The Browning Version (1951) DVD, 1951

We all remember our best and worst teachers. The best were like Robin Williams in Dead Poets' Society (or Jack Black in School of Rock), livewire bundles of energy with a passionate enthusiasm for their subject and an equally firm belief that they were on a mission to improve the lives of their pupils out of all proportion to the requirements of their job description. And the worst were the plodding, pedantic, humourless dullards, many of whom had only entered the profession because of lack of success elsewhere and who favour discipline and conformity over intellectual stimulation. Classics teacher Arthur Crocker-Harris is very much in the latter group, or so it initially seems. But as the film progresses, and the full range and subtlety of Michael Redgrave's riveting performance is gradually revealed, vast emotional vistas are opened up as the true tragedy of Crocker-Harris' situation is laid bare. His marriage is threatened by his wife's affair with a colleague, his declining health is forcing a premature end to his career and the curtailment of his hoped-for pension, and he is cordially loathed by his students - with one crucial exception. This is young Taplow (Brian Smith), whose unexpected discovery of Crocker-Harris' brilliant past leads to a shy, hesitant attempt at rekindling his passion for ancient literature via Robert Browning's translation of Aeschylus' Agamemnon (a work Crocker-Harris himself tried to render into English as a youth). This relationship might well be mawkish (or worse) in less assured hands, but it's gravely moving here. The superb supporting cast includes Wilfrid Hyde-White as the Machiavellian headmaster, Jean Kent as Crocker-Harris's appalling wife, and Nigel Patrick as her belatedly conscience-stricken lover. But the film is primarily a career peak for Redgrave, director Anthony Asquith and long-term collaborator Terence Rattigan, who adapted and opened out his own one-act chamber piece with a technical and structural finesse that justifies his reputation as one of the mid-20th century's most accomplished British playwrights. There have been at least half a dozen other screen Browning Versions, including Mike Figgis' 1994 cinema remake with Albert Finney, but this remains definitive.

Michael Brooke on 12th July 2007
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