Fame is the Spur

Michael Redgrave - Hamer Radshaw
Rosamund John - Ann Radshaw
Bernard Miles - Tom Hannaway
Carla Lehmann - Lettice/Lady Liskeard
Marjorie Fielding - Lizzie Lightowler
Seymour Hicks - Lord Lostwitheal
Jean Shepherd - Mrs. Radshaw
Guy Verney - Grandpa
Percy Walsh - Suddaby
David Tomlinson - Lord Liskeard

Fame is the Spur, was scripted by Nigel Balchin from the novel by Howard Spring, both the novel and the film are generally taken to be thinly veiled portraits of the Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald.

Hamer Radshaw (Michael Redgrave), an illegitimate child from the Manchester slum of Ancoats, aspires, as the result of various influences, to the career of a Labour politician. Soon enough, he is seduced by the prospect of power and position, so that he becomes a glamorous Socialist rhetorician, rather than the incarnation of Labour ideals in action. When Labour takes over the government, the transformation is complete. His wife, Anna (Rosamund John), is the one person who sees through his facade but still loves him – gradually she becomes more socially radical and rigorous than her husband. Radshaw’s acceptance to forfeit some of his ideals to reach a position of authority soon has consequences, in the end; he is rejected by a wise electorate and finally accepts a peerage. He becomes Lord Radshaw, an old fool who is barely able to express himself, whose life has been dedicated to preserving his own image.