These Foolish Things (12A) <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

The stilted drawing-room twitter of this 1930s-set drama of luvvies in London almost has to be heard to be believed. Almost. Zoe Tapper, so good in the BBC's 20,000 Streets Under The Sky, struggles as an ingenue actress who finds herself torn between the affections of an up-and-coming playwright (David Leon) and a dashing director (Andrew Lincoln), between them mustering a charisma as seductive as a Corby trouser press.

Julia Taylor-Stanley's embarrassingly sincere script is matched by a full house of dud performances, none worse than Terence Stamp's as a butler sniping from the sidelines in that monotonously uninflected voice. Even the two marquee names, Anjelica Huston and Lauren Bacall, can't work any magic on what looks like that most foolish of things, a vanity project.