The Rake's Progress

aka The Rake's Progress is fun to watch and enjoy.

The movie relates the story of a British Playboy, Vivian Kenway (Rex Harrison), in flashback, from the opening scenes of the film.

The first flashback takes us to a young aristocratic boy in London on Armistice Night, 1918. The young boy, talks to two soldiers who are happy that he will have to fight in a war. One of the soldiers gives the boy a talisman from his cap and the boy keeps it.

From there, the film moves forward and we see Vivan at Oxford in 1931. He is a prankster there about to be "sent down." Once he is "sent down" from Oxford, his family must find useful employment for a young man with his station in life.

But where?--How about a coffee plantation in South America? Vivian does well there, but since Brits don't drink coffee and the price of coffee is too low to make a profit, he must try another line of work.

Try again— How about a job with Vivan's old friend from Oxford, Sandy Duncan (Griffith Jones)? While it is true, he has an affair with Sandy's wife, it turns out that she is not such a virtuous woman either. So, even though Sandy and Vivian have a huge fist fight on the lift at one of the London fine establishments, Sandy has to admit that she was no big loss.

Next try— How about getting into the race car racket by driving at Brooklands? Well, that just ultimately leads to more problems.

With Rex Harrison playing an aristocratic bounder who thinks he can do about anything for enjoyment, money, or sex, this playboy thing just goes on and on. Doesn't it?............

Lili Palmer, who was Rex Harrison's 2nd of 6 wives, at the time the movie was made, also has an important role in this movie. I like Lili's cuteness. She sort of reminds me of a German version of Leslie Caron.

Rex Harrison plays a young man, Vivian, who thinks primarily of himself. He's somewhat witty, sort of daring, extremely unreliable. Though his character is tempered slightly as time goes on, as written the character is very obnoxious.

I didn't go to Oxford, as Vivian does for a time. But I went to an Ivy League school and I knew many people like him: showoffs who thumbed their nose at convention but wanted, and generally had, the money convention brings. I was transported back not just to the time of the film but also a few decades back to the wise guy cutups of my own college years.

Harrison does a good job. Indeed, he seems to be playing himself, though that was doubtless just fine acting. I like him in most of what I've seen, particularly in "Anna and the King of Siam" and the brilliant "Unfaithfully Yours." The rest of the cast is superb, too: His real-life wife of the time, Lilli Palmer is very charming. Playing an Austrian girl, she reminded me of Luise Rainer, sans music. Griffith Jones plays his ostensibly more stuffy friend. To me, he is infinitely more appealing in all regards. And Margaret Johnston is beauty and charm itself as Vivian's father's secretary.

It would be interesting to show this on a double-bill with "Look Back in Anger." That was written as an antidote to the "mustn't forget about tea" movies and especially plays that had preceded it.

Yet Jimmy Porter, its protagonist, comes across today just as badly as Harrison's character does. The acting in that film, too, is marvelous. But at the core of each is a character who is not just a boor: Jimmy and Vivian are really creeps, though we are not intended to think them so.

Notorious (1945) by Sidney Gilliat is a great black and white romance, Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer's performance as the stars of this film really blew me away. The camera work was excellent along with the lighting techniques used.

Personally I dislike black and white films, however this film had a very modern approach to it and that was able to keep me interested throughout the length of the film. (I would still prefer to see this movie in color!)

Overall, this is a great film and I would recommend it to anyone who likes black and white romances.

The Rake's Progress (as this film is known in England) tells the story of a spoiled, rich public school boy who cannot settle in peace time but finds his role during the war by sacrificing himself for the war effort. The name of the film was changed for US audiences, according to Director Gilliatt, because 'the distributors thought the original one might lead audiences to expect something about gardening'!!

Your enjoyment of this movie will depend on your reaction to Rex Harrison in the lead role of Vivian. If you see him as a fun loving bounder, you'll have fun. If, on the other hand you find him an annoying, faithless, womanising bastard then you'll find 124 minutes verrrrry long.

I started off in the first camp, particularly during the scenes when he is based in a coffee plantation in Latin America and the amusing conversations with his elderly aunt. However the charm soon wears off as he cuckolds an old university friend, uses a beautiful jewish refugee to pay off his debts and causes his own father's death in a drink driving accident.

Does he find redemption in the end? Well, this depends on your interpretation of the final scenes. If you buy the moral that he has now found his place then the film has some meaning. I found the redemptive ending tacked on - reminiscent of the way Hawkes was forced to insert the criticism of gangsters in Scarface.

There are some good performances, particularly from Godfrey Tearle as Vivian's father and Margaret Johnson as the Secretary. Rex acts as Rex just like in Blithe Spirit, Doctor Doolittle, My Fair Lady etc....

If you've nothing better to do on a wet Sunday afternoon, give this film a look and post your views.

This is a very arguable film for its tremendous richness of ambiguities. It is both one of the best films of Rex Harrison and of Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. The greatest credit lies perhaps with the script, but it is handled with brilliant eloquence and equilibration by all the actors, and their parts aren't easy. Rex Harrison is particularly excellent in his very debatable character of a perfect scoundrel who wins everyone by his charm and seems to get away with just anything just by his shameless audacity. His father, a politician, seems to forgive him anything and keeps on doing so until his death, while his female victims see him through but nevertheless also keep on loving him. The one you will remember is Lilli Palmer who becomes his wife, and they were also married for real outside the film studios. He is a man of many talents but nothing becomes of him, as he seems to live just for taking chances and enjoying risking his life for nothing, just to get a kick out of it. It's a kind of morality but without morals, it just states the case without taking any stand, and no one can be a judge in a case like this. You just observe it and enjoy its thrills and moments of temporary success and cheer, while all the time you have to worry about what will happen next as a consequence of his recklessness. The dialog is splendid and probably the best film ever created by Gilliat & Launder, but it leaves you with a kind of acid aftertaste, like as if you had to think "What a waste!" of a brilliant man letting his life just run like water off his hands. Long afterthoughts are unavoidable, and you will probably never forget it.