Tom Brown's Schooldays

I recently seen Tom Brown's Schooldays for the first time and enjoyed it.

Tom Brown starts Rugby School and it isn't long before he becomes one of the victims of the school bully, Flashman. A year later, he is assigned to look after a new starter, the rather nervous Arthur. He also becomes a victim of Flashman and together with Tom's friend East, they help Flashman to get his comeuppance at the end and he is thrown out and the bullying stops.

Tom Brown's Schooldays gives you an idea on what life was like in school many years ago.

Now to the cast with an excellent performance from John Howard Davies (Oliver Twist) as Tom, Robert Newton (Treasure Island) as the head, Diania Wynyard (On the Night of the Fire), James Hayter, Michael Hordern (Scrooge), Max Bygraves (who doesn't sing in this) and Francis De Wolff (Corriders of Blood). Also, John Charlesworth as East, Glyn Dearman as Arthur and John Forrest as the bully Flashman. Quite a collection of well known British talent there.

Tom Brown's Schooldays is certainly worth checking out if you get the chance. Great stuff.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

John Howard Davies - probably most famous for his portrayal of orphan "Oliver Twist" in David Lean's classic - is a little too weedy, for me, as the title character in this adaptation of Thomas Hughes' story about a young boy sent to the prestigious Rugby School in the 1830's where he encounters bullies; brutality and ultimately kindness. Robert Newton turns in a great performance as "Dr. Arnold" who believes that the somewhat cruel educational practices are of the past, and so he and "Tom Brown" try to improve things. This film is not so faithful to the book; but uses the two lead performances, as well as a convincing effort from John Forrest as his nemesis "Flashman", to convey much of it's sentiment. I probably preferred the 1940 version, but there's not much in it.

Comparisons with 'Goodbye, Mr Chips', 'The Winslow Boy' and 'The Browning Version' are inevitable, but this film just hasn't quite got the chops to compete. It's fascinating as a pseudo-historical record of public school life in the mid-19th Century, but the story fails to engage fully. However, it's an innocent enough way to pass the time without boring you rigid. Damned with faint praise.

'Tom Brown's School Days', one of the best depictions of schoolboy life in literature, was previously adapted in 1940. While not the truest to the source material either, that was also a good film, especially for Cedric Hardwicke's performance, and it is hard to say which is the better one out of that and this film.

1951's adaptation is not perfect. The direction is a bit staid and lacklustre, Robert Stevenson in the 1940 film directed with more sympathy, energy and style to me, here the direction is not bad, just that it could have been more.

The story is sometimes a little too episodically told, and while it's well paced on the whole there are occasions where it sags. John Howard Davies is more age appropriate than Jimmy Lydon and has cuteness and charm, but is also a little too delicate and wistful in the title role, which due to being the main focus is more interestingly written, the earlier version focusing more on Arnold.

However, 'Tom Brown's School Days' looks great, beautifully shot and the period setting is suitably atmospheric and quaint. Richard Adinsell's score complements well and has the right amount of jauntiness and whimsy as well as stirring atmosphere. The script is very thought-provoking, with some nice charming, humorous and poignant moments, and much of the story is charming and lively, with Arnold's strictness and progressiveness and Flashman's very vindictive bullying (to the point of being reprehensible, have to agree that one cannot feel sympathy for him as a result) very well-realised.

Particularly notable here in 'Tom Brown's School Days' is the acting. A more restrained than usual Robert Newton gives an authoritative and very sincere performance as strict but saintly Arnold, while John Clarlesworth is appealing as East and John Forrest comes very close to stealing the show making for a viciously snobbish and quite intimidating bully in Flashman. Supporting turns are splendid, though some are brief.

Overall, solid film with the acting being especially noteworthy. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The film appears to show people who felt they knew what right was and who acted in harmony with that inner conviction , right as the bible describes it to be for the school headmaster reads the parable of seed from the bible and otherwise quotes from it, and appears to be a living example of its precepts in his comportment. His reasonableness is most winsome especially in the scene where he rebukes the younger teacher for lack of respect toward the older teachers, notwithstanding the fact that he agrees with the younger teachers argument, he nonetheless criticises the way he presented it. The compelling invisible force that made people believe that they knew the right they felt was....was ..right and the subsequent belief that good would eventually triumph over bad, evil, naughtiness call it what you like, is undeniable in this film, and if Flashman is symbolic of the axis of evil, then maybe expulsion of them is mankinds only hope. Who will do the expelling? Who decides what is right? Evil? I love films that get you thinking!