I do not consider my role as a blogging film buff to post a review for every contemporary blockbuster or would-be blockbuster, but to alternate the occasional reaction to some current movies with re-visits to the classics, leavened with the obscurities that I seek out. (On this score, I should really be writing about the recently viewed "Phantom", a Murnau German silent from 1922 -- the contemporary Variety review panned it mercilessly, but I found it quite interesting in a weird sort of way). However, today I want to say a few words about the above largely-forgotten British film.
The first surprise is that it was produced by Ealing Film Studio which today is mainly associated with classic British comedies and the second is that the screenplay is by thriller writer Eric Ambler. The surprise here is that this movie is neither a comedy nor a thriller, but a sincere look at village life through the eyes of the local vicar who has just been advised that he has but a short while to live. He uses this time to re-evaluate his view of religion, preaching that it should be a question of free choice within the general guidelines; this results in his being portrayed as a dangerous radical by the sensation-seeking press. However, neither this storyline nor the one involving his talented pianist daughter who has won a scholarship and who is wondering how to finance the necessary London stay to accept it is the main point of watching this film. The saving grace for what could have been a totally forgettable outing comes in the form of the lead player, Robert Donat, who brings the goodness and decency of the main character to vivid life.
When one thinks about the best English actors of the 30s and 40s, one remembers Ronald Colman, Cary Grant, David Niven, and my own favourite Charles Laughton, however all of these "went Hollywood" to leave their mark. Donat had the briefest of sojourns in California before deciding this was not the life for him and his subsequent outings in American-financed films were actually shot in Britain -- amongst these such classics as the original "39 Steps" and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" for which Donat took the best actor Oscar in the magical movie year of 1939. Equally at home on the stage, Donat made only twenty films before dying of chronic asthma at the early age of 53. This was his penultimate film and a poignantreminder of a shining talent too rarely preserved for us.
2 comments:
Ooooh Goodbye Mr. Chips that's a classic afterdinner, sit and do nothing but lounge kind of movie. I've always liked it. I'm sure I've seen this movie played by another actor..........but Donat wins all the time. I prefer him :) Rache
I only saw the latter part of this film but wholeheartedly concur with your assessment of Robert Donat as one of the all-time greats of the cinema, sadly
ignored, alas, and greatly missed. If he had last as long as Laughton or Grant,
he might well have had more public recognition.
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