The Browning Version (1951)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Anthony Asquith

Writers:

Terence Rattigan (by)
Terence Rattigan (screenplay)

Release Date:

April 1951 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Forced to retire from an English public school. a disliked professor must confront his utter failures as a teacher, a husband, and a man.

Plot Keywords:

Teacher | English Public School | Headmaster | Classical Greek | Chemistry

Awards:

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 6 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Michael Redgrave	...	Andrew Crocker-Harris
Jean Kent	...	Millie Crocker-Harris
Nigel Patrick	...	Frank Hunter
Wilfrid Hyde-White	...	Frobisher (as Wilfrid Hyde White)
Brian Smith	...	Taplow
Bill Travers	...	Fletcher
Ronald Howard	...	Gilbert
Paul Medland	...	Wilson
Ivan Samson	...	Lord Baxter
Josephine Middleton	...	Mrs. Frobisher
Peter Jones	...	Carstairs
Sarah Lawson	...	Betty Carstairs
Scott Harold	...	Rev. Williamson
Judith Furse	...	Mrs. Williamson

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | France:U | USA:Approved (PCA #15027) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Australia:PG (DVD rating) | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Dorset, England, UK

Company:

Javelin Films

Trivia:

The title refers to a translation of Agamemnon. Of the many such translations, one of Crocker-Harris's pupils gives him the version written by poet Robert Browning.

Quotes:

Andrew Crocker-Harris: I may have been a brilliant scholar, but I was woefully ignorant of the facts of life.

Movie Connections:

References Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

Soundtrack:

Fifth symphony

"A Profoundly Moving Film"

With a screenplay by the author of the play on which it is based (Terence Rattigan), "The Browning Version", although it records the manners and morals of an age and social milieu that have now vanished, remains a powerful and deeply moving film, its essential insights intact, and of continued relevance to our own time.

Arthur Crocker-Harris (Michael Redgrave) is a master at an English public school. Once a brilliant young classicist and a promising poet, he has turned into a desiccated, unfeeling and spiteful pedant, despised by his colleagues and feared by his pupils. Ill-health has prompted his early retirement, but it is apparent that his departure will go unmourned, in contrast to that of his attractive and personable young wife (Jean Kent), who is well-liked by all.

The genius of this remarkable film consists in the effortless skill with which it inverts the viewer's initial perceptions. Dismissed as outdated and irrelevant after the Angry Young Men of the mid 50s rendered his middle-class scenarios unfashionable, Rattigan was a master technician of drama, and his dialogue and pacing are faultless. Michael Redgrave was born to play the role of Crocker-Harris, to which he brings a restraint and control that render his performance all the more affecting. Asquith shows remarkable judgment in refusing to manipulate the viewer's emotions with a schmaltzy soundtrack (except for a burst of Beethoven at the end, there is no music). In the event this is unnecessary. It is a rare film that moves me to tears, but "The Browning Version" wins this distinction. Do not waste your time on the 1994 re-make.