L'ombre d'un homme

Michael Redgrave was obviously born for the role of Andrew Crocker-Harris in this Asquith-directed version of Terence Rattigan's clever and absorbing play.

On the face of it, the subject matter and material are rather thin. Crocker-Harris, a stuffed shirt of a schoolmaster, is about to be retired due to ill-health, and replaced by a modern new blood who sees teaching as an extension of psychology. Mrs Crocker-Harris is a frightful snob and an unhappy wife who is playing away from home, and the schoolboys only have eyes and minds for a cricket-playing hero about to leave to join England's team.

You may feel all this would be predictable and more than a little dull, and perhaps without a strong actor such as Redgrave in the central role, it may well be. I have seen the stage play, with Edward Fox as Crocker-Harris, and found it a great performance and a wonderful period piece.

Here, Redgrave is a real tour-de-force, and his supporting cast, including Wilfred Hyde White as the headmaster, and Jean Kent as the battling Mrs Crocker-Harris, are well cast. There are several charming scenes between Crocker-Harris and his replacement (Ronald Howard), and between the older schoolmaster and pupil Taplow (Brian White).

And the Browning Version? A translation of Agamemnon which reminds Crocker-Harris of a time he was a young and enthusiastic teacher, ready to mould the young.

This film is a worthy companion to the earlier classic 'Goodbye, Mr Chips', and, I think, is just as good.

Michael Redgrave is wonderful in this film. To watch him in The Lady Vanishes, then to see him in this, it really is a testament to his acting versatility.

The story itself is utterly depressing, and shows little remorse. Though this is why the film is so brilliant. The atmosphere mixes that of the school and that of the Greek tragedy - namely Aeschylus' the Agamemnon. Coker-Harris is slowly broken down by his wife, which is similar to that of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. However, Coker-Harris has not done much wrong to warrant this hate and spite, which makes him a sympathetic and tragic character.

The film moves at a brisk pace and is not once boring. The acting is superb, the look efficient and makes for a superb film.

As the dry-as-dust, cuckolded public schoolmaster, dying of heart disease, yet heartless in the eyes of his pupils, Michael Redgrave gives one of the screen's finest and most moving performances in Anthony Asquith's superb screen version of Terence Rattigan's play. (Rattigan himself wrote the economical, precise and first-rate screenplay). The rest of the cast act in that arch, fastidious fashion prevalent in British films of the time, though that fine and under-valued actor Nigel Patrick breathes considerable life into the role of the adulterous but penitent science teacher while Jean Kent is superbly treacherous as the unfaithful wife.

As a director, Asquith never really displayed much in the way of a visual sensibility, relying instead on the quality of his scripts but he still managed to make some of the best British films of the period, this being one of them. Although well-played the Albert Finney remake doesn't come close.

Without a doubt, one of the best movies I've ever seen. This movie is a movie for today, it seemed fresh enough to have been shot in our time. Michael Redgrave's performance is amazing as the beaten professor, life deals him blow after blow and he keeps on going without a blink. You want him to scream, you want him to react, but he is simply too scared. Perhaps he's accepted his lot in life, but you want more for him. It was heart wrenching and I was left knowing I had witnessed a classic that would not be easily matched. I haven't seen a movie so moving since my first viewing 10 years ago. Highly recommended and it appears it's coming to DVD very soon!

I do not think the 1994 remake is so appalling.But it cannot hold a candle to this one,for sure,though.Part of the reason can be found,IMHO,in how the two directors deal with the main character.THe color version gambles on Albert Finney's performance and overlooks the rest of the cast which is not that much exciting in the first place (M.Modine is rather bland).Here ,the whole cast is outstanding ,from the young guy who plays the student to Jean Kent,a bitchy wife ,from Nigel Patrick's bewildered science teacher who becomes a human being during the movie to Wilfrid Hyde-White's (whatever a precedent user's view on the matter)mischievous,suave and finally cruel headmaster.

Of course Michael Redgrave steals the show ,but he gets good support all along the way.His performance is subdued,but emotionally intense ,and if you do not shed a tear during his final speech,you must have a heart of stone.The black and white cinematography and the stifling atmosphere give the tragedy the three unities (place,time and action) and an inventive directing makes us forget it's a play,like in the best Mankiewicz works.