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The Patricia Roc Filmography So Well Remembered Rank/RKO 1947 114 mins B&W Directed by: Edward Dmytryk Photography by: Freddie Young Starring: John Mills, Martha Scott, Patricia Roc and Trevor Howard Available on region free DVD (PAL) and VHS (£9.99 + £1.55 p&p) from Hectic House Records.
I reviewed the DVD version of the film. In
my opinion a decision whether to purchase on VHS or DVD should
be made on the basis of convenience rather then quality as
the original material is not sufficiently high quality
enough to show much of a difference between the two formats.
The DVD however, is a proper DVD-ROM pressed from a glass
master, not a cheap DVD-R or similar created in a home PC.
As regards Patricia Roc's part in it (after all the part
we are mainly interested in) she appears throughout
the latter half of the film being absent from the first half
altogether. Rather unusual since she is credited above Trevor
Howard in the cast list - yet Trevor has a much larger part and
is in the film throughout. One assumes this was because she was
the bigger star at the time so despite having a smaller role
she merited higher billing... Anyway, more on Pat's role in
the comments section below... but now onto the plot.
The action then shifts to the latter years of the second
world war. George is somewhat older and spending much time
with his friend Dr. Whiteside (Trevor Howard) and a young
girl for whom the Doctor is guardian Julie Morgan (Patricia Roc).
One day a drunk RAF man appears and on finding out who
George is has an altercation with him. It turns out he is
Charles Winslow (Richard Carlson) - the son of Olivia
Channing by her second husband. It seems Olivia is coming
back to town and taking control of the cotton mills again.
Her second husband drank himself into the grave and left her
a substantial fortune with which she intends to reclaim all
that was lost in the past.
After this initial bad start George realises that Charles is
actually not a bad sort and a relationship develops between
Charles and Julie. But then he is sent to fight in the war
and comes back
with his face badly scarred. Olivia (his mother) uses this
to manipulate him closer to herself by making him think the
scarring is so bad that nobody will want to be with him or
treat him as a normal person again. Olivia has clearly lived
her life selfishly and now all she has left, despite her
money, is her son and she is not about to let go. So this
then turns into a fight between her and Julie for control of
her son. He wants to marry Julie but feels unable to due to
the scarring of his face which his mother has made him
believe is much worse then it really is.
The final showdown occurs when Julie returns home crying.
When George and Doctor Whiteside ask her what's wrong they
find out that Olivia has removed her son from the hospital.
She has him at her home and is forbidding any
visitors and keeping him to herself. Meanwhile
he is drinking himself silly, obsessed with his scarring.
The Doctor then decides to fill in George on some of the scheming
things Olivia has done over the years. Such things such as
arranging the murder of her father (to make it seem as if it
were an accident). George, shocked to hear about the levels
to which she'd stooped to satisfy her selfishness decides to
take action and goes to see Charles and calling him a coward
makes him break away from his mother and marry Julie.
Olivia confronts George demanding to know where her son is.
He tells her all the things he should've said in
the past finishing with the fact that her son has married Julie
and there's nothing she can do about it.
She leaves having lost
everything - even her son… George wanders out into the celebrations
marking the end of the war and the film ends where it began…
Pat's contribution starts
one hour in and she certainly seems to attempt to make the
most of the smaller part she's been given. However, in terms
of her career this film did nothing. Although she puts in a
good performance the material is not outstanding enough to
make much impact.
Acting, all round is professional with fine performances
from John Mill's and Trevor Howard.... One feel's however,
that the direction for Martha Scott's character (Olivia) was
somewhat confused. The suspicion is that they weren't quite
sure as to how sympathetically or not to treat her
character. On the one hand the story suggests that she is
indeed a nasty, manipulative piece of work. But then at
other times there seems to be some pulling back of this and
almost a sympathy for her in the sense of she could do
nothing else due to her background and it's not ALL her
fault. The problem with this is it creates confusion around
her character and consequently makes her part weaker.
Nevertheless she attempts to make the best of it and as with
the other actors generally puts in a good show.
The director Edward Dmytryk is well known for his film noir
work ("Crossfire" 1947, "Obsession" 1949 and the
excellent but much neglected "The Sniper" 1952). This film
does not come anywhere near the standard of these others but
this is largely due to the material he is working with in
terms of the story. However, the direction is still very good and
there are nice touches to the cinamatography. For example
there is a nice pan from George giving his speeches about
how profit should not be at the expense of the children of
the town while the camera moves up and back through a window revealing a
room where Doctor Whiteside is seeing to a child dying from
diphtheria. The feeling is that had the character of Martha
Scott (Olivia) been allowed to be treated less
sympathetically this could've turned into a nice film noir -
however, since this doesn't happen the film lacks the
tension and the claustrophobia a film noir should have
and remains instead a fairly standard 1940s British melodrama with
class issues thrown in on top.
One point of note - the re-release of this film has a few seconds
of link missing between the reels that marked the end of the 1919
segment of the film and the start of the second world war segment.
This can be a bit confusing at first. This version fades to black
and then restarts some years later! However, minimal plot content is
lost - simply a "some years later" segment of narration. Considering
none of this footage is now available in any alternative formats,
a small price to pay perhaps compared to having nothing - though
of course completeness would have always been preferable.
With this in mind do not expect a masterpiece and do allow
for the quality being less then optimal and you will most
likely have an enjoyable couple of hours with it!
My thanks to Hectic House Records
who kindly supplied a copy of the film for this review.
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