Wealthy Jew Basil Rathbone sells one of his racehorses for a thousand pound in banknotes, then goes to a house party. The money vanishes from his room. The police come and conclude it was a burglary. Rathbone is convinced the thief was Captain Miles Mander. The host and guests can't believe this, and one of them warns Rathbone will will note be approved for membership in a racing club if he persists. Seeing this as a bargain, he says nothing. However, gossip gets about the other club he and Mander are members of, and a committee quickly concludes there is no evidence. Mander threatens the courts, and Rathbone is suspended until the case is heard. Instead, he resigns and prepares to defend himself.
It's based on one of John Galsworthy's thin-lipped plays, and the choice of the two leads is one calculated to swing sympathy towards the Jew, and making clear the anti-Semitism that suffsed the upper classes. Rathbone is not a comic Golders Green rag merchant, but well educated, handsome, well dressed, and speaking the King's English, while Manders was already an expert in playing rotters in the movies. Although directors Basil Dean and Throlod Dickinson open it up a bit, mostly through edits, it remains a photographed stage play.
It's based on one of John Galsworthy's thin-lipped plays, and the choice of the two leads is one calculated to swing sympathy towards the Jew, and making clear the anti-Semitism that suffsed the upper classes. Rathbone is not a comic Golders Green rag merchant, but well educated, handsome, well dressed, and speaking the King's English, while Manders was already an expert in playing rotters in the movies. Although directors Basil Dean and Throlod Dickinson open it up a bit, mostly through edits, it remains a photographed stage play.