O Transgressor

Ernest Raymond was a priest who served in the First World War as a chaplain at the front, and after the war he started writing novels and produced many. They are of mixed quality, but some of them are exceedingly good, like "We, the Accused" and this one, which was made into an equally gripping film by the Brazilian Cavalcanti with Richard Todd in his first great part. The novel is almost Dostoyevskian in character, dealing with crime and injustice and its unsurveyable consequences, and the film sticks to its very human character, staying all the time on the level of basics of human life, society and circumstances. The actors are all perfect, and no wonder that Richard Todd later made such a distinguished career, starting like this. The cinematography is also striking in its very dark character with deep shadows and sharp photography, often with close-ups, which gives the whole feature a somewhat expressionistic trait. This is a unique classic of its kind, railway workers, shabby pubs, loose women, intimate local insights, and to top all this a crazy alcoholic painter, who actually gets the last word. In its gutter character, it is a pearl shining the more brightly for shining and rising in the gutter.

Upper class Stephen Murray (Christy) dreams of one day becoming a great author. To this end, he throws himself out of his comfort zone in order to gain a few life experiences. He frequents working class pubs and hooks up with hooker Rosalyn Boulter (Frankie). When she turns up dead, he decides to keep quiet and see how things pan out despite knowing that the man accused, petty criminal Richard Todd (Herb) is innocent. Todd seeks out the truth.

This film starts out as Murray's story but after a while you realize that the focus is actually on Richard Todd's character. There are a few stupid accents thrown into the mix and a sometimes unintelligible James Hayter (Jocko) as a Scottish criminal, but the story carries you along and has you rooting for Todd even if his acting is sometimes a bit OTT. He looks like a young Marlon Brando in several scenes.

There are good scenes that keep you guessing as to how Todd will finally get the justice that he deserves, but it is a shame that he is given an annoying girlfriend in the guise of Patricia Plunkett (Rosie) - pity she wasn't murdered instead. It's another enjoyable UK film with interesting sets and a nice period feel to rank alongside 6 others that I have seen from the same year, 1949 - "Silent Dust" also starring Stephen Murray, "The Interrupted Journey" also starring Richard Todd, "Obsession", "The Queen Of Spades", "Man On The Run" and "Forbidden". There are a further 2 UK films from this year that I have lined up ready to watch - "The Spider and The Fly" and "The Third Man" - a good year for British film output. My wife also likes "The Rocking Horse Winner" from this year but I don't rate it as highly as the others mentioned.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. Well, sometimes....

This is another expertly directed film noir by Cavalcanti to go along with the somewhat darker "I Became a Criminal". This has a more complex storyline. An aspiring young writer goes slumming to broaden his experiences and becomes smitten with a bar floozy, who's carrying on with a couple of other guys. After a narrow escape from one of these lovers at her apartment the night before, he reads in the morning paper that she's been murdered but does nothing when he learns that the wrong man has been accused. The acting is uniformly good and a number of odd camera angles add to the tension in the movie. I liked the way the movie seamlessly transitions its focus from Stephen Murray, the writer, to Rosalyn Boulter, the murdered woman, to Richard Todd, the accused murderer. A negative point was that the courtroom scenes were shallow and lacked any defense for the accused. As a point of social commentary I couldn't help but feel how little we've progressed in helping those that have done their time assimilate back into society with decent jobs: the same barriers exist today as depicted in the movie. This is well done with a satisfying conclusion. Recommended.

Casting directors in the late forties unfortunately did not have the services of working class actors like Terence Stamp & Michael Caine to draw on but had to rely on graduates of various drama academies who had drilled out of them the various regional accents from the characters who appeared in their films.The upshot of this was that when the parts demanded realistic working class voices there was not the pool of actors to draw on who had been schooled with received BBC pronunciation which was prevalent at the time.Richard Todd appeared to have a cross between a Scottish and Irish accent while James Hayter's Glaswegian accent was unintelligible.Had this film been produced in the mid 60s the producer could have drawn on more realistic characterisations.

That said I enjoyed today seeing this film for the first time on Youtube.com.I especially liked Richard Todd playing Guy Gibson in "The Dam Busters" (1954) and "the Hasty Heart"(1949) with Ronald Reagan.The other reviewers have adequately summarised the plot of the subject film which I rated 6/10.I also liked the fruity voice of Valentine Diall who acted on stage (Son of Oblamov) & t.v. with the late Spike Milligan.

The Brazilian born director Cavalcanti started his film career with mostly documentary film before the World War11 .He worked mainly in France and the UK, and had a part also as a sound engineer, in one of the most famous British documentary film ever "Night Mail" (1936). After the war, Cavalcanti was active as a director first in the UK until the beginning of the fifties and then mainly active in France. During his stay in the UK he directed some famous films like two segments in "Dead of the Night"(1945) and "Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" (1947). "For them that trespass" (1949) is an interesting crime drama in Edwardian times . The photography in black white is excellent and gives the feeling almost of an expressionist film in the mould of the early German cinema. The later famous director J Lee-Thompson was involved as a script writer. The scenes involving the railway workers and their work is sometime reminiscent of Renoir's "La Bete Humaine" (1938). The story is about an ambitious young writer from the wealthy suburbs wanting to experience the true raw life in the lower depths on the "wrong side " of the road. However, the film quickly transform itself into a crime drama with revenge. Richard Todd is the petty thief wrongly accused of murder and becomes actually the main role in the film. Todd has perhaps some forced Scottish accent but many of the scenes from the lower depths has a genuine feeling. As usual for British film from this time period, the minor characters are excellent. Frederick Leister plays the Vicar, which has only a few minutes role but during that time he encapsulates completely the role of a laid back, eccentric clergy man full with understatements. Another extra ordinary minor role is the Mad Artist played by George Hayes. It is difficult to play insane roles convincingly and they are often prone to exaggeration. However, Hayes has found the right balance and his facial expression and eyes are very compatible to a delusionary mind. It is strange that this film is not more well known. It is very entertaining and interesting to watch to the finish. This together with a beautiful photography, fine acting and an interesting plot, makes this, in my mind, a minor British classic film after the war. "For them that trespass" (1949) is deserved to compete for our interest with much more common film titles during this period.