Themes: Clearing One's Name, Social Injustice, Lawyers
Main Cast: Robert Donat, Margaret Leighton, Cedric Hardwicke, Neil North, Basil Radford, Kathleen Harrison, Jack Watling
Release Year: 1949
Country: UK
Run Time: 112 minutes
Plot
Based on the infamous Archer-Shee case of 1912, The Winslow Boy features Neil North as the 14-year-old title character. Accused of a petty theft, North is expelled from Naval College. His father, retired bank official Sir Cedric Hardwycke, is prevented by existing British law to clear his son's name. He engages attorney Robert Donat, who successfully petitions for the right to sue the Admiralty and make this august organization prove its charges in court. Public opinion, however, is strongly against Hardwycke and his family: particularly effected is Hardwycke's daughter Margaret Leighton, whose fiance breaks off their engagement. For dramatic purposes, Margaret finds solace in a romantic relationship with barrister Donat. Terrence Rattigan worked on the cinemadaptation of his own play, which was later restaged on American television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
In 1912, a scandal erupted in Britain about a Navel College cadet expelled for stealing postage. The boy's father, a well-connected upper-class British banker, fought to clear his son's name and, in the process, ruined his own social standing, as the case became a cause célèbre. Terence Rattigan wrote a play about the incident and turned it into a screenplay for director Anthony Asquith. The movie, The Winslow Boy, changes the family's name but is heavily fact-based. It makes for a gripping character drama that centers on the fraying bond between the father (Cedric Hardwicke) and the son (Neil North) and a growing attraction between the boy's older sister (Margaret Leighton), whose engagement has been called off due to the scandal, and an egotistical, high-profile attorney (Robert Donat) who is helping the family's case. It's a surprisingly effective film, with an unusual story about class, family, politics, and the conflicting demands of loyalty that each one commands. Well received in Great Britain but little noticed elsewhere, the film was remade splendidly in 1999 by David Mamet. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Frank Lawton - John Watherstone; Francis L. Sullivan - Attorney General; Nicholas Hannen - Col. Watherstone; Walter Fitzgerald - 1st Lord; Ernst Thesiger - Mr. Ridgeley-Pearce; Lewis Casson - Adm. Springfield; Archibald Batty - Elderly Member; George Bishop - Usher; Wilfred Caithness - Minister; Ian Colin - Mr. Saunders; Vera Cook - Violet's friend; Hugh Dempster - Agricultural Member; Charles Groves - Clerk of the Court; Nicholas Hawtrey - Charles Elliott; Mary Hinton - Mrs. Elliott; Stanley Holloway - Comedian; Noel Howlett - Mr. Williams; Wilfrid Hyde-White - Wilkinson; Edward Lexy - First Elderly Member (Smoking Room); Marie Lohr - Grace Winslow; Aubrey Mallalieu - Mr. Roberts; Beatrice Marsden - Cook; Gordon McLeod - Elderly Member; Dandy Nichols - Miss Hawkins; Philip Ray - 1st Speaking Member; Kynaston Reeves - Lord Chief Justice; Cyril Ritchard - Comedian; Bill Shine - Fred; Frank Tickle - Mr. Gunn; Mona Washbourne - Miss Barnes; Margaret Withers - Mrs. Jordan; Cecil Bevan - Speaker; Hilary Pritchard - Dr. Anstruther; Evelyn Roberts - Hamilton MP; Ivan Samson - Commander Flower
The Winslow Boy is a 1948film adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play The Winslow Boy. It was made by De Grunwald Productions and distributed by the British Lion Film Corporation. It was directed by Anthony Asquith and produced by Anatole de Grunwald with Teddy Baird as associate producer. The screenplay was written by de Grunwald and Rattigan based on Rattigan's play. The music score was by William Alwyn and the cinematography by Freddie Young.
Set against the strict codes of conduct and manners of the age, The Winslow Boy is based on a father's fight to clear his son's name. The boy (Ronnie) is expelled from Osborne Naval College for supposedly stealing a five shilling postal order, without receiving a fair trial. His father (Arthur) and sister (Catherine) lead a long running legal battle, that takes them as far as the House of Commons. The play focuses on a refusal to back down in the face of injustice - the entire Winslow family, and the barrister who represents them (Sir Robert Morton), make great sacrifices in order that right be done.
The play was inspired by an actual event, which set a legal precedent; the case of George Archer-Shee, a cadet at Osborne in 1908, who was accused of stealing a postal order from a fellow cadet. His elder brother, Major Martin Archer-Shee, was convinced of his innocence, and persuaded his father (also called Martin) to engage lawyers. The most respected barrister of the day, Sir Edward Carson was also persuaded of his innocence, and insisted on the case coming to court. On the fourth day of the trial, the Solicitor General accepted that Archer-Shee was innocent, and ultimately the family was paid compensation. George Archer-Shee died in the First World War and his name is inscribed on the war memorial in the village of Woodchester in Gloucestershire where his parents lived. There is no real world counterpart to the character of Catherine, although she is central to the plot of the play and films.
Plot
Ronnie Winslow (Neil North), a cadet at the Royal Naval College, is accused of the theft of a postal order. An internal enquiry which grants him no chance of defence, finds him guilty and his father, Arthur Winslow (Cedric Hardwicke), is requested to remove his son from the college. Unwilling to accept the verdict, Winslow and his daughter Catherine institute their own enquiries and engage a friend and family solicitor, Desmond Curry (Basil Radford) to assist them, including the briefing of the best barrister in England at the time, Sir Robert Morton (Robert Donat), should the case come to court.
The government is unwilling to allow the case to proceed, but after heated debates in the House of Commons, the government yields, and the case does come to court. Morton is able to discredit much of the supposed evidence and the government finally withdraws the charges against Ronnie. Although the family win the case, each of them has lost something along the way: Dickie Winslow (Jack Watling) has been forced to leave Oxford due to the lack of money, Catherine (Margaret Leighton) loses her marriage settlement and subsequently her fiancé, John Watherstone (Frank Lawton), and Arthur Winslow loses his health.
Differences from the play
Unlike the play and the David Mamet remake, the 1948 film shows the actual trial, while in other versions, the trial occurs offstage and the audience is told (but not shown) what occurred during it.
