Green Fingers

To be honest, I always found Robert Beatty one of the most unlikely of actors to ever have found success. He was usually as stiff as a plank, delivering his dialogue as if he were shouting at a cattle market. This film belies that image somewhat, though, as he plays "Stone"; a nimble-fingered fisherman who has a knack for helping out folks with aches and pains. Having been shot in the leg during the war, he walks with a pronounced limp that causes his boss to fear for him (or at least his business) at sea, so when he is sacked he hears of an Harley Street osteopath (Felix Aylmer) who through clever manipulation manages to heal him - and set him on a path of training for this vocation himself. It's got a little of the "Citadel" (1938) to it, as he and his wife "Jeannie" (Carol Raye) struggle to balance the needs of educating/training and earning a living before they can establish their practice; whilst he has a bit of a philander with the glamorous Nova Pilbeam (Alexandra) whom he helped with a ligament injury and who is now extolling his virtues to her wealthy Champagne set. It has a certain morality to it - the cutting edge nature of the treatments cause scepticism amongst some of his peers, and when tragedy strikes, illustrate a fine line between quackery and medicine (and self doubt). Largely, though, it's just a feel-good melodrama with an ending that I felt bordered on the downright irresponsible. It's well worth watching - if only to remind ourselves that all medicine needed pioneers, fact or fiction.

Fisherman Thomas Stone (Robert Beatty) loses his job working on the fishing boats because of his limp and lame leg. When he is fixed by a London osteopath (Felix Aylmer) he decides to change profession and study to be an osteopath himself and in the process discovers that he has healing hands.

While the film mostly has some solid aspects, it is alas very naive in its story drive, expecting the audience to believe its premise unreservedly. Mostly filmed in Whitby, Yorkshire that provides some attractive background. Moore Marriott, better known as Harbottle in the Will Hay films is almost unrecognisable as a sailor near the beginning of the film.

An interesting title in that I have only heard the term Green Fingers applied to successful gardeners, rather than those with a natural inclination toward osteopathy such as Robert Beatty's Tom Stone. This is a story that grips from the start in an adroitly cast film, with Felix Aylmer authoritative as the osteopath who trains Stone, while Beatty was a natural as a man of integrity, no matter what temptations he encounters eventually. His affair with Nova Pilbeam's socialite is treated in an almost perfunctory manner in the print under review, thus with the possibility of missing footage. Carol Raye is sympathetic as the girl he cures who becomes his loving and supportive wife. She also featured in director John Harlow's next feature, While I Live, which, though a success, did not prevent his career from going into steep decline. There's an apposite score from Hans May in a film that is reliably concerned to present both sides of the merits of its subject.

Tom Stone is a fisherman who suffers from a permanent damage from the war, which gives him a limp, and which is the reason why he loses his job as a fisherman. However, he meets with Felix Aylmer, an osteopath in London, who sets his foot right, whereupon he decides to become an osteopath himself, but the road to that profession is long and arduous and costs a lot of work and money. However, he relies on his natural gift for healing, especially after having cured the crippled daughter of his landlord (Carol Raye) and is successful, until he meets Nova Pilbeam who wants to set him off in society. We all know what that sort of thing usually leads to. There are a few terrible crises in Tom's life which makes him seriously doubt his ability and even makes him refuse to use his hands any more. Felix Aylmer comes to revitalize him together with his wife, and gradually they succeed, after another difficult crisis. The film is extremely interesting from the point of vew of personal responsibility in a delicate profession, in which it is inevitable to commit mistakes and suffer adversities and have all your existence put to the test of radical doubt, and the difficult issue is how to deal with such trials. One could say that the moral sense of this extremely vital story is that you must never be afraid of committing mistakes, you will never be able to avoid them all, something contrary to your intentions must occasionally happen, and you have to face it and go on and make the best of it, and, whatever you, do, never give up. A wonderful film with splendid actors and great music in a very unpretentious form but the more vital for its lesson.

As people who have a talent for gardening are said to gave a green thumb so Robert Beatty is said to have green fingers, a natural talent to heal. Beatty has helped friends and co-workers, but has a limp himself courtesy of a war wound.

He goes to study under Felix Aylmer, but does not complete the course. Ge cures landlord's daughter Carol Raye and they marry. She proves to be a most forgiving wife especially after a dalliance with haughty society girl Nova Pilbeam.

There are some fine performances in a film with a confusing story. Confusing to this day because we really don't know where osteopathy is in the rankings of the medical profession.

Still the quartet of players mentioned do well and this is a pretty good film.