My Brother Jonathan

Jonathan Dakers is an aged doctor in the black coal district of the Midlands looking back on his life with many pleasant memories. He and his brother Harold were the sons of a would be poet, who left his family all but ruined. Jonathan could have become a surgeon but was obliged to take on an ordinary practice in the slums, where he gets into a permanent conflict with a corrupt senior physician (admirably played by Stephen Murray) who controls the local hospital. The brothers love the same woman, but Jonathan, who is the first to court and love her, constantly has to put off their engagement for the sake of his plight, while his brother takes care of her instead and makes her pregnant before joining the war in 1914, where he falls in battle. Jonathan marries her to save her from dishonour, but she dies in childbirth, he takes care of his brother's son as if it was his own and marries the daughter of his mentor. The son is never told that his parents are not his real parents, until he decides not to follow his father to become a doctor like him but to instead join the war in 1939. That's where the film begins.

So "My Brother Jonathan" is really the fallen brother's story and view of his brother the doctor, who is eloquently played by Michael Denison in a sustained and gripping performance throughout the film. It has been called Dickensian, and there is indeed a touch of the warm humanity of Dickens colouring this exquisite masterpiece, perhaps the best of all doctor's films, but it also reminds you of A.J.Cronin's many medical novels and is strongly akin to James Hilton's "So Well Remembered" with Trevor Howard as the alcoholic doctor in the same coal district who is always right in his sometimes fatal diagnoses. This film is less dramatic, there is no evil here and no looming tragedy, but it is so much more sincere and appealing in its humanity, sustained throughout by Michael Denison's wholly convincing impersonation of this infinitely sympathetic character of a doctor meeting with constant adversity and hardship by disasters, but who never lets go of his patience nor of his good humour. This is almost a film to adore.

This was a very very late night movie but worthy of a much better time slot. The country Doctor who forsook a potential London surgeon's career for the betterment of his younger brother is so true to life of good people. People who'll never be named Father of the Year but whose ranks are the oil in society. Denison plays a very constrained man, emotionally, in many scenes, but as the reviews before attest, when prompted to let his affections fill the screen he's as adept as any star. The grasping of the business-end of the soot-sodden town are entirely real and just as much in play today when nature meets commerce. The opening scenes allude to the beauty before industry & the storyline nicely parallels this with the grass actually being greener on the other side of the hill. A glimpse into life just so recently gone gives the film social interest as well.

My Brother Jonathan is a product of its time with a trite moralistic story and somewhat cardboard main characters. However there is a liveliness to the film that makes it enjoyable. The story moves forward briskly, the dialogue is crisp and there is a range of well-acted minor characters. On the other hand the direction is painfully inept. Characters squash up together in an awkward way to fit into the shot, and often the physical action is somewhat out of kilter with the dialogue.I had to laugh when a character having knocked at the door is told to"come in" and replies "I'm already in"! I wonder if that was an adlib because this sort of thing happens throughout the film. While watching I never lost the awareness that there were some hamfisted aspects to the film, but I still enjoyed it. British character actors are to the fore and they deliver with verve and conviction. I'd rate the lead,Michael Denison, as one of the weakest. He has an irritating fatuous smile throughout and altogether appears to be somewhat of a stuffed shirt, but is still acceptable as a "good guy". I guess it is plausible that some of the best people among us are not the ones with wit and charm.

Although not surprising in its plot this film is well made and acted. (With fine film score too) The story is told mainly in flashback by Jonathan Dakers,an ageing doctor to his son who has just come back from war. The old doctor talks about his relationships and also his medical career and how they intertwined. It is the kind of film almost impossible to make these days as it is a story of a decent man who does decent things. Films about ordinary people and their ordinary goodness are difficult to make without being dull or worthy but this film pulls it off.

The acting is solid. You can believe in the idealism of Michael Denison's character. Sterling support is given by Dulcie Gray, Finlay Curry, Ronald Howard, Mary Clare and Stephen Murray. James Robertson Justice appears too briefly though.

There are many good scenes in the film; the boys cricket match, the hospital emergency meeting, the new years eve party. There is an excellent scene where Dr Dakers performs a tracheotomy on a boy. No music in the background, just the laboured breathing of the boy. There is also a touching scene on a hill (shot on location) with Denison and Gray where she quotes AE Houseman, where you can tell they are in love even without them uttering it. Such subtle film making has long gone in British films.

This was a topical film when released because the National Health Service had recently been inaugurated.is stars Michael Dennison and Dulcie Grey and is told in flashback.So we get to see what life was like before the NHS.Some good performances by lots of very familiar actors.Very typical film of its period and a very interesting threesome.