Why so much hype?

Memorable, crazy movie

A different way of telling a story

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Producer: Teddy Baird. Made at Pinewood Studios by Javelin Films, London. Executive producer: Earl St John. Presented by J. Arthur Rank. Released in the U.K. through General Film Distributors on 16 April 1951; in Australia through B.E.F. on 22 May 1952; in the U.S.A. by Universal in October 1951. Copyright in the U.S.A. on 27 April 1951 by Javelin Films, Ltd. New York opening at the Sutton: 29 October 1951. 8,070 feet. 90 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A schoolmaster is forced to retire in penury, due to ill- health.NOTES: 5th best "foreign film" of 1951 — National Board of Review.Whilst Bosley Crowther of The New York Times did not include The Browning Version is his "Top Ten", he did give the movie a rave review and named it in his supplementary list.COMMENT: The powerful and engrossing central role comes most vividly and most effectively to life here, thanks to superlative acting by Sir Michael Redgrave. He is given solid support by Jean Kent, while Wilfrid Hyde-White has one of his most memorable roles as the hypocritical old headmaster. Ronald Howard's part, however, proves surprisingly small, whilst Nigel Patrick approaches his role on far too superficial a level.Asquith's direction has class. Production credits and production values are first-rate. However, the movie is obviously a filmed stage play. Aside from the cricket match sequence, Rattigan has done little to open up the action. The weight of dialogue tends to be a little too suffocating at times, but the pace and grip of the film could be heightened by some slight, judicious cutting.

Firstly, I'm a Rattigan fan. Separate Tables (1958), although it hasn't aged well, is still one of my top ten films. I came to The Browning Vesion late, first hearing it as a radio adaptation. The radio adaptation was faithful to the theatre script in every detail and I was genuinely disappointed by the abrupt (and seemingly anti-climactic) ending when the script appeared to be heading towards a more dramatic resolution of themes. In the play the resolution is left to the imagination. The film goes beyond the play and adds the much anticipated ending. Unfortunately, for me, it didn't work. It seemed contrived and unrealistic, tacked on in an attempt to satisfy a cinema going audience. I'm sure Rattigan himself was well aware of the dilemma. Crocker-Harris' last line in the play is "An anti-climax can be surprisingly effective". While I can understand the studio's concerns I think I have to agree with Crocker-Harris and wish the film makers had had the courage to end this film on the same line.

Here is a magnificent play and screenplay, beautifully written and conceived. Much has been made of the performances of Michael Redgrave and Jean Kent, both of whom are brilliantly cast in a physical sense. Good as Redgrave and Kent both are, it is to the supporting cast that we must look for the strongest and most credible performances; Nigel Patrick is rock solid as Frank Hunter, the popular science teacher who transforms from thoughtless philanderer to decent human being, and Wilfred Hyde White is at the peak of his game as the headmaster who is self seeking, self satisfied, unfeeling and ultimately rather cruel. Michael Redgrave, for some unknown reason decided to give Crocker-Harris a rather thin dry voice which is obviously "stuck on" he also fails to show any vestige of the human being behind the persona of the school master until it is far too late, his performance is just that, a surface study of a rather frail failure, rather than a man who tries and fails. He is expected to be unpopular, but Redgrave's characterisation is, unfortunately, rather cold. Jean Kent is brilliantly cast in the physical sense, here is woman who could well be the wife of a rather lacklustre school master, but also has the magnificent womanliness, and frankly, sex appeal, to stir any man's biological chemistry. For all this, her performance as Millie Crocker-Harris is patchy, at times so very believable and at others driven by a surface petulance, a false grandeur and an unnecessary viciousness which guilds the lily of the already powerful writing. I have seen Ms Kent's work in other roles, she was well capable of more subtle work than this, which leads me to feel that the direction by Anthony Asquith may have been rather heavy handed or just plain careless in her case. Michael Redgrave has the more difficult role with which to contend, and in my honest opinion, his characterisation, flawed from the start, fails him absolutely at the vital moment of Taplow's gesture, and in spite of an effective gear change in his defiance of the headmaster and a fine delivery of the final speech, the overall performance is under the bar for an actor of Redgrave's standing.

I am proud to join the others who have rated this film so highly. Despite being in black and white, despite there being no real 'action', this movie shows that a riveting story with engaging characters is all it takes to provide great cinema. Here we have an English schoolmaster, a very dry fellow who is unpopular with the students and married to a beautiful but evil woman who cheats on him. He is being forced to 'retire' from his position, just shy of being eligible for a pension. Just as he is upon his last day on faculty and preparing for his farewell address, two people get through the emotional wall he has built around himself - the man with whom his wife has been unfaithful to him, and a student who sees the humanity of the old schoolmaster, and actually likes him. I don't want to give away the story - but from the beginning to the end it will hold your attention. The old schoolmaster is brilliantly played by Michael Redgrave; his beautiful but ice-cold wife is the perfect villain; the young student "Taplow" could not have been played by a more believable or engaging youngster. The climax in the second from last scene is edge-of-your-seat powerful, and if you haven't been won over by this point, you will be after it.Forget special effects, 3-D, vapid starlets with big bosoms, and hip actors spouting vulgarities. Those are things of pale efforts and motion pictures which make far more money than they deserve. "The Browning Version" is a classic, a work of cinema which will stand forever as testimony to acting talent, brilliant writing, and most of all, a great story which draws you in and which you will never forget. I only wish I could give this movie more than a 10. It is THAT good.