Shirley Valentine (film) to retain the best of Willy Russell's theatrical devices . . . while opening out the action to embrace a big-screen atmosphere. The supporting cast, particularly Bernard Hill as Collins's Neanderthal husband, is equally convincing, with only the hammy Conti (glistening teeth and appalling accent) striking a momentary false note." Among reviewers who found the film banal and hollow, Caryn James of "The New York Times" observed, "By adding all the characters and settings that Shirley only talks about on stage, the film reveals the weakness of Mr. Russell's script as surely as if a magician's clumsy assistant had pointed
George Valentine (poet) George Valentine (poet) George Donald Valentine (1877-1946) was a Scottish sheriff, and writer of romantic-style short stories, plays and verse. He graduated from the University of Glasgow and was considered for Examinerships in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at both Glasgow and St Andrews Universities. G. D. Valentine wrote both under his own name and the pseudonym, George Henderland. Valentine's first published work was "The Heart of Bruce", a long poem, taken up by Alexander Gardner of Paisley in 1912. In the 1920s, two further original works, "Reasons of State" and "Saul: A Dramatic Poem" appearsed under the same imprint. It