Carrington V.C.

Asquith's courtroom drama is surprisingly gripping. Trapped within the rigid confines of a military structure, a social structure and his own personal integrity, Niven plays a man whose career and reputation (if not his stiff upper lip) are at stake in a court martial.

This film was made sixty years ago and things have changed a lot since then; unless one bears in mind how things were then, this film's plot make less sense. However if you take this into account, it is a pretty good film.

it has been commented by others that there are commonly certain protocols observed whenever a VC holder enters a room; there is no formal requirement that this is done but traditionally VC holders may be saluted by others regardless of rank. This may or may not be the case within a court-martial situation but that this was omitted in the film is understandable since it would have been distracting to the thrust of the plot, with the whole court up and down like jack-in-the-boxes all the time.

Taken on its merits this is a pretty good film, IMHO deserving of a better score than it currently has on here.

When 125 pounds goes missing on a british military base, major carrington (niven) is brought in for questioning. Quite the suspense, since most of the people present in the room are sure he's guilty, guilty, guilty. Also some humor, as the sergeant at arms always makes a racket, as he stomps around and rattles the water glasses. Several people know what really happened, but can he convince them to tell the truth? Hopefully, they will respect an officer wearing the victoria's cross. A good story, very realistic. This film was made a couple years before niven's oscar winning separate tables. Directed by anthony asquith, son of the prime minister. Quite an interesting connection in asquith's bio here on imdb, involving oscar wilde. This film is also called carrington v.c.

A brilliant courtroom drama that doesn't rely on flashbacks to present its case but sticks solely to the testimonies of the various parties involved. Carrington is a major being court-martialed for stealing money which he claims was his by right. It's superbly written, (by John Hunter), directed, (by Anthony Asquith) and played, (by a superlative cast of British character actors). David Niven, at his very best, is Carrington and Margaret Leighton is terrific as his highly strung and jealous wife. The Irish actress, Noelle Middleton, is also excellent as the captain with more than a soft spot for Niven. This is a gripping and intelligent film that really deserves to be seen.

Nearly a decade after 'A Matter of Life and Death' David Niven once more finds himself on trial - this time conducting his own defence - in this very respectable addition to the rollcall of theatrical adaptations directed by Anthony Asquith, although Niven himself neglects to mention in his memoirs.

In 'The Winslow Boy' the accused was charged with purloining a postal order, this time the bone of contention is £125 missing from a safe. Aside from the quality of the acting Asquith makes good use of acoustics by making the soundtrack totally devoid of music and the comic effect when Geoffrey Keen tells the court orderly to stop stamping in observance of an enormous sign reading 'Silence Court-Martial in Progress'.

This is quite a decent military court-room drama in which David Niven finds himself accused of pinching a large sum from his battalion funds. At the ensuing court martial, he must answer the charges relying on his honesty and integrity - he has a V. C. after all - and on receiving, somewhat naively, a reciprocal degree of honesty and integrity from others. It's quite a neat little story about revenge and snobbery; tempered with the odd bit of human decency and Niven is ideal for the part. Margaret Leighton is also quite good as his rather aloof wife and Allan Cuthbertson as his supercilious commanding officer "Col. Henniker" who clearly both have axes to grind. The ending isn't great, but otherwise it is a simple story well told.