Major Barbara

This movie is a George Bernard Shaw vehicle. As such it is very heavy handed. But of course that's what we love about Shaw. Isn't it?

No one yet has mentioned the cinematography. I'm no student on this topic, but the scenes where Undershaft gives a tour of his factory and his vision of paradise are truly awe inspiring. There's nothing subtle in it, it is quite vivid for its time. And I think black & white is perfect here. If it were done today in color, I'm sure it would lose something. As someone else said they're not sure why the movie is a comedy. Intentional (as a comedy) or not, t could be this scene.

I haven't seen the movie in years, it is this one scene that lives on in memory above all others.

Robert Morley as Andrew Underschaft must be seen to be believed. He is incomparated. Wendy Hiller as his high-spirited, free-thinking, and self-righteous daughter is equally magnificent. Rex Harrison gives them both a run for their money as the swain whose fallen for Barbara. Robert Newton, David Tree, and Deborah Kerr are also terrific in small roles. There are so many double and triple entendres this one will keep your mind swirling for weeks after you've seen it. It is completely enjoyable and universal.

One of my all-time favorite films, "Major Barbara" is a cinematic Shavian gem that stands alongside the original "Pygmalion", "Caesar and Cleopatra" and "The Devil's Disciple". Many viewers regard this as a rather verbose comedy-drama but then, as with Plato, dialogue was always what Shaw was all about. And what dialogue! There are more fireworks in ten minutes of "Major Barbara" then can be found in entire movies made nowadays, and without a single explosion or car chase! But then, like all Shaw dramas, this is a story about ideas, not about action.

Although Major Barbara (Windy Hiller) is the title character, the real center of the story is her father, munitions tycoon Andrew Undershaft, played brilliantly by a fairly young, and uncharacteristically lean, Robert Morely. It is he who really moves the progress of the story, just as he has controlled the courses of the lives of his family in absentia for the past twenty years without their even being aware of it. As Barbara smugly repudiates his attempts to contribute his tainted money to save her Salvation Army mission, he ironically reminds her fiancée (and the audience) that she has actually accepted a great deal of it already. In fact, she has been living off his tainted money all her life. Tricked out with a Mephistophelean beard (he is constantly referred to as the "Prince of Darkness, and even his name seems redolent of Hell), Undershaft tempts his daughter and prospective son-in-law to abrogate their life in the Salvation Army for his life in the munitions business.

Undershaft proposes to spend a day in Barbara's Salvation Army mission if she'll agree to spend a day at his munitions works. She agrees because, in her religious zeal, she's convinced she can convert her father. The worldly Undershaft, on the other hand, is equally sure that he can wean his daughter away from a life he perceives as a waste of her time and talent for one where he feels she can really make a difference.

Whether viewers perceive Shaw's story as cynical or realistic depends upon their point of view. Clearly Shaw took the latter view, at least at the time he wrote "Major Barbara". However, perhaps the most remarkable thing about "Major Barbara" is that a film like this should have been produced in Britain at all during the very darkest days of World War II. It is almost impossible to imagine a film such as this being produced in Hollywood at all, let alone during wartime!

GBS's great play of war, commerce and religion filmed, as if on the stage, by Gabriel Pascal; (it's at its least effective in the scenes where he 'opens it up'). So what we have, fundamentally, is filmed theater, a rendition on celluloid of a 'performance', much in the same way that Anthony Asquith's version of "The Importance of Being Earnest" was filmed theater, although this is in no way as definitive as that was. Still, what's to complain about when the cast includes Wendy Hiller's high-minded, free-spirited Major Barbara; Rex Harrison's cavalier 'Dolly', oscillating between cynicism and idealism; Robert Morley's unctuous Undershaft, too young for the part but carrying it off splendidly and in support the likes of Robert Newton,Marie Lohr, Sybil Thorndike, Emlyn Williams and Kathleen Harrison. There is even a young Deborah Kerr for star spotters. Of course, as it stands, it may appear something of a dinosaur, both as play and film and some of the speeches have the tone of pamphleteering but it's also very funny and often highly entertaining and one is glad Pascal had the temerity to make it in the first place.

This movie is so rich, that I must see it again and again to 'get' the dialogue. Quotable after quotable, especially today. Example: Ubershaft (don't you love the names?), arms manufacturer, says to his son who is expressing a desire to go into politics: "Do you understand that all the game-playing and posturing done in Parliament (synonym used here) is financed by me and people like me? Those people are allowed their fun because we fund it." And of course, George Bernard Shaw verbalizes this modern truth -- i.e., corporations own the Congress----in a much more eloquent answer. Was it ever so?

The acting by all concerned, including a handsome, twinkling Rex Harrison, is STUPENDOUS!!! Another reason I have to see it again is to see Deborah Kerr as the young Salvation lass who gets clipped in the jaw...her first screen appearance. Robert Morley delivers his lines with just the proper balance of cynicism and charm!!! Orson Welles would have been too ponderous. As the Salvation Army band steps out playing "Onward Christian Soldiers", even we agnostics join in, the mood is so infectious. The point is beautifully made about the power of faith to change a person's life, even as GBS makes his points about the 'greater virtue' of providing a dignified way to make a living. I HATE black and white, except for film noir, but I was so busy mentally interacting that I never missed color. Buy it if you can, because one rental will NOT give you the full appreciation. Compared with all the wealth of information in these old movies, modern TV is sadly, just puff.