Don Bradman's last Test Match was Terrance Rattigan's inspiration for his play "The Final Test".In the film version we have Jack Warner playing the veteran cricketer Stan Palmer who is playing in his final Test Match.Palmer is past his best and not worth his place in the side (he is out LBW second ball) but he is a living legend and the crowd rise up as one and give him a standing ovation.
Palmer,a widower,is hoping to get a coaching job at Eton.He is fond of Cora the barmaid at his local pub.He sometimes helps behind the bar.He hopes to marry Cora but as she has a bit of a reputation he wonders if she will be a suitable wife considering his new job.Cora as played by Brenda Bruce comes across as a charming attractive lady,Palmer should consider himself a lucky chap.
He also has an eighteen year old son played by Ray Jackson who can't stand cricket.He promises to watch his Dad at the Oval but slopes off to keep an appointment with poet/playwright Alexander Whitehead played by Robert Morley.
Jack Warner became a national treasure playing veteran policeman George Dixon in the film "The Blue Lamp" where he is shot and killed.He was resurrected and played the part on TV for twenty five years.But as a cricketer he is horribly miscast,he was pushing sixty and was quite frankly portly.In real life he would have been lucky to get a game with Limpsfield Chart seconds.John Mills would have been ideal in the role,a muscular wiry man in his mid forties.Stan Palmer comes across as a bit of a self righteous prig.Brenda Bruce's Cora might have gingered him up a bit.
Having said all that Rattigan was a very good playwright and fair play to Warner and Stevens the father and son strained relationship is well acted and makes for good drama.
There are many delights to savor,several Test cricketers of the day have cameos,Dennis Compton,Alec Bedser,Jim Laker,Godfrey Evans,Cyril Washbrook and Len Hutton who has quite a few lines of dialogue which he delivers with a mixture of his native Yorkshire and a kind of strangled home counties posh,priceless.The Director,a tolerant Anthony Asquith,gets them all to speak clearly and to avoid falling over the furniture,great stuff lads.
The film has a brilliant opening when an American senator played by Stanley Maxted arrives at Victoria Station on a fact finding mission.He is greeted by newspaper placards screaming "England facing heavy defeat/no hope for England/England's last stand".He is a bit worried until a taxi driver explains that England are playing Australia in the final Test at the Oval and are facing a heavy defeat.He decides to go to the Oval to see what all the fuss is about and finds himself sitting next to a typical English gentleman played by the wonderful Richard Wattis."Morning Buddy" says the senator "are we going to see any excitement today?" to which a horrified Wattis replies "Oh good lord I hope not" then good naturedly explains to him what is happening.
The best bit of the film has to be Robert Morley's larger than life portrayal of Alexander Whitehead.When young Palmer comes for his interview he at first refuses to see him,he is sulking because of bad reviews of his TV play the night before,an opus entitled "Following a turtle to my father's grave" I think I would have given it a miss as well.Then he goes from pompous snob to excited overgrown schoolboy when he realises the identity of young Palmer's Dad.When he finds that young Palmer can get him into the Oval they jump into Whitehead's car and rush off to the game at breakneck speed telling the young man that his father has been his (Whitehead's) hero since childhood and that his biggest regret is that he was an absolute duffer at cricket.They find themselves sitting next to the American senator and Mr Wattis just in time to see Stan Palmer's duck and subsequent ovation.The senator says that he has learned something of the English character that day and he is deeply grateful.A nice little nod to Anglo/American relations.
Whitehead gets invited round for dinner that night and its a job to know whether he or Stan Palmer is the most nervous.The ice is soon broken and in an amusing scene Whitehead almost wrecks the room practicing cricket strokes with a poker."Oh I say I'm most frightfully sorry".
Father and son are soon reconciled and there is a quietly happy ending.I cannot think of a more quintessentially English film.Like the good senator if anyone wants to know what makes the English tick this film is a good start.Morley spent the rest of his life appearing on chat shows saying that he really didn't like cricket much and funnily enough to this day nobody believes him.
How does one rate this film?I have been a little harsh on Jack Warner who makes the best of rather a staid character.Any film which contains a Richard Wattis cameo is always worth a star in itself as is anything with Robert Morley.I think 9 is a fair mark.
Incidentally in 1953 when the film was made we were actually playing the Australians and at the Oval we won The Ashes back after a gap of twenty years.You have to be an Englishman to appreciate the significance of it.
Palmer,a widower,is hoping to get a coaching job at Eton.He is fond of Cora the barmaid at his local pub.He sometimes helps behind the bar.He hopes to marry Cora but as she has a bit of a reputation he wonders if she will be a suitable wife considering his new job.Cora as played by Brenda Bruce comes across as a charming attractive lady,Palmer should consider himself a lucky chap.
He also has an eighteen year old son played by Ray Jackson who can't stand cricket.He promises to watch his Dad at the Oval but slopes off to keep an appointment with poet/playwright Alexander Whitehead played by Robert Morley.
Jack Warner became a national treasure playing veteran policeman George Dixon in the film "The Blue Lamp" where he is shot and killed.He was resurrected and played the part on TV for twenty five years.But as a cricketer he is horribly miscast,he was pushing sixty and was quite frankly portly.In real life he would have been lucky to get a game with Limpsfield Chart seconds.John Mills would have been ideal in the role,a muscular wiry man in his mid forties.Stan Palmer comes across as a bit of a self righteous prig.Brenda Bruce's Cora might have gingered him up a bit.
Having said all that Rattigan was a very good playwright and fair play to Warner and Stevens the father and son strained relationship is well acted and makes for good drama.
There are many delights to savor,several Test cricketers of the day have cameos,Dennis Compton,Alec Bedser,Jim Laker,Godfrey Evans,Cyril Washbrook and Len Hutton who has quite a few lines of dialogue which he delivers with a mixture of his native Yorkshire and a kind of strangled home counties posh,priceless.The Director,a tolerant Anthony Asquith,gets them all to speak clearly and to avoid falling over the furniture,great stuff lads.
The film has a brilliant opening when an American senator played by Stanley Maxted arrives at Victoria Station on a fact finding mission.He is greeted by newspaper placards screaming "England facing heavy defeat/no hope for England/England's last stand".He is a bit worried until a taxi driver explains that England are playing Australia in the final Test at the Oval and are facing a heavy defeat.He decides to go to the Oval to see what all the fuss is about and finds himself sitting next to a typical English gentleman played by the wonderful Richard Wattis."Morning Buddy" says the senator "are we going to see any excitement today?" to which a horrified Wattis replies "Oh good lord I hope not" then good naturedly explains to him what is happening.
The best bit of the film has to be Robert Morley's larger than life portrayal of Alexander Whitehead.When young Palmer comes for his interview he at first refuses to see him,he is sulking because of bad reviews of his TV play the night before,an opus entitled "Following a turtle to my father's grave" I think I would have given it a miss as well.Then he goes from pompous snob to excited overgrown schoolboy when he realises the identity of young Palmer's Dad.When he finds that young Palmer can get him into the Oval they jump into Whitehead's car and rush off to the game at breakneck speed telling the young man that his father has been his (Whitehead's) hero since childhood and that his biggest regret is that he was an absolute duffer at cricket.They find themselves sitting next to the American senator and Mr Wattis just in time to see Stan Palmer's duck and subsequent ovation.The senator says that he has learned something of the English character that day and he is deeply grateful.A nice little nod to Anglo/American relations.
Whitehead gets invited round for dinner that night and its a job to know whether he or Stan Palmer is the most nervous.The ice is soon broken and in an amusing scene Whitehead almost wrecks the room practicing cricket strokes with a poker."Oh I say I'm most frightfully sorry".
Father and son are soon reconciled and there is a quietly happy ending.I cannot think of a more quintessentially English film.Like the good senator if anyone wants to know what makes the English tick this film is a good start.Morley spent the rest of his life appearing on chat shows saying that he really didn't like cricket much and funnily enough to this day nobody believes him.
How does one rate this film?I have been a little harsh on Jack Warner who makes the best of rather a staid character.Any film which contains a Richard Wattis cameo is always worth a star in itself as is anything with Robert Morley.I think 9 is a fair mark.
Incidentally in 1953 when the film was made we were actually playing the Australians and at the Oval we won The Ashes back after a gap of twenty years.You have to be an Englishman to appreciate the significance of it.