Maddyclassicfilms The Browning Version is directed by Anthony Asquith, has a screenplay by Terence Rattigan. The film stars Michael Redgrave, Jean Kent, Nigel Patrick, Brian Smith and Wilfrid Hyde-White.I think Michael Redgrave gives his very best performance in this film. He perfectly captures the cold exterior of his character, who internally is actually anything but that. He conveys so much with his eyes and does such a good job of portraying Harris as a man who is very introverted and seemingly emotionally dead.Andrew Crocker Harris (Michael Redgrave)is the classics teacher at a private boys school. His students dislike him and are afraid of him. He used to be very passionate about his subject, now he has long since lost his passion for teaching and wouldn't know how to go back to the way he used to be even if he tried. Due to ill health he is leaving the school to take up a less demanding teaching role.Harris is married to Millie (Jean Kent), she is a cold hearted woman who is having an affair with the handsome and charismatic chemistry teacher Frank Hunter (Nigel Patrick). Unknown to either of them Harris has been aware of their affair for some time.The relationship between Harris and is wife is very interesting, they are both to blame for the state of their marriage. Harris was so caught up in his love of teaching that he neglected his wife, she has nothing in common with him and makes fun of his interests.Millie is selfish and won't allow her husband a brief moment of happiness because she isn't happy herself. What she does when she learns about Taplow's gift is as Hunter says unforgivable, that scene makes him see the truth of her and sympathise with Harris.On his last day at the school one of his students called Taplow (Brian Smith)gives him a book with a personal inscription to say thank you for all the help he has given him during private tutorials. This kind gesture causes Harris to break down crying, this scene is so well done because Redgrave turns his back to the camera, you feel like you have walked in on a very private moment and that you are intruding just as you would feel if you came upon such a thing in real life.Redgrave is superb in the lead role. Nigel Patrick and Jean Kent are excellent too. Brian Smith isn't as good as the adult cast but he tries hard. Wilfrid Hyde-White steals every scene he's in as the headmaster.A beautiful film about the impact teachers can have on students and how you don't know the truth of a person by the external alone, you have to look deeper to discover the true person.There is a remake of this starring Albert Finney, it's good but not nearly as good as this one. The miniseries starring Ian Holm is worth a look too.

dracher 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.

dougdoepke Okay, you've got to hand it to the British. This is about the last word in civilized drawingroom drama. It's so restrained and riveting, the loudest noise in my TV room was me breathing. Because, no matter how intense the movie emotions, voices are never, never raised. Sure, Redgrave is great in the central role, but it's also a performance so dry it comes perilously close to caricature. What saves it is the actor's gift for nuance and the power of the screenplay itself. Between the cast and the script, even I, whose usual fare runs from Hopalong Cassidy to Gene Autry, could feel the emotional power.I really like Nigel Patrick as the guilty opportunist. His scene with the mimicking Taplow is a little gem of professional composure. He may dislike C-H (Redgrave), as he conceals here, but cuckolding him is one thing while injuring his soul is quite another. His later contrition is quite moving. However, I can't see any man snuggling up with the bitchy Jean Kent. She's not just mean, she's irritating. A scene showing her softer-- not just needful—side would have helped. Anyway, I think I'm glad I didn't go to British public school. I had enough trouble with English grammar without the deadly travails of Latin. Then again, maybe there are the kind of rewards that C-H tries to get across in his unappealing way. But, can anyone imagine a 1950's Hollywood studio making this film. One thing for sure, the Jean Kent part would go probably have gone to a studio sex-pot. But, why am I knocking Hollywood— a Gene Autry re-run is about to come on.

edwagreen Michael Redgrave is absolutely phenomenal here. He gives a subtly powerful performance as a schoolmaster, forced to go to another school, where his workload will be lighter. He needs to do this as he has developed a serious heart condition.Redgrave is absolutely mesmerizing as the no nonsense teacher, utterly despised by his pupils for his cruelty and lack of human understanding and compassion for his charges.The man is literally obsessed with Greek translations and syntax. This is all he conveys to his pupils in his narrow-minded world. His contempt for everything and everyone is vividly depicted here in a totally memorable performance. He is equally matched by Jean Kent, who portrays his unfaithful wife.He too at the end realizes his shortcomings as depicted by his farewell speech in the assembly.