Le chapelier et son château

A. J. Cronin must have been an author who was in great demand back in 1942 considering he had his name put on the title of the movie. He already had some success with his novel "The Citadel", one of Robert Donat's better films.

Robert Newton sure helped pull off one of the most hateful and awful human beings in film history in "Hatter's Castle". I am not being critical...I am applauding his effort as he creates a very strong visceral reaction in viewers...the sign of an exceptional performance.

James Brodie (Newton) owns a successful hat shop, as it's the only one in the area! But instead of his success making him happy, he's a bitter, cruel man...with nothing positive about him. He treats his employees like garbage and his family even worse! He does this by keeping them in a constant state of fear, as he's the consumate bully. Through the course of the film, he treats folks around him horribly...and you can't help but think that sooner or later he'll get his comeuppance. Watching this take place is a joy...and reason to watch the movie.

While at times a very unpleasant story, it is worth seeing...and I encourage you to keep reminding yourself it WILL pay off by the end! It does pay off...and the film is exceptionally well made, acted and written.

It's incredibly unfortunate that Robert Newton isn't a household name. He was an unbelievably talented, versatile British actor from the silver screen era, but while his name hasn't lasted through the decades, other, far less talented actors have remained household names, like Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, and Gary Cooper. If you have no idea who Robert Newton is, rent Hatter's Castle tonight.

Robert Newton plays the patriarch in A.J. Cronin's epic Hatter's Castle. He owns a hat shop, and we are treated to his hardened business persona as well as his cold demeanor at home. He's extremely strict with his innocent, frightened daughter, Deborah Kerr, and he's cruel and callous to his wife, Beatrice Varley. Beatrice slaves away as a homemaker, and her exhaustion is palpable through the screen. Deborah is very young and very sweet, and she's quickly torn between two potential lovers, the slimy Emlyn Williams and the handsome doctor James Mason.

But back to Robert Newton. It's his movie, after all, and his tour-de-force performance-which was not honored by a single award or nomination-that makes this movie one of the great classics from the silver screen. As he always does, he completely embodies his character. He doesn't care about making the audience hate him, and even though he made a career out of playing villains, this role is totally different from the other bad guys he's played. He's cold, selfish, and merciless, yet as the story unfolds, he compels the audience to care about what happens to him. Bobby has an incredibly expressive face, and his intense energy makes his performance worth remembering.

This is a very heavy story, so if you like Thomas Hardy stories, you'll find a new favorite in Hatter's Castle. If you don't think you can handle it-if you walked out of The Mayor of Casterbridge-I don't think you'll like it. Try Jamaica Inn instead for an introduction to Robert Newton.

"Daughter of Darkness" convinced me that Lance Comfort is a great director. "Hatter's Castle" strongly confirms it, it's a drama about a cruel tyran spoiling everybody's life, from his hatter's business to his family.

All casting is fantastic : James Mason as the young true lover of Deborrah Kerr (as the tyran's daughter, in her fifth movie), Emlyn Williams as the bad man, Enid Stamp-Taylor as the badman' and the tyran's mistress. And the best of course is Robert Newton as the tyran, he pronounces each line cruelly with sadistic expression, destroying eveything and everybody : a total complete toxic person (one of his best performance with "Oliver Twist" and "Long John Silver"). In the first sequence with Robert Newton, I was puzzled how it reminded me of another tyran, and I rapidly thought of Opale played by Jean-Louis Barrault in "le Testament du docteur Cordelier" 17 years later.

Cinematography is of course virtuoso with intelligent travellings avoiding editing, having several informations in the same sequence with two faces shot in depth of field, brilliantly rare.

It's a ghastly story and as close to a horror tale as you can get within the limits of realism. It was A.J.Cronin's first major novel and very Dickensian as such, telling an alternative Scrooge story without the main character ever learning his lesson. So things go consistently from bad to worse all the way through. James Mason and Deborah Kerr, both still very young here, provide some kind of a balance against all the wicked tyranny but not enough to bandage the very serious wounds of this gruesome detailed account of tyranny. Robert Newton is magnificent as always in his consistent viciousness, and all the other actors are perfect as well. The one thing you could object against here is the meaning and reason for A.J.Cronin to tell such a story.

Nothing to do with Cromwell but Christmas was banned in Scotland in 1573. Had this Victorian tale been set in a country other than Scotland, Robert Newton's abhorrent hatter in this story would surely have had a Scrooge-like Christmas Day transformation!

Horrid hatter, James Brodie unlike Scrooge is utterly unlikeable and even if he'd lived in a country which had Christmas, no number of spirits could redeem him. Robert Newton delivers just the right amount of brooding Victorian malice. He plays the role just right to make it believable - sinister but not quite at the level of a pantomime villain. He thoroughly engrosses you as you desperately yearn to see him get his cumuppance.

The great Welsh actor (and writer) Emlyn Williams gives an equally believable performance as the thoroughly obnoxious Dennis "Uriah Heep's less trustable brother!" It's difficult to say who is more dislikable. With the two leading characters being so unrelentingly unpleasant, there's not a lot of lightness here. Inevitability you compare this with Dickens and when you do that it's clear how much more depth and layers and humour Dickens imbued into his stories. This was however the very first thing A J Cronin ever wrote so as a first go at writing a story, it's still pretty impressive.

It's not Cronin's best work, his characteristic social and political criticism hadn't developed yet but it's still a decent Victorian style melodrama. As a film, it has pace, atmosphere and tension - it's beautifully produced.