Esther Waters

Esther Waters is a turgid costume melodrama that is only brightened by the presence of Dirk Bogarde and Cyril Cusack.

Set in in 1875, it is fallen woman story. Esther (Kathleen Ryan) is employed as a maid in a country house and falls for the smoothie footman William Latch (Dirk Bogarde).

Latch is interested in his employer's horses and gambling. Not knowing that Esther is pregnant he abandons her and runs off with the daughter of their employer.

Esther a strong willed religious woman is now alone. She decides to raise her baby son and moves from a workhouse to other jobs as a maid. At times walking out because of her employer's attitudes.

Esther is a forthright woman that will not stand for any nonsense. She gets an offer of marriage from a preacher Fred (Cyril Cusack) but some years later William returns to her life.

Now William wants to be with her and her son. He has money from being a bookmaker and also has a pub which Esther decides to run.

Adapted from a novel, it comes across as a tawdry soap opera. Bogarde is a cad but he is also genuinely fond of her. Esther decides to be flexible about her religious beliefs as she decides to run a pub but will not allow gambling to take place.

Esther rises above her circumstances but it is a heavy handed film and Ryan is not suited in the title role. It should had been more lurid but probably held back by the censorship laws of the time.

I have always been fond of the British costume dramas and melodramas of the immediate post-war period, but this is a decidedly lacklustre example of the breed. Rank had undertaken an ambitious production schedule but was sorely lacking in talented and experienced directors; nor did Dirk Bogarde have the experience to carry the male lead, a role crying out for the likes of Stewart Granger, who apparently turned it down.

Opportunities are missed in the early scenes in the Barfield country house, with those in the middle of the picture, depicting poor Esther having her child in the workhouse, her encounter with the sinister baby farmer, and the slave labour conditions of her work as a domestic servant, being considerably more resonant. Then, around the time of the introduction of Cyril Cusack as a rather wet lay preacher, it all starts to go down hill. Though evident that a great deal of time, expense, and attention to detail was expended on the racing scenes toward the end, the prolonged business with Bogarde's gambling cronies struck me as monumentally tedious. Kathleen Ryan as Esther is one of the few saving graces and, according to Bogarde, she gave him a silver brandy flask after shooting was over, engraved with 'To hell with Esther Waters!' I had a similar sentiment.

Remembered today solely for containing Dirk Bogarde's first lead (actually second billed to Kathleen Ryan). This screen version of George Moore's socially concerned 1894 novel starts well with a wonderful opening pan across the Wessex countryside, like most postwar British films looks lovely and has an interesting supporting cast (including Cyril Cusack, Ivor Barnard and a young Pauline Jameson). But one's attention starts to wander as the heroine's fortunes eventually pick up...

Kathleen Ryan is the poor and innocent young maid who gets the normal treatment of a lady and ends up down to her neck in trouble, and she is illiterate at that, but you can't really dislike him since he plays it so well, and he honestly makes an effort. It all ends up in the great Derby, the festivity crowd scenes are the treat of the film, and they are several, including the great rural party in the beginning. It's a Dickensian story convincing enough in its realism of the 1870s to 80s including a long dying scene, of which Dirk Bogarde was such an expert and made so many of, usually coughing to death, while Kathleen Ryan in spite of her hardships actually gets along quite well, not actually needing the sympathetic support of Cyril Cusack as the would be catcher in the rye. It's a lovely film of a serving maiden's tale and particularly a film for horse lovers - the final race is a killer.

For me, the strength of this film is in the accuracy of the racing details, the costumes and the culture of the time. The racing scenes, shot on Epsom Downs recreate the Derby's of 1881 and 1885, and have been thoroughly researched, even the jockeys used for Fred Archer and Fred Webb show an amazing likeness. Also, the scenes in the streets, on the racecourse and in the public house are totally believable.

This is a film made by those who love and cherish the subject. Although to my knowledge, having worked at Racing Post for many years and, written the history of the Derby, very few people today know of the this film. Strangely, a few years ago, I awoke at 4 am, unable to sleep, to find the film just starting and have never seen it since! However, this film has much to offer - a Victorian romance, the struggle of conscious, excitement and, a ripping gambling yarn.

Michael Church.