such pieces as “Design for Living,” about two men as much in love with each other as the woman they both desire.

The documentary forthrightly deals with Coward’s sexuality while vividly capturing the larger picture: He had sharp eyes and an acid tongue, and though he set most of his stories among the upper-crust, he always dealt with the universal--singling out people’s innate charms as well as their destructive excesses.

Interviews with biographers and admiring colleagues (including John Gielgud) are woven together with snippets of Coward’s triumphs in theater (“Blithe Spirit”), film (“Brief Encounter”) and song (“Mad Dogs and Englishmen”).

Here and there, the two-hour film feels padded, as vintage footage gets repeated. Still, it is as entertaining as it is revealing.

In one filmed interview, Coward self-deprecatingly states that, when writing his breakthrough play, “The Vortex,” he wasn’t as much interested in addressing social issues as in writing “a very good play with a whacking good part for myself.” In another filmed comment, he throws down a challenge to the public that abandoned him after World War II. “Nowadays, a light comedy, whose sole purpose is to amuse, is dismissed as trivial and insignificant. Since when has laughter been so insignificant?”

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* “The Noel Coward Story” airs tonight at 8 on KCET. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for younger children).