I Believe in You

"I Believe in You" is a semi-documentary film about the work of the British Probation Service; it was inspired by the success of the recent "The Blue Lamp", which told a similar story about the police. Henry Phipps, an officer in the Colonial Service recently made redundant, becomes a probation officer, and the film follows the progress of his career and the lives of some of his clients. Towards the end the film veers away from its documentary approach in favour of a greater "human interest" slant as two of Phipps' charges, Charlie Hooker and Norma Hart, become involved in a love-triangle. Charlie and Norma are both basically decent at heart, even if they are also wild and rebellious, but the third party to the triangle, Jordie Bennett, although handsome and flashy enough to turn Norma's head, is little more than a vicious thug.

One thing that comes across from the film is just how upper-middle-class the British Probation Service was in the early fifties. There was a widespread belief among the haute bourgeoisie at this period that they knew, far better than the working classes did themselves, just how the working classes should live their lives. (This attitude, by the way, was by no means confined to the political Right. The Labour leader Clement Attlee and several of his front-bench colleagues had been educated at public schools and this was the era when a Labour minister could reassure the people that "the Man in the Ministry really does know best"). Phipps is clearly a well-to-do gentleman who lives in a luxurious West End home, speaks with a public school accent and can cheerfully admit that he has never before visited any working class area of London. His colleague Mrs Matheson advises him not to go out on visits wearing his Savile Road suit and smart overcoat, fearing that the sight of such sartorial elegance will alienate his clients, but as "Matty" is played by Celia Johnson, an actress whose cut-glass accent could make a duchess sound like a guttersnipe, I felt that she might have paid more attention to the beam in her own eye.

Johnson has never been my favourite actress, but Cecil Parker succeeds in making Phipps a reasonably likable figure, well-meaning despite an occasionally patronising manner. Parker had a fairly small range as an actor, and at times could be very dull (as he was, for example, in "The Wreck of the Mary Deare") but this is one of his better performances. The film also features two young actors who were to go on to become major stars. Laurence Harvey is convincingly menacing as Jordie and Joan Collins, in one of her earliest film appearances, surprisingly good as Norma.

I say "surprisingly" because in recent decades, ever since Fontaine Khaled in "The Stud" and "The Bitch" and Alexis Carrington in "Dynasty", the idea has grown up that Collins was a one-trick pony who specialised in playing upper-class bitches, glamorous and seductive but fundamentally untrustworthy. In the earlier part of her career, however, she had a much greater range. She did, admittedly, take some unsympathetic parts in the fifties; Sadie in "Our Girl Friday" is a spoilt little minx and Joan's character in "Land of the Pharaohs" is essentially a younger Alexis transported back in time to ancient Egypt. Norma, however, is very different, and not merely because of her working-class background. She may have gone off the rails but remains a vulnerable young woman beneath her brassy, defiant exterior. This is why Phipps reassures her, in the words of the film's title, that "I believe in you".

For all its atmosphere of middle-class do-goodery, the film is actually quite professionally put together. It looks very dated from the viewpoint of 2016, but in 1952 it must have had considerable interest for film-goers. The cinema of this period, when it dealt with crime, generally did so in terms of retributive justice and a "cops good, robbers bad" attitude. "I Believe in You" showed audiences that there was another, more gentle side to the criminal justice system and that rehabilitation could be as important as punishment. 6/10

Dearden takes a different course from 'The Blue Lamp', in this gentle and modest examination of the probation services. The lead character, the probation officer Phipps (played by Cecil Parker), is a post-Empire man who has left his job in the Colonial Office. The film being made not that long after Britain's withdrawal from India.

Phipps's transition into the role of probation officer is amusing. At first he still wears the traditional civil servant's bowler hat before changing it to a less awkward trilby. His first reaction to the young lad Hooker (Harry Fowler), reveals his upper-class outlook when he says to his colleague Matty (Celia Johnson); 'I've had trouble dealing with difficult people in the colonies you know'. The White Man's Burden is transferred from the Colonial Office on to the new 'unstable' working-class youth of post-war Britain.

Phipps responds sympathetically to a young lad named Hooker whose father died in the war and who lives at home with a cruel stepfather. Phipps goes off to Lewisham to visit Hooker and his narration amusingly comments; 'I always thought of London in terms of Knightsbridge...'. This shows that Phipps is broadening his outlook and awareness of how the 'other half' live.

Hooker is a lad on the verge of delinquency, he is attracted to another problem child, one of Matty's probationary clients, Norma (Joan Collins). Norma is young, petulant and just wants a good time. This 'good time' she wants; drinking; dancing; romance and other immediate sensations, can be provided by the young thug and spiv Jordie (Laurence Harvey). She is shown as torn between the excitement with Jordie that will lead to self-destruction and the patient, cautious relationship with Hooker that may yield a happier future.

This is a conservative film which tries to show the Establishment as becoming more understanding of social problems. However the characters of Jordie and Hooker present two faces of British working-class youth; one evil and malign; the other nice but impressionable and easily misled. The probation office shows the public as a wide range of eccentrics such as alcoholics, prostitutes and wayward youths, which ties in with Ealing's depiction of Britain as a 'community' one with it's real divisions but 'unified' by the imaginary link with the great British nation. The film has a happy ending and was one of Dearden and Relph's early 'social problem' films.

... more intimate, about modest people and lost youth, so there are a lot of surprising details, some funny, some disturbing. "I believe in you" is not a shocker like "All night long" or "Violent playground", it is softer and more accurate on the post war social background in rare London locations. All the casting is very effective in describing these modest people. We can appreciate young Joan Collins and Laurence Harvey. Sadly still unavailable on dvd. So many fine gems in british cinema.

When this film was made England was still a society divided by class, one's accent, manners, clothes and speech defined one's background and determined one's future.

England was still recovering from WWII, many parts of London were still bomb sites, some food was still on ration, especially sweets, and although the manufacturer's catalogues were full of wonderful items that they were making, many were "For Export Only", essentially to the United States in payment for war loans.

Against this background of priviledge; for the upper class probation officer; and the difficult working class origins of the probationees; all set in war-ravaged London with as fine a collection of actors that could be assembled; I Believe in You is a minor classic of its time,one of the earliest films depicting real people and their problems rather than the glamourous lives of the movies the propaganda ministries wanted us to see.

Many of the outdoor locations show parts of London never before seen on the big screen, and these too provide interest for anyone interested in locations of movies.

I stumbled upon this film quite by accident (it was part of a DVD box set of Ealing Studios rarities), and I found that I couldn't stop watching. This is primarily the story of a retired diplomat named Mr. Phipps who decides to become a probation officer in post-war London. After an awkward period of adjustment, he starts to become emotionally invested in the various characters, old and young, under his care. Far from being jaded, the ex-diplomat finds himself taking risks and promising too much in a sincere desire to transform the lives of his clients. There are some vividly emotional performances here in a brilliant cast consisting of the older people (e.g. the other probation officers and the judge) and the younger people (in trouble with the law, yet capable of redemption if given the chance -- including a teenage Joan Collins in a star-making role). As the film was ending, I wished that the story could continue, and I could see how Mr. Phipps gets on. The story just feels authentic... how the probation officer's job can be so hectic and complex, a mix of disappointments, triumphs, and everything in between. I also loved the locations, glimpses into parts of working class 1950's London that we don't usually see on film.