This little-seen work is a real gem and deserves much wider appreciation - Graeme Hobbs explains why.
Following the Technicolor melodrama of The Red Shoes, this little-seen entry in the directors’ canon deserves much wider appreciation. It is a tense, low-key film made out of the shadows of wartime; shadows both literal – scenes take place in darkened rooms in the blackout – and metaphorical, in the undercurrent of desperation that runs through its characters, not least research scientist Sammy Rice. With the doctor’s dope doing little to dull the pain of his tin leg, he is trying to stay off the whisky. This does little for his mood though, and his lover, a secretary in his backroom department, takes the heat.
Two years after their memorable performances in Black Narcissus, David Farrar and Kathleen Byron share a genuine chemistry here, with Byron’s Susan hinting at a need to be dominated that balances Sammy’s pride, doe-eyed need for succour and self-pitying fury – a fury he will have to overcome if the booby-trapped German bomb lying in the shingle of Chesil Bank is not to have the last word on his fate.
Embittered after losing a foot in a bomb blast, bomb disposal expert Sammy Rice increasingly seeks solace in drink. However, a budding romance with his secretary, Susan (Kathleen Byron), and the challenge of analysing a new German bomb provide him with a new sense of meaning. A superbly crafted movie with excellent suspense scenes, this is also a strong portrayal of believable adults in a wartime relationship. The screen chemistry between Farrar and Byron is tangible and raises this well above the ordinary.
Sammy Rice, who works as a design boffin in a research group, has a few problems. Jerry is dropping an unknown type of booby-trapped bomb that is killing children and ... more >
Sammy Rice, who works as a design boffin in a research group, has a few problems. Jerry is dropping an unknown type of booby-trapped bomb that is killing children and colleagues. His woman’s love seems increasingly conditional on him taking over his department. He’s lost a leg, his tin leg is giving him gyp and he really wants a drink of whisky. It does him no good, nor does it kill the pain but at least he doesn’t care about it any more. Farrer is superb in the part. His saturnine good looks are occasionally lightened by a gleam in his eye, and the genuine chemistry between him and the utterly alluring Kathleen Byron as Susan really carries the film along - they are believable adults in a believable wartime relationship, carrying their fears and demons through a random and indifferent world. At one point they share a screen kiss so effective it belongs in the silent era, and their dialogue hints at a sexual depth and darker edges in their relationship, an aspect heightened by the shadows and touches of expressionist lighting throughout the film. It may step close to caricature at some points – notably Sammy’s hallucination about the giant whisky bottle, but if it didn’t have its touches of the surreal or absurd, along with its occasional sardonic humour, it just wouldn’t have the appeal of a Powell & Pressburger film in the first place. < less
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