The Final Test

Like Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, playwright Terence Rattigan was a cricket devotee. But non-fans need not shun "The Final Test": it contains little cricketing action, and the game's mysteries are sent up by having a baffled visiting American senator interrogate a supercilious Richard Wattis about them. The Test of the title is much more one of loyalty and of the relationship between an older and younger man, like weightier Rattigan works such as "The Winslow Boy", "The Browning Version" and "Man and Boy".

Quickly filmed after being one of the earliest British TV plays by an established writer, "The Final Test" is a cheap and cheerful comedy. Documentary footage of real play at the Oval, South London, is hardly up to "Zelig" standards in melding into the studio shots. The film stocks do not match, and the crowd's rush into the ground is evidently back-projected. The setting is less grand than one associates with Rattigan. It is Cowardesque in the vein of "This Happy Breed", with a sauce bottle on the dinner table: the hero, Sam Palmer, is a professional batsman who has done well enough to give his son a fee-paying education. The only "posh" character besides Wattis is Robert Morley's pompous poet and playwright, whom the literary-minded son would rather visit than watch his dad play his last innings against the Australian tourists. Luckily Morley proves to be a cricket maniac and all ends well.

Jack Warner's remarkable, belated rise from fairly blue music hall comic and Maurice Chevalier impersonator to one of Britain's leading character actors is consolidated here. He can be humorous, gruff, judicious... and all in the same scene if required. There is no trace of the over-expressiveness of so many comedians trying to act. Though pushing 60, Warner looks no older than the real doyen of the English side, Cyril Washbrook, who along with a handful of colleagues nervously plays himself (no role is harder for a non-pro). The widowed Warner has a fancy for a barmaid at his local pub, the gaunt Brenda Bruce, and he has his own retirement dilemmas to resolve: should he marry a woman who may have a past, and should he take a job coaching boys at Eton when his son is about to go to Oxford and mingle with Etonians on level terms?

"The Final Test" therefore has a few gentle remarks to drop about changing social values and snobberies in post-war Britain. Sam's captain, Len Hutton, urges him not to fuss so much about the pecking order: an amusing way of using a real-life character, since the great Yorkshireman was England's first professional cricket captain and would soon be knighted. Morley's TV play "Following a Turtle to My Father's Tomb", which Sam's son watches in rapture and which drives Sam out to the pub, is a spoof of the middlebrow poetic drama (TS Eliot, Christopher Fry) then in vogue, which Rattigan did not admire. One line, "the great dome of discovery that men call the sky", takes off the exhibit of that name in the recent Festival of Britain.

The deserved rehabilitation of Rattigan, with the likes of David Mamet doing him homage, gives fresh interest to a script which takes the boulevard playsmith outside his usual range. No doubt the film technicians' union approved the democratic spirit, since this was one of its occasional efforts, via ACT Films, at keeping its members in work. Director "Puffin" Asquith, though the son of an earl and ex-prime minister, was a keen union activist. Sam Palmer was Jack Warner's last big film part for a decade. He was soon to resurrect his slain copper from "The Blue Lamp" and become TV's most famous PC in "Dixon of Dock Green."

Certainly not one of Ratigans best screenplays.Not really helped by the casting of the 60 year old Jack Warner as a test cricketer in his forties.There are some really odd things about this film.Warner inviting to dinner one of the match umpires,the day before he bats.Later going into a pub at 1030pm,albeit just to romance Brenda Bruce who is about 25 years younger than him.They seem more like grandfather and granddaughter than lovers.Then there is a batsman who is out sauntering about the dressing room in a tie and suit.All very archaic.Good to see many of the heroes of the 1953 ashes winning team,Dennis Compton,Len Hutton and Jim Laker.How we could have done with them in Australia.

Up until the last few years, I've only ever seen Jack Warner in 'Dixon of Dock Green' and a few of his higher-profile films such as 'The Blue Lamp' etc. However, since the advent of the excellent TPTV channel, several of his films have been given a good airing. 'Jigsaw' and 'Emergency Call' spring to mind as showcases for his fine acting abilities. The Final Innings is a wonderful film full of good, solid British character actors working wonders with a fairly thin story. The short scene of Sam's final innings and his exit from the pitch to rousing cheers from the crowd and even the opposing side is heart-warming indeed. I don't know much about Cricket, but then the film is barely about cricket at all, more about making allowances, moving on and finding the next chapter in life, which in Sam's case is with the pretty Cora. See this film if you get a chance, especially if you like old-fashioned, homely drama about real people.

This starts with quite an enjoyable assessment of this most English of games (it's not a sport, you know) with the rules and the prospect of playing for five days without a result explained to a visiting and bemused American senator (Stanley Maxted). Meantime, with his dad "Sam" (Jack Warner) about to make his last appearance for England in that very test match, his young son "Reggie" (Ray Jackson) faces a bit of a quandary. He is expected to be at the ground to watch this momentous moment, but he is also determined to finish his poem that he wants to send to acclaimed playwright "Whitehead" (Robert Morley). Next thing, he's missed the match but luckily his father has yet to make his appearance, so there's some breathing room next day. Wait, no! He's been invited by his idol to his rural home to present his latest work. He can't do both, and so coming clean with his father - and borrowing the train fare - he sets off to the countryside. Luckily, this writer is a typically eccentric Englishman who loves his cricket, but can they make it there in time? It's based on Terence Rattigan's short play that I felt rather potently illustrated not just that the choices made by a new generation might not always impress their parents, but also it rather poignantly demonstrates the temporariness of success on the field of play. Noisily acclaimed til you too are replaced as you once did that to another, whilst the appreciative crowd applaud but are eager to transfer that loyalty to your successor. Warner plays the role sparingly and he rather engagingly epitomises this widowed character at a crossroads in his life that will see his son start to make his own decisions whilst maybe local barmaid "Cora" (Brenda Bruce) can start a new chapter with him? Morley is at his lively best and there's also an enjoyable role for Adrianne Allen as the auntie trying to keep things peaceable whilst all her fine china becomes tomorrow's jigsaw puzzles. The production is basic but there's quite a fun scene towards the end with Morley, Jackson, a car and some backdrop filming to top off an entertainingly simple story of family and opportunity.

An American Senator arrives in England to hear people talking of England collapsing and all the newspaper headlines talking of failure and 'being finished'. Concerned for this small island nation he looks for some optimism but finds from a taxi driver that it is all about the test match between England and Australia and not the country itself. Interested he goes along to watch the final days of the test match and joins the throngs there to see the great Sam Palmer plays the final overs of an illustrious career. However Sam is a bit distracted by his desire for his poet son Reggie to be in the crowd to watch him end his career, especially since Reggie is no real fan of cricket and has other things he wants to do – namely meeting the famous playwright and poet Alexander Whitehead.

Listed on IMDb as a 'comedy', I must admit that the words of one character rang true with me when she said of a TV play 'I thought you said this was a comedy – well it probably gets more comedy later on'. However I quickly realized that the listing on this site was wrong and that this is not in any shape a comedy, even if it has vaguely amusing moments in it; rather it is a drama about a father and son relationship against the backdrop of cricket. The potential was there for a well-written piece with a good script delivering good characters with hurts, longings and differences between them, but it really doesn't get anywhere near doing that. If I told you that Sam is slightly stern and repressed about his son's disinterest in the sport that he loves then I have probably done a better job at informing you of their character than the script actually does during the whole 90 minutes. Aside from the obvious scenes of vague tension and argument the film never really does anything to actually get to the core of their relationship.

On top of this we also have some other issues put in as well such as those around the barmaid Cora and the other stuff around Whitehead; neither of these really hit the mark either and just give the film a rather aimless feel. With a lack of teeth to any part of the film, a few laughs could have done the world of good but it doesn't really have any of them either, with only some amusing aspects that don't really do anything of any merit. This is not to say it is bad, just distinctly average. As a sports film it is a non-event with very little actual cricket 'action' to speak of – but I imagine many viewers will enjoy the very English conclusion to Sam's career, typically downbeat and warming.

The cast is OK but they don't have a great deal to work with. Warner is stiff and looks like he has emotions just below his surface but the script gives him no help with this at all and his efforts are wasted with it. Jackson is an annoying little twerp and he does nothing to really make me interested in him or his character in the least. Bruce doesn't have a clue what she is supposed to be doing and it shows. Allen is OK, as are Maxted and a few others in support roles. Given a colourful character, Morley brings some much needed life to the film and steals all his scenes.

Overall this is an average film that is more notable for its missed opportunities rather than what it actually does well. Despite the nicely downbeat conclusion the film is pretty average and unmemorable, failing to deliver characters, a script or any real sense of emotional involvement.