The Browning Version
Directed by	Anthony Asquith
Produced by	Teddy Baird Earl St. John
Written by	Terence Rattigan
Starring	Michael Redgrave Jean Kent Nigel Patrick
Music by	Arnold Bax Kenneth Essex
Cinematography	Desmond Dickinson
Distributed by	General Film Distr. (UK) Universal Pictures (USA)
Release date(s)	1951
Running time	90 min.
Country	U.K.
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Browning Version is a 1951 British film based on the play of the same name by Terence Rattigan. It is directed by Anthony Asquith. The Honourable Anthony Asquith (November 9, 1902-February 20, 1968) was a respected British film director. ... Earl St. ... Terence Rattigan — British Playwright Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan (June 10, 1911 – November 30, 1977) was one of Englands most important 20th century dramatists. ... Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood in The Lady Vanishes (1938) Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, KBE (March 20, 1908 — March 21, 1985) was an English actor and the son of the Australian silent film star Roy Redgrave and the actress Margaret Scudamore. ... Nigel Patrick (2nd May, 1913 - 21st September, 1981) was a British actor, born Nigel Dennis Wemyss in London, England. ... Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO (November 8, 1883 — October 3, 1953), was an English composer and poet. ... Universal Pictures is the main motion picture production/distribution arm of Universal Studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal. ... See also: 1950 in film 1951 1952 in film 1950s in film 1940s in film years in film film Events Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati Top grossing films North America David and Bathsheba Show Boat tie The Great Caruso and An... The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country in western Europe, and a member of the European Union. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... See also: 1950 in film 1951 1952 in film 1950s in film 1940s in film years in film film Events Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati Top grossing films North America David and Bathsheba Show Boat tie The Great Caruso and An... Michael Caine in Get Carter (1971). ... Terence Rattigans play, The Browning Version, was first performed on September 8, 1948 at the Phoenix Theatre, London, in a joint performance with Harlequinade. ... Terence Rattigan — British Playwright Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan (June 10, 1911 – November 30, 1977) was one of Englands most important 20th century dramatists. ... The Honourable Anthony Asquith (November 9, 1902-February 20, 1968) was a respected British film director. ...

Plot

Andrew Crocker-Harris is an ageing Classics teacher at an English private school, and is forced into retirement by his increasing ill health. The film, in common with the original stage play, follows the schoolmaster's final few days in his post, as he comes to terms with his sense of failure as a teacher, a sense of weakness exacerbated by his wife's infidelity and the realisation that he is despised by both pupils and staff of the school. Classics, particularly within the Western University tradition, when used as a singular noun, means the study of the language, literature, history, art, and other aspects of Greek and Roman culture during the time frame known as classical antiquity. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... Private schools, or independent schools, are schools not administered by local, state, or national government, which retain the right to select their student body and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students tuition rather than with public (state) funds. ...

The emotional turning-point for the cold Crocker-Harris is his pupil Taplow's unexpected parting gift, Robert Browning's translation of the Agamemnon, which he has inscribed with the Greek phrase that translates as "God from afar looks graciously upon a gentle master". Robert Browning For information about Robert X. Browning, Director of the C-SPAN archives, see Robert X. Browning. ... The so-called Mask of Agamemnon. Discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 at Mycenae. ...

Differences between play and film

Terence Rattigan wrote the screenplay from his own one-act play. The chief difference is in the film's extended ending. The play ends before Crocker-Harris's farewell speech to the school; the film shows the speech, in which he discards his notes and admits his failings, to be received with warm applause and cheers by the boys. The film ends on a final conversation between Crocker-Harris and Taplow.

Brian Smith as Taplow and
Mich. Redgrave as Crocker-Harris

Cast

Michael Redgrave played the embittered Andrew Crocker-Harris, a role taken up in the 1994 remake by Albert Finney. Jean Kent plays his wife Millie, and Nigel Patrick plays her lover Frank Hunter, Andrew's fellow schoolmaster who eventually rejects Millie for her cruelty towards her husband, and takes pity on him. A young Ronald Howard plays Gilbert, Crocker-Harris's successor, and Wilfrid Hyde-White plays the Headmaster. Brian Smith plays Taplow. There are also notable uncredited appearances by Bill Travers and Judith Furse. Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood in The Lady Vanishes (1938) Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, KBE (March 20, 1908 — March 21, 1985) was an English actor and the son of the Australian silent film star Roy Redgrave and the actress Margaret Scudamore. ... Albert Finney (born May 9, 1936 in Pendleton, Salford, Lancashire) is a five-time Academy Award-nominated English actor. ... Nigel Patrick (2nd May, 1913 - 21st September, 1981) was a British actor, born Nigel Dennis Wemyss in London, England. ... Ronald Howard (7 April 1918 – 19 December 1996) was a British actor and writer, best known in the U.S. for starring in a weekly Sherlock Holmes television series in 1954, which was produced by Sheldon Reynolds. ... Wilfrid Hyde-White (May 12, 1903 – May 6, 1991) was a British character actor. ... William Lindon-Travers (January 3, 1922 – March 29, 1994) was a British actor, screenwriter, director and an animal rights activist. ... Judith Furse (b. ...

Production

The film was shot at Pinewood Studios. The school exteriors were filmed on location at the Sherborne School in Sherborne, Dorset. The entrance to Pinewood Studios Pinewood Studios is a major British film studio situated approximately 20 miles west of London among the pine trees on what was the estate of Heatherden Hall, near the village of Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire. ... The school buildings Sherborne School is an English public school for boys in the affluent town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset, England. ... See also: Sherborne, Gloucestershire Sherborne is an affluent market town in north west Dorset, England, situated on the River Yeo and A30 road, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale six miles east of Yeovil. ... Dorset (pronounced DOR-sit or [dɔ.sət], and sometimes in the past called Dorsetshire) is a county in the south-west of England, on the English Channel coast. ...

External links

• The Browning Version at the Internet Movie Database
• Criterion Collection essay by Geoffrey Macnab on the 1951 film

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