Sun 16 Jan 2011
ESCAPE. 20th Century Fox, UK, 1947. Rex Harrison, Peggy Cummins, William Hartnell, Norman Wooland, Jill Esmond, Betty Ann Davies. Based on a play by John Galsworthy. Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
I don’t know about you – and there’s absolutely no reason I should – but when I think of Rex Harrison, I think of My Fair Lady. I’ve seen him in other films, I know, and so have you, I’m sure, but to me, Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins was such a defining role, it dwarfs anything else he ever did in comparison.
There are scenes in Escape, however, in which Mr. Harrison is nearly 180 degrees the polar opposite of the impeccably dressed Henry Higgins, and which (perhaps) I will remember for an equally long time.
Playing an escaped prisoner named Matt Denant, his headlong flight across the rough rural English countryside means watching him splash his way through numerous small rivers and streams, snatching food up from wherever and whenever he can, and ending up thoroughly covered with as much dirt and mud as you can possibly imagine.
Convicted of manslaughter – having accidentally caused the death of an overly officious bobby accusing a young woman in a public park of being a prostitute (this aspect of the film portrayed discreetly – it is up to audience to come to their own conclusion that that is what she is), Matt Denant is (was) a well-to-do former fighter pilot in World War II. That he was unjustly imprisoned he is utterly convinced — and so, for that matter, is the audience, foursquare and solidly.
And audiences ought to be trusted. They recognize and know the rigid, inflexible hand of justice when they see it. But one man fleeing a pack of bloodhounds on his trail needs assistance. Denant cannot do it alone, and coming to his aid (somewhat mystifyingly, even to herself) is a young socialite girl named Dora Winton (Peggy Cummins), who is engaged to be married, but who also sees in Denant a fox at the fox’s end of a fox hunt.
William Hartnell, later of Dr. Who fame, plays the plodding Inspector Harris, intelligently and fairly but also unwaveringly, in the solid English tradition.
Escape is most definitely belongs to the film noir category, one that’s nicely done, British style, but also one that’s slightly undone by the uplifting scene that takes place in the church that becomes a temporary place of refuge for Denant toward the end of the film.
I happen not to think that the finale is as upliftingly optimistic as the audience is led to believe – and perhaps the audience at the time was wise to this as well – but also perhaps I am wrong. I like happy endings as much as next fellow. Even relatively happy ones.
January 17th, 2011 at 12:11 pm
I almost always think of him as Dr. Dolittle first and then Henry Higgins. But don’t get me started on all my sentimental favorite movies I saw as a very young boy.
A few months ago I saw Harrison in a little known British film called Night Train to Munich. A nicely done Hitchcockian spy thriller with a clever ending that is in effect a cable car chase high up in the Alps. One of Harrison’s other great performances (related to this blog) is in Unfaithfully Yours which is one of the most brilliant comic treatments of a murder gone wrong in all of cinema. Prestons Sturges’ films still are underrated and overlooked.
January 17th, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Quite coincidentally I purchased NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH a couple of weeks ago, the DVD recently released by Criterion.
I haven’t seen it yet, but after reading your comment above, John, it looks like I’ll be moving it up in the queue. I’ll watch it sooner now, rather than later, I think.
PS. I’ve never seen DOCTOR DOOLITTLE, but simply bringing it up means that I will probably have the song in my head the whole rest of the day.
January 17th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
I’ve never heard of ESCAPE – not that that means much of anything to anyone except me -but I like to think I’m fairly familiar with many films from that era. Lately though, I’m finding out that I know next to nothing. Ha!
I’m going to have to see if I can get a copy of ESCAPE. Maybe Netflix. And NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH sounds like something I’d like too. Anything with murder on a train is right up my alley. Rex Harrison was not a very nice man, maybe that’s why I’ve tended to overlook his films.
January 17th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Thinking about his affair with Carole Landis and her later suicide, Yvette, I know what you’re saying. When you know more than you want to about an actor, it’s awfully hard to separate him and his roles from the person he really is. (Or “her,” for that matter.)
Harrison’s involvement in Landis’s death was pretty well covered up back then, which would have been 1948. I can’t say that I’m familiar with the details, but from the little I know, Hollywood clout seems to have prevailed, and his career apparently didn’t suffer much.
Was he well liked when he was alive? That I don’t know, but I have a feeling that his personality, sharp and abrupt, judging from some of the roles he played, didn’t allow him to make close friends easily.
January 21st, 2011 at 11:43 pm
By now I hope everyone has seen Carol Reed’s NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH. Among its charms is a rare early villainous role for Paul Henried (he played more later on), and a rare crossover of two satirical English characters from Alfred Hitchcock’s THE LADY VANISHES (Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, who hardly notice they are in the middle of an adventure because they are obsessed with the cricket scores from home). Their characters were later the basis for a brief BBC television series, the novelization of which appeared over here whether the series ever made it or not.
Fairly rare for characters to make this kind of a crossover in any film, much less in the work of two major directors.
The novel NIGHT TRAIN is based on isn’t bad either.
January 21st, 2011 at 11:46 pm
Incidentally Leslie Charteris credits Rex Harrison as one of the models for the Saint (obviously well after his conception), though he later said his ideal Saint was Cary Grant — who oddly enough modeled himself on Harrison and Jack Buchanan.
January 22nd, 2011 at 12:55 am
David
Welcome back. It’s good to hear from you again.
The two gentlemen you refer to in THE LADY VANISHES are of course Charters & Caldicott, who also appeared in the films Crook’s Tour (1941) and Millions Like Us (1943).
My memory’s gone bad. I either purchased the two movies or the TV series sometime last year, but I don’t remember which. The TV series, I rather think, because I set the DVDs aside to not watch until I’d seen the two films first. Which I haven’t, as I haven’t gotten around to ordering yet.
I appreciate the reminder!
I can see Rex Harrison as The Saint, with a tilt of the head and a devilish gleam in his eye. Cary Grant, not so much, and yet — if he’d played him, he’d have done such a great job of it we’d be sitting here discussing the fact that there couldn’t have been anyone else who could have done the role so well.
— Steve
February 12th, 2011 at 10:19 pm
[…] Cummins, last seen and written about by me for her role in Escape (reviewed here ), continues to impress me as an actress. Her career didn’t go all that far, however. It was […]
May 11th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
Dr Dolittle, Henry Higgins, Night Train to Munich…Has no one seen the other great Mankiewicz/Dunne/Harrison feature, made only a year earlier: The Ghost and Mrs Muir? Although I grew up with Dr Dolittle, once you’ve the wonderful film (forget the TV series!), with Gene Tierney in one of her finest roles, Harrison will always be The Captain!