Thu 11 Feb 2010
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: HATTER’S CASTLE (1942/1948).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[8] Comments
HATTER’S CASTLE. Paramount 1942/1948; Robert Newton, James Mason, Deborah Kerr, Emlyn Williams, Henry Oscar, Enid Stamp-Taylor, Beatrice Varley, Anthony Bateman, June Holden, George Merritt, Laurence Hanray. Screenplay by Paul Merzbach, Rudolph Bernaur and Rodney Ackland, based on the novel by A. J. Cronin. Director: Lance Comfort. Shown at Cinecon 45, Hollywood CA, September 2009.
This Paramount production was made with frozen funds in England in 1941 but was only released in this country in 1948, when both Mason and Kerr had become box-office names.
They’re fine in supporting roles, but the real star is Robert Newton, probably best known to American audiences for his role as Long John Silver in Disney’s Treasure Island. He plays a successful haberdasher, whose claim to royal lineage has made him a civic force to be reckoned with in the small Scottish where the drama plays out.
Newton is a brooding tyrant, running his household with an iron fist and terrorizing his wife and son, with only his daughter (Kerr) showing some signs of independence. The hiring of an assistant (the lover, unknown to him, of his mistress, and superbly played by Emlyn Williams) will prove to be the fault in his carefully constructed world that will be his undoing.
The arc of the movie is a long downward spiral in an unrelentingly grim drama that’s dominated by Newton’s powerful performance.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:03 am
Robert Newton was always great. Sounds interesting. A. J. Cronin also wrote The Stars Look Down, The Citadel and The Keys of the Kingdom, all also made into films.
February 11th, 2010 at 7:20 am
Another one to add to the list. Thanks a lot, Walter…
February 11th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Talk about being “Mad as a hatter”! I saw this film on a bootleg dvd a few months ago and was surprised to find it a great example of early British film noir. Robert Newton is a great out of control villain and despite the very downbeat ending, it was a very enjoyable film.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Newton was usually best playing over the top like the child like theatrical impresario in THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY, Long John Silver in Disney’s TREASURE ISLAND (and a sequel), the crazy artist who wants to paint IRA gunman James Mason’s death in ODD MAN OUT, the drunk who becomes a hero in THE BEACHCOMBER, or the mad murderous jealous husband in THE HIDDEN ROOM so this sounds right up his alley. He played heroes a bit less believably in Hitchcock’s JAMAICA INN (with Charles Laughto who originated the role from THE BEACHCOMBER), and THE LONELY SKIER based on a book by Hammond Innes. He was one of those actors born to go over the top.
Cronin had a long successful run with the movies including THE CITADEL with Robert Donat and Rosalind Russell, THE SPANISH GARDENER with Dirk Bogarde,THE STARS LOOK DOWN, and a film of his suspense novel with Van Johnson, Emlyn Williams, and Bernard Lee. Glad to know this one is available and worth catching.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Other than TREASURE ISLAND, of course, I don’t remember seeing Robert Newton in any of the other movies he was in, including all of the above. (I’ve seen THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY, but I don’t remember Newton in it, and of course he was.)
I say “of course” in my first paragraph above, though, since of course every kid in my school saw TREASURE ISLAND. And Long John Silver scared me no end, though I can’t remember any one scene to use as an example — just an overall impression that I’ve never been able to erase. And maybe that’s why I’ve unconsciously avoided films with Robert Newton in them ever since.
Walt Disney’s movies back then weren’t as cuddly G-Rated fare as people might think.
February 11th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
I saw Robert Newton in a passable quality DVD last year in a film I forget the name of that was a rather good murder-suspense story, where he plays a man determined to revenge himself on his wife for her dalliance with another man. It was pretty grim for the period (around 1950).
February 11th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Curt, that sounds like THE HIDDEN ROOM an old fashioned ‘barn burner’ as the Brits used to call them.
Steve
Newton has a major role in HIGH AND THE MIGHTY among the ensemble cast. He is the theatrical producer who finds his courage as the drama unfolds. He’s the one who comforts Phil Harris hysterical wife, and holds onto John Wayne as the Duke throws baggage out the door of the plane.
It’s a typical Newton role, over the top and fun.
For God’s sake find a copy of Carol Reed’s ODD MAN OUT! Based on F.l. Green’s suspense novel it follows an IRA gunman (James Mason) wounded and dying in Belfast as he is pursued by the police. Newton plays a mad artist who takes him in because he wants to paint him as he is dying. It’s one of Reed’s best films, second only to THE THIRD MAN and THE MAN BETWEEN with one of Mason’s best performances and a strong role for Newton.
THE BEACHCOMBER is a remake of a Charles Laugton/Elsa Lanchester film with Newton and Glynnis Johns. Newton is a drunken beachcomber on a South Seas island who is reluctantly redeemed by a missionary when a storm causes a crisis. It’s a comedy somewhat on the lines of THE AFRICAN QUEEN.
January 28th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
I think you’ll find The film where Robert Newton who is a Doctor, plans to revenge himself because of his wife’s dalliance is entitled OBSESSION He takes his wife’s lover and locks him in the cellar of a bombed out building, and starts storing acid in a bath in an adjacent room to do away with the remains when he finally kills him