Autumn Crocus

"Autumn Crocus" is a British film that at times seems to draw attention to the stereotype that Brits are horrid world travelers who expect every country to act just like the UK! It surprised me and the same sort of thing is shown in "Shirley Valentine" (1989). And, in fact, the two films are similar in several other ways.

Two spinster school teachers decide to step out of their comfort zone and go abroad for their vacations. One is the stereotypical 'ugly Brit', as Edith complains about nearly everything. On the other hand, her younger companion, Jenny, seems to enjoy her travels. The story mostly focuses on their experiences staying in a small Austrian village in the Tyrolian mountains...where Jenny eventually falls in love. Naturally, this love has a BIG problem.

I was very impressed by the Welsh actor, Ivor Novello, in the male lead. Despite not being the least bit Austrian, he sure did a great job with his accent. Plus, when he spoke some German, he sounded German...at least to me! His acting style was also likable...very carefree and natural.

Overall, this is a very well acted and enjoyable film. Additionally, the mountain scenery is lovely and evocative. Well worth seeing.

There is great irony that this film so glorifies the quaint and charming Tyrolians considering only five years later, the UK and Austria would be at war with each other. Sad...but ironic. And, considering this, I strongly doubt if the film was re-released during these war years!

"Autumn Crocus" was the first play of UK writer Dodie Smith, using pseudonym A.L. Anthony. The West End hit starred Francis Lederer in the Novello role, with Martita Hunt and Fay Compton who repeated the school teacher role in the 1934 film. Intriguingly, this 1931 plot was borrowed (or inspired?)American playwright Arthur Laurents whose 1952 play, "Time of the Cuckoo" with Shirley Booth also had a spinster school teacher seeking romance on her first trip abroad, and finding it with a handsome local. (The UK teacher longs for the Alps, while the US teacher goes for Venice.) I utterly adore Ivor Novello, but sadly must report that, in the light of modern sensibilities, here he does NOT play a romantic or sympathetic figure. Rather, he is comes off as a smarmy serial seducer of fragile tourists. To avoid a spoiler, I won't add to my list of his casual cruelties. Technically a beautiful film and an exquisite performance by Fay Compton, but today's audiences would cheer and clap rather than grow misty eyed at the conclusion.

"Time of the Cuckoo" was then filmed as "Summertime" in 1955 with Katharine Hepburn as the teacher, the seducer (Rossano Brazzi)being somewhat less caddish, thus allowing more poignancy. Then Richard Rodgers, with Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents, turned the plot into the less-than-successful musical. "Do I Hear a Waltz?" Since most older woman today are single by choice and have traveled extensively, we are unlikely to see any further reincarnations of this plot.

Shy school teacher on a holiday in the Tyrolian Alps is romanced by a married man with children, for whom a second relationship is of no consequence to his morals, but is impossible with her British upbringing

Fay Compton deserved an Oscar or Bafta nom for her incredibly sensitive performance. The latter didn't exist then and the former only honored USA films. She is superb. Novello is again charming as the boy-child persona of his talkie performances, full of life and love, regardless of society's judgments. This was to be his last film.

Of the six talkies he made, I have seen five. He was totally awful in THE PHANTOM FIEND, an inept remake of his silent success under Hitchcock's direction of THE LODGER, giving an over the top melodramatic performance that was execrable under any criteria. However, of the remaining talkies I have seen, he is brilliant, with superb dramatic and comedic timing. Seek out this, plus I LIVED WITH YOU (his best), and SLEEPING CAR.

There is a subtle lesbian attraction implied between the leading lady and her traveling companion, well done.

This DVD from a private collector timed out at 1:20, six minutes short of its official timing.

Note the similarity in plot of Arthur Laurents' play THE TIME OF THE CUCKOO, later the classic David Lean film, SUMMERTIME, and still later, the Rodgers-Sondheim musical play, DO I HEAR A WALTZ?

Basil Dean has always struck me as an underused director who had considerable talent but was sadly overlooked for reasons that I do not know.

AUTUMN CROCUS shows some very good directorial touches, even though the naissant sound cinema of the time - 1934 - did not help. On the positive side, he had a very good leading trio in Ivor Novello, Fay Compton, and Muriel Aked... each a very different personality from the next.

Aked struck me as the nag and domineering school boss who tries to curtail 35 year old Compton's possible first foray into love, Compton plays very effectively the naive schoolteacher taken in by the beauty of the Austrian Tyrol and in particular the charm of hotelier Mr Steiner, who has a good singing voice, a splendid sense of humor, and knows how to entice the willing female he senses in Compton.

Obviously, all that shines is not gold, and his flirting and the crocus flowers that he keeps giving Compton hide a surprisingly deceptive side. Novello's performance deserves plaudits for his sympathetic stealth, yet it is Aked's loyalty that I take foremost from this film in moral and acting terms.

Cinematography is competent, the script overladen with singing and Tyrolese music, which I found annoying after a while. 7/10.

Fay Compton is a teacher in Manchester. She takes a European trip with her fellow teacher, Muriel Aked. When they stop at a small Tyrolean inn, she finds herself enchanted by the mountains and by the innkeeper, Ivor Novello.

It's Novello's last movie. He's mildly ridiculous, and knowingly so, with his accent and his open manner, and his tale of being a failure as a waiter in England. Yet he is openly so, and so honest in his thoughts and actions, that for a while, I thought he was simply a man who enjoyed taking care of his guests, and whose kindness and generosity of spirit Miss Compton has fallen in love with. Her performance is perfect as a woman who has never known anything but the deadly atmosphere of England factory, trying to teach children something: 35 (Miss Compton was 40 at the time), pretending to be 29, trying to do the right thing, she is a perfect embodiment of the well-written character confronted with beauty and happiness she has never before known.

With George Zucco, Jack Hawkins, and a 19-year-old Pamela Blake.