The Bad Lord Byron

This Rank period drama directed by David MacDonald begins with George Byron on his deathbed, then taking us to a purgatorial courtroom where a faceless judge presides over his fate. Is he to be remembered by posterity as a poet and a liberator, or a seducer and libertine? Witnesses are brought to testify in flashbacks with prosecution clad in black and defence in white, with the set reminiscent of the stylised courtroom used in John Ford's Mary of Scotland. However the legitimacy of this treatment is undermined by the performance of Dennis Price as Byron. Price plays his womaniser like a vampirish Oscar Wilde, with an odd scene of him sharing a glass with the brother of a woman he is involved with, a mysogynistic conversation with a friend - "You're far too bright a flame to be extinguished by a woman's fan" - and a pop psychological explanation given about how his mother treated him miserably and he mistreats women as revenge. It's a pity that the only woman of the 4 associated with Byron presented here as an individual is the one the first to be disposed of. This kind of paper thin betrayal and the dialogue being a series of howlers - "She's purer than the driven snow", "Your British sense of fair play is implacable", "You can't keep an eagle in a cage" - makes the film unintentionally hilarious until tedium sets in. It's no coincidence that the testimony of the defence's witnesses reduce Price to dull sincerity. The society presented here is one which races to buy Byron's first collection of poetry which sells out the first morning it is on sale, then snubs him when his wife leaves him and he seeks overseas exile for a crime presumably on a par with Wilde. Price delivers a speech to the troops which is meant to be inspiring but we observe that it might be more effective if he could speak the troops' language or vice versa, and though Byron moans about his being lame we can't see how it has held him back any. As Lady Caroline Lamb, Joan Greenwood easily steals the movie. Her throaty voice makes her very likeable, and MacDonald gives her a good scene where she cuts her wrist to get Byron's attention, as well pulling the camera back slowly to frame she and Price in long shot for their first kiss.

In 1824 Lord Byron lies dying of a fever at Missolonghi in Greece. In his delirium he imagines himself being tried by a celestial court which will decide his destiny in the afterlife. Apart from his close friend John Hobhouse, the witnesses called before the court are the women in his life- his estranged wife Annabella, his lovers Lady Caroline Lamb and Teresa Guiccioli and Augusta Leigh. In reality Augusta was Byron's half-sister, but here she is referred to as his cousin.

The life of Byron would seem like a natural subject for a biopic. Apart from his status as one of Britain's greatest poets, he was also a noted libertine and seducer, a political activist and a man of action who fought for Greek independence and supported the cause of the Carbonari, the revolutionary Italian secret society. 1949, however, was not the best year in which to make a biography of such a man. Byron's private life- some aspects of which still seem shocking even today- had left him with a bad reputation, and this meant that in the moral climate of the forties a film about him was bound to be problematic. Nottingham City Council, for example, refused permission for filming to take place at Byron's actual home, Newstead Abbey near the city.

The most problematic aspect of Byron's reputation was the allegation that he had an incestuous relationship with Augusta and that he was even the father of her daughter Medora. This was the reason why she had to be made his cousin rather than his sister and why she insists that their relationship was a platonic friendship without physical intimacy. This attempt to sanitise history, however, was not enough to satisfy the American censors, who felt that any film about Byron, even a sanitised one, was not fit to be shown in the United States, and promptly banned it. There were also rumours that Byron was bisexual and had sexual relations with men; needless to say you will not find any mention of these in the film.

Great attention was paid to recreating the costumes and interiors of the period (something which was not always the case with British historical dramas of the forties), and the original intention was to make the film in colour to show these off to full effect. Unfortunately, all the studio's colour cameras were being used to film "The Blue Lagoon", so it ended up being shot in black-and-white, which greatly reduces its visual attractiveness.

Byron was famously described by Lady Caroline as "mad, bad and dangerous to know", a description repeated in the film, but it does not really fit Dennis Price's milk-and-water Byron, disappointingly sane and about as dangerous to know as a kitten. Price had the good looks to convey something of Byron's charisma, but never really achieves it, making the film's hero appear as, at most, a well-bred, well-mannered drawing-room revolutionary. The best of the supporting cast is Joan Greenwood as Lady Caroline; the rest are unremarkable, with Mai Zetterling's weak, simpering Teresa being particularly disappointing. The idea of a heavenly court appears to have been borrowed from The Archers' "A Matter of Life and Death" made a few years earlier, but that was a much better film which made much better use of the idea. There is a great film to be made on the life of Lord Byron. This is not it. 4/10

A goof. It is stated in the film that Byron died aged 37. In fact, he died aged 36.

Dennis Price doesn't actually look like he is having to do much acting as he portrays the bravely errant soldier-cum-poet in this drama. He is bedridden, seriously ill, and wondering how he might be looked upon by St. Peter as his day of reckoning looms. The film now sets out to show us a little of his reminiscences - his lives and loves, most notably with an on-form Mai Zetterling ("Teresa"), Sonia Holm as his long-suffering wife Annabella and, of course, Lady Caroline Lamb (Joan Greenwood). It takes the form of a trial - with people giving testament to his behaviour and character under the gaze of the sagely, if frequently quite bemused judge (Ronald Adam). Price plays well here, and his scenes with Greenwood remained me of their scenes together in "Kind Hearts and Coronets" (also made in 1949). Sadly, though it starts off quite entertainingly, it becomes very wordy and slow quite quickly and the last forty minutes or so dragged a bit, I thought. I like Price, he has something about him, but this all wears a bit too thin. Maybe his libertine, naughty, side fell foul of the censors, but what we have here is ultimately rather plain. Adequate, nothing more.

Dennis Price had some difficult times himself for his sexual inclinations and should have been the right actor to put Lord Byron on screen, but he is not. He is too gentlemanly and undramatic. The demonic traits of Byron are missing entirely. Dennis Price is a perfectr actor in every way but not enough for Byron. Perhaps the script is more to blame, which is poorly written - there are so many vitally significant parts of Byron's life missing here entirely, for instance is there no word of Shelley throughout the film, which is a catastrophic blunder, since the friendship between those too greatest poets of their time perhaps was the most important and at least most dramatic and significant part of their lives.

Among the ladies, Joan Greenwood is the best, while Byron's sister and wife are lost in the balls and the intrigues. Mai Zetterling as the Countess Guiccioli also makes a rather insipid impression with no real passion but sentimentality. On the whole, the film is bogged down in mostly sentimental nonsense bereaving it of life, interest and any trace of drama, which is a pity, since so much could have been made out of Byron's highly dramatic life.

The film begins when he lies dying, and in his delirium he stands trial for his life concerning his regrets about his ladies. No verdict is pronounced, but the juury of the audience will get the message.

Sorry, it could have been better.

The heavenly tribunal was much better done three years earlier in 'A Matter of Life and Death', while Dennis Price was then still being miscast as soulful heroes before he found his true vocation as a cad; but Joan Greenwood as Caroline Lamb alone justifies the thing's existence, for which the two promptly atoned with 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'.