Sturm im Wasserglas

Widowed Mrs. Hegarty (Sara Allgood), ice cream peddler residing in a fictive West Scottish coast village, Baikie, has as sole companion her dog Patsy, but after she neglects to pay an annual canine licensing fee, the Provost (Mayor) of Baikie, William Gow (Cecil Parker) commands that the animal be dispatched, thereby inciting the titular tempest, for which a young English journalist is largely responsible. He is Frank Burdon (Rex Harrison), recently arrived in Baikie to begin employment with its newspaper. "The Advertiser", and it is Frank's willfulness that brings trouble upon himself as well as for others. In spite of romantic mutual attraction between Frank and Gow's daughter Victoria (Vivien Leigh), the dauntless reporter is well pleased to find a strong human interest slant within Mrs. Hegarty's plight and composes a story that immediately is spread throughout Scotland, therewith effectively putting an end to Gow's political ambitions, as he was preparing to stand for a parliamentary post, an aspiration that has apparently gone a-glimmering due to the Patsy affair, with the Provost moved to exact redress from Burdon by suing him for slander, an action that summons the probability of a final break between Frank and Vickie Gow. The film is constructed upon a play, "Storm Over Patsy", written in 1930 by German expatriate to the United States Bruno Frank, who settled in Hollywood as a screenwriter. It was rephrased for its exhibition upon the American stage by Glaswegian James Bridie and mounted with a good deal of success during 1936 and 1937 upon Broadway, the production generally featuring vocative Allgood in addition to Leo G. Carroll as Willie Gow. The provincial complexion of Baikie is more clearly rendered upon the screen than the boards, and fortunately Alexander Korda supplies adequate funding to furnish what he intends as a "small" film with significant numbers of extras along with a gaily embellished mise-en-scène. A contemporaneous review of the picture by producer/director/critic Basil Wright, published in The Spectator, expanded the amiable film's popularity, and it has retained a following because of its colourful scenes and characters, but a viewer will make note as well of superb costuming and, as must be expected, a superior performance by Parker who handily annexes the acting laurels here.

Flaws include too many cutaways for reaction, and a bit of obviousness in the plot, but those flaws are vastly out-numbered by the pleasures and joys of the total production.

As with other reviewers, I had never even heard of this movie and most of the players, so it was a surprise and delight to discover it.

I am always happy to see a motion picture present the evils of tyrannical government, even local government.

And the bullying of the chief government official, over what is to him such a minor, even trivial, matter shows just exactly what all of us, even 82 years after the release of this movie, and even thousands of miles from its setting, need to be aware of from even our neighborhood politicians and bureaucrats.

At the same time, the particular bully shows a lot of personal courage and is to be admired for it, and for his moral self-confidence.

However, as philosopher Sidney Hook warned us, and often unsuccessfully warned us, confidence in one's moral code is not good enough when that code is wrong; and courage to continue to believe in a wrong code is a dangerous courage.

As light-hearted as this production ultimately is, it is still both a lot of fun and a nice under-stated message. I highly recommend it, and there is a print available via Kanopy (for subscribers) and at YouTube.

Vivien Leigh, Rex Harrison, Cecil Parker, and Sara Allgood star in "Storm in a Teacup." Parker plays Gow, an arrogant Scotsman running for public office. As he is being interviewed by reporter Frank Burdon(Harrison), he is approached by a local woman (Allgood) who is near hysterics about her dog being put down because she hasn't paid the license. While talking on one side of his mouth stating that he is for the people, Gow roundly throws her out. Affronted, Burdon turns the incident into something akin to what Watergate was in the '70s. Leigh plays his daughter, who just happens to have fallen in love with Burdon.

Excellent acting sparks this fast-moving comedy - in a run of the mill ingénue role, the beautiful Leigh sparkles, and a very young Harrison does a marvelous job as a determined reporter. Parker plays a pompous man with guts beautifully, and Allgood in her usual role as a low-class woman, is great. Kudos to Patsy the dog, who is the storm in the teacup.

Really worth seeing for the very young Leigh and Harrison.

Why isn't this excellent comedy better known? More to the point, why is it so consistently misinterpreted? Most commentators view it as an amusing piece of froth about the provost of a small Scottish town (Cecil Parker) ordering that a dog be put down because its owner cannot pay for its licence. There's Vivien Leigh as the provost's daughter and Rex Harrison on top form as the journalist who makes the silly story national news. It's all very funny and delightfully played by all concerned. But underlying this story (adapted from a German play by James Bridie) is a subtle satire of dictatorship as was then current in Germany and Italy. Parker's role is very clearly based on Hitler, a times quite unsettlingly so, and it is in the bold but successfully intermingling of whimsy with dictatorial manners that the film gains its particular power. Cute it may seem to be, but Victor Saville was a wise and quite a subversive soul, and you'll find few other films from this period that so ably blend the dark with the light. Take a look at it again and see what I mean!

When a young reporter, Frank Burdon (Rex Harrison), is given an assignment to interview a rather nasty and self-important local politician, it turns out to be very unpleasant. Although Provost Gow (Cecil Parker)* wants to run for parliament, he does a horrible job of impressing the reporter. This is because during the interview, Gow and Burden are interrupted by a local woman (Sara Allgood) who is begging the Provost to help her. Instead of helping, Provost Gow is completely unsympathetic and cruel--and vows to have the old lady's dog put to sleep!! Burdon is horrified and angry--how dare this local political boss mistreat his constituents like this! So he does what any honest reporter would do--he publishes the truth! This is a serious problem, though, as the paper was backing the Provost AND the Provost wasn't about to back down. Another problem is that Burdon soon falls in love with the Provost's daughter (Vivian Leigh)--and this relationship is surely doomed! This is a delightful film--sort of like a droll and British version of a screwball comedy. The dialog is GREAT and Harrison is at his best. It also helped that Cecil Parker was WONDERFUL as the buffoon politician. All in all, a great little film.

*Speaking of Parker, he looked, sounded and acted almost exactly like David Horton (David Waldhorn). The likeness of the two characters is amazing.