the words could predominate, and that he no longer takes pleasure in writing comic operas. Ruddigore receives negative reviews and some negative audience response. Although the piece is eventually a financial success, author and composer remain at odds. Mrs. Helen Carte travels to Monte Carlo to see Sullivan on holiday. She gives him the news that her husband will build another theatre to present grand opera, and wants Sullivan to compose an opera for the theatre. Sullivan happily agrees, but at the same time, Gilbert has written a libretto for another comic opera. Sullivan also accepts this libretto, and The Gondoliers is another hit. Gilbert, suffering from gout, and in a particularly foul temper, examines the financial accounts of the partnership, seeing a large item for the purchase of a new carpet at the Savoy Theatre. He confronts Carte, at the new theatre, over lavish expenses. He also quarrels with Sullivan, and Gilbert announces that he will write no more Savoy operas. Sullivan's grand opera Ivanhoe debuts, and he presents a bound volume to the Queen. She commands a private performance at Windsor Castle but astonishes Sullivan by choosing to hear The Gondoliers. Apart from Gilbert, Sullivan comes to realise that his true gifts lie with light music. Richard and Helen Carte toast the arrival of the twentieth century, hoping for a revival of the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership. Stopping by at a rehearsal for a revival of The Yeomen of the Guard, Gilbert runs into Sullivan, after having been apart for years. Sullivan is ill and using a wheelchair. The two men make up and propose taking a curtain call together with Carte, all three of them in wheelchairs. During the performance, however, news arrives of Sullivan's death. Some years later, Gilbert is finally knighted. Cast Source: Robert Morley as W. S. Gilbert Maurice Evans as Arthur Sullivan Eileen Herlie as Helen D'Oyly Carte Martyn Green as George Grossmith Peter Finch as Richard D'Oyly Carte Dinah Sheridan as Grace Marston Isabel Dean as Mrs. Gilbert Wilfrid Hyde-White as Mr. Marston Muriel Aked as Queen Victoria Michael Ripper as Louis Bernadette O'Farrell as Jessie Bond Ann Hanslip as Principal soprano Eric Berry as Rutland Barrington Lloyd Lamble as Joseph Bennett Richard Warner as Alfred Cellier Muriel Brunskill as Principal contralto Owen Brannigan as Principal bass Harold Williams as Judge in Trial by Jury Arthur Howard as Usher in Trial by