Laburnum Grove

I saw this film at the NFT last night.It was shown as part of the tribute to Carol Reed.A director who now largely seems to be forgotten.This film is based on a play by J.B.Prisetley.Given that there is not a lot in the way of opening out it is fairly easy to see where the three acts begin and end.The two lead performances by Gwenn and Harwicke are ones to cherish.I have seen Gwenn in a number of his British films and i have to say that i have not seen him put a foot wrong.He has a cherubic smile which normally hides some mischievous thought.This film thrives on incongruity.There are some exterior shots of suburban London in the 1930s including the exterior,and possibly the interior of Stolls Picture Theatre,which i believe was in Kingsway.

Edmond Gwenn (Mr Radfern) lives an unassuming life in a quiet part of London - Laburnum Grove - with his wife Katie Johnson (Mrs Radfern) and his daughter Victoria Hopper ((Elsie) who longs to get away from the monotony of her surroundings. Also resident with them is Gwenn's cunning sister Ethel Coleridge (Mrs Baxley) and her no-good husband Cedric Hardwicke (Mr Baxley) who are both after Gwenn's money at every opportune moment. Daughter Victoria has a boyfriend in Francis James (Harold) who wants to propose and ask for a loan at the same time. Gwenn has a plan to rid him and his family of these scrounging hanger-ons - he tells them he is a criminal dealing in forged currency. But is he really...?

Gwenn is good and carries the film. After a slow and irritating start as we follow Hardwicke's bumbling cartoon-like oafish character - nobody in life is like that - with his comedy mannerisms that aren't funny, the film takes a turn when everyone sits down to dinner and Gwenn announces he is a criminal. Ha ha. Nobody can believe it but he doesn't let go. We get a story of intrigue from then on as a detective turns up on the scene to ask some questions about a 'commercial' crime. Could it be innocent?

Gwenn has that harmless old man disposition that works well in this film and Katie Johnson has that thing about her where you are not quite sure whether she is unaware of everything or a master criminal herself. The film loses points for the twee wallflower that is Victoria Hopper and the incredibly annoying buffoonery of Cedric Hardwicke.

At one point in the film, Ethel Coleridge tells Hardwicke to "go and wash your face" before mealtime and I heard my wife laughing at this. I just know that this line will be repeated at me at some point soon. Not because I have a dirty face but because I heard her laugh and that means something is being retained in the memory bank. Ha ha.

Edmund Gwenn is a quiet and modest businessman married to Katie Price, and an almost-engaged daughter in Victoria Hopper. He's also got some cadging in-laws living with him, Cedric Hardwicke and his wife Ethel Coleridge. One evening Harwicke hits Gwenn up for a substantial sum of money, claiming it is a business opportunity. So Gwenn tells him that his real business is forgery. Suddenly everything changes. Hardwicke may be a leech, but he's not going to have anything to do with crooks. And Miss Hopper's young man is likewise aghast and on the point of calling off the understanding. After all, Gwenn has admitted he's a crook. Or is he joking?

It's based on a J. B. Priestley play, and only slightly opened up from the stage, but it's a distinguished cast for director Carol Reed, It's only his third movie in that seat, and he was already out of the quota quickies. Perhaps his quick rise was because he was the illegitimate son of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, one of six he had with a second family he kept in Putney. Reed had a middle-class upbringing, and when he said he wanted to go on the stage, his mother shipped him off to his elder brother's chicken farm in Massachusetts. He was soon back in England, acting with Dame Sybil Thorndike's company, and then on to a stage troupe started by Edgar Wallace to stage his works. He followed Wallace to British Lion. When Wallace died, he transferred to ATP (which became Ealing), as a dialogue director. And so began his career. He died in 1976 at the age of 69.

Though he has strong competition for the title from Harry Davenport, Edmund Gwenn is probably the most angelic old man in the movies. He is so sweet, so appreciative, so benign (without being at all sentimental or smug) that no one could believe he was the kingpin of a criminal gang. Or could they? Because he certainly has aroused the suspicions of Cedric Hardwicke, practically a template for the useless, sponging brother-in-law. He and his sour-faced wife have descended on Gwenn and his equally adorable wife, Katie Johnson (who went on to play the putative victim in The Ladykillers) as non-paying guests and show no sign of leaving. But if this couple are immune to shame or gratitude, they start to think seriously about leaving when they believe that Gwenn might end up in prison and take them with him. Is he crooked or isn't he is the conundrum played outso well in this droll little very English comedy.