Too much of everything

Just perfect...

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

"The Browning Version" is a 1951 movie based on a play by Terrence Rattigan & one of my all-time favourites. Michael Redgrave plays schoolmaster Arthur Crocker-Harris who teaches Greek & Latin at a public school for boys. As a young man he was an award- winning classical scholar but as a teacher he has been a failure who, as he has got older, has become an embittered, stolid & pedantic man. This is partly due to his having an unfaithful, bitchy, hard-nosed wife, Millie, played by Jean Kent. She is having an affair with the chemistry master, Frank Hunter, played by Nigel Patrick. His somewhat sour, unsmiling demeanour makes Mr. Crocker-Harris very unpopular with his pupils who refer to him as "The Croc". He has a heart condition which is forcing his imminent early retirement & it is fairly obvious that the headmaster, (Dr. Frobisher played by Wilfred Hyde-White), won't be sorry to see him go. His wife's only concern is that he gets his full pension entitlement!. His replacement schoolmaster Mr. Gilbert has been invited to look in on his last few lessons to take notes. He informs Crocker-Harris that he is also known by his pupils as "The Himmler of the lower fifth". He was unaware of this & is obviously hurt by the knowledge. One of his pupils,(Taplow played by Brian Smith) does feel sympathy for him & gives him a retirement present. It is a translation by the poet Robert Browning, (hence the title of the play), of the Greek poet Aeschylus "Agamemnon". Taplow has highlighted a quote from the text which translates as, "God from afar looks down graciously on the gentle schoolmaster". Crocker- Harris is moved to tears by this unexpected show of appreciation by one his pupils. On the last day of term he has to make a retirement speech at assembly & the headmaster hopes it will be brief & not too much of an embarrassment. In a touching speech Crocker-Harris opens his heart out about his failure as a teacher. The chemistry master is also moved by it & realises that the affair with his hard-hearted wife was a mistake & resolves to end it. "The Browning Version" is the kind of thought-provoking movie that doesn't get made any more &, probably, won't in the future. I find that rather depressing!!!.

Terence Rattigan adapted his acclaimed one-act play about a humorless professor at a British school for boys realizing some awful truths about his life on the eve of his retirement from the institution: his embittered wife holds him in contempt (and has been carrying on an affair with one of his fellow teachers), while the headmaster of the school cannot wait to sweep him under the carpet. Michael Redgrave gives great shading to this lanky man with the puny spirit; though, at times, the actor sounds as if he's just swallowed John Gielgud, he is nothing short of fascinating to watch, even in the climactic moments when this adaptation becomes a curiously showy piece of grandstanding for the character. The relationship between Redgrave's Crocker-Harris and his students is left a bit unclear; they tolerate him and complain behind his back, but we don't sense the sort of give-and-take which would make the finale plausible. Jean Kent (as Mrs. Crocker-Harris, with her condescending eyes), handsome Nigel Patrick, and young Brian Smith are excellent in support. Remade in 1994 with Albert Finney in the lead. **1/2 from ****

Michael Redgrave gives one exquisite, but tightly controlled performance as Anthony Crocker-Harris in The Browning Version. The play by Terrence Rattigan has been expanded considerably from the one act, one setting play from the stage. Fortunately Rattigan also wrote the expanded version for the screen and his vision comes intact for the cinema.Given the times we're in and given what we know about both Michael Redgrave and Terrence Rattigan, I think we can now give a proper interpretation to the work. What we're dealing with is a repressed gay man in the character of schoolteacher Anthony Crocker-Harris who married because it was expected of him in the society he grew up in. When Jean Kent doesn't find any sexual fulfillment in the marriage that Redgrave is unable to provide, she does look elsewhere. Her most recent explorations have her involved in an affair with the school science teacher Nigel Patrick.Redgrave is no Mr. Chips, he's an exacting pedagogue, extremely unpopular with the kids. He's moving on to another school by mutual consent. It's this move that's causing the latest strain in the marriage of Kent and Redgrave.Kent never gets due credit for her performance. She's a highly sexed individual, bitter at the marriage she's made and looks to demean and degrade Redgrave in every way possible. God only knows what she expected of the marriage, but whatever has or hasn't happened has turned into the bitter harpy she's become. In fact even Patrick is taken aback by her viciousness.The title refers to a translation of Agamemnon by Aeschylus that Robert Browning did of the original Greek text. It's given sincerely to Redgrave by young Brian Smith, one of the few kids who feels a bond towards Redgrave. Of course Kent just simply says he's what we in America would call brown-nosing with Browning.If Terrence Rattigan were writing the play today given our times, he'd be more brutally frank and probably would be out of the closet. Even with the subtleties we can only guess at, a performance of the play today might also bring that aspect out vis a vis all the characters. Anthony Asquith gets the best performance out of the entire cast, The Browning Version is definitely one of the top five Michael Redgrave performances. Not to be missed if broadcast.

I was 15 and studying the play for GCE exams in the late '60s whilst at boarding school; in a place not totally disassociated in my mind's eye from the setting of the play. It evoked sympathy and attachment within me because of the parallels within it and my own situation. We were told not to watch the film if it came on television as it would or might change our perception of the play in its written form. I happened to be in Maidstone one Saturday afternoon and noticed that it was the second film on at a local flea-pit. as I was always looking for shortcuts in ways to learn (lazy) I ignored the remonstration not to see the film and went in. Having read the play six or seven times and even had an opportunity to act the play within a class setting; I established myself as a critical observer. I was not ready for the absolute impact that it had on me, here were the characters of my imagination and reality acting out this story to which I was so attached, in a manner and style to which I knew to be square and true with my own perception. I will not re-hash the plot as others have done a superb job of that, but will add that this film has a pace and acting precision seen only but a few times, and then to no greater effect than is seen here. Redgrave's performance is flawless, the supporting cast are absolutely perfect and I can think of none who could have improved it by their presence. I left the cinema in shock; returning to the school numb from the experience and the knowledge that I just had to share the fact I had seen it; I came clean and told the head English master (born in 1898), he gated me for a month, and then asked if I enjoyed it, I gushed about all of it and how it had increased my understanding of the tragedy and ultimate renaissance of Crocker Harris. Strangely the love of this play and the admission of my transgression created a strong bond between myself and this crotchety old teacher; even ironically to his lending me a copy of the "Browning Version". This is a great movie, a true work of cinematic genius. The movie is available on DVD so you have no excuse.