At last an early Carol Reed movie that's neither risible nor cringe-making. Ironically it was mostly his later films - Climbing High etc - that fell into that category. On the other hand in this case he is working from a rock-solid base, a 'well-made' play by Jack Priestley rather than an 'original' screenplay. In fact Reed was working for an outfit that had been formed to bring West End successes to the screen so it may well be that he was, to a certain extent, restricted creatively. Certainly there is no discernible 'signature' in evidence in what amounts to a (presumbably) faithful rendering of a West End success. Edmund Gwenn is his usual lovable rogue as the head of a household with a secret life as a master forger. Cedric Hardwicke is unconvincingly cast against type as his seriously sponger brother-in-law whilst Katie Johnson lends solid support - and looks exactly the same as she did in The Ladykillers almost 20 years later - as Gwenn's wife. Gwenn's would-be son-in-law behaves exactly as his counterpart in The Winslow Boy, i.e. running a mile at the first whiff of scandal and somewhat bizarrely for a climate in which film producers were under orders to make Crime Does Not Pay fodder for the masses, Gwenn walks into the sunset happier and wiser. Worth a look.
Review of Laburnum Grove
