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The Browning Version |
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The Browning Version - 1950 | 80mins | Drama | B&WThe Production TeamDirector: Anthony
Asquith. Asst Director: George Pollock. Producer: Teddy Baird. Script: Terence Rattigan, from his own play. Cinematography: Desmond Dickinson. Art Direction: Carmen Dillon. Editing: John D. Guthridge. Production Manager: Andrew Allan. Make-Up Dept: Biddy Chrystal and W.T. Partleton. Costume Design: Yvonne Caffin. Sound: John Dennis, Dino Di Campo and Gordon K. McCallum. |
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The CastMichael Redgrave
- Andrew Crocker-Harris
Jean Kent - Millie Crocker-Harris Nigel Patrick - Frank Hunter Ronald Howard - Gilbert Brian Smith - Taplow Wilfrid Hyde-White - Frobisher Bill Travers - Fletcher Judith Furse - Mrs. Williamson Paul Medland - Wilson |
Plot SynopsisAnthony Asquith’s The Browning Version was a Terence
Rattigan play scripted for the screen by Rattigan. The leading role
of the schoolmaster was played by Michael Redgrave, who along with Rattigan
won an award at the Cannes Film Festival for his involvement in the
film.
The story is about Andrew Crocker-Harris, he’s been teaching at a public school for eighteen years, and is forced to retire prematurely owing to ill-health. Lack of success with his pupils has blighted his youthful ambition and promise and, with his embittered wife Millie, he faces a future of poverty and disappointment. Millie's desire for her own particular brand of love, emotional and physical, is as great as Andrew's desire for the fulfilment of his own platonic ideal. The tragedy is that neither can satisfy the other's needs. Millie
has been seeking consolation in an affair with Hunter, the science
master, who is about to discard her. Andrew finds his protective armour
of indifference and lovelessness pierced by the action of a small
boy, Taplow, who gives him a second-hand copy of Browning's translation
of The Agamemnon of Aeschylus, his maser's favourite play. The violent
outburst of emotion which greets this little gesture of goodwill,
and Millie's spiteful attempt to destroy its value in Andrew's eyes
-pretending the gift was only a piece of flattery calculated to evade
a punishment -brings the marriage to a crisis. In the last few minutes
before he leaves, Andrew makes an unexpected gesture of defiance towards
the Headmaster who has constantly humiliated him, and finds in the
applause that greets his frank apology for his failings to the assembled
school, courage to face a new life. He rejects Millie, who has by
this time also been cast off by her lover. |
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