Review #741: 'Scott of the Antarctic' (1948)

Produced by Ealing Studios, Scott of the Antarctic is a stiff upper-lipped depiction of Captain Scott's infamous, ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. Facing freezing storms, starvation, lack of fuel, and having just digested the sobering revelation that Norwegian rival Roald Amundsen had beaten them too it, Scott and his remaining team of four settled and died just 11 miles from camp, where food, warmth and undoubtedly survival awaited them. Trading very much on the legend of Captain Scott, the film charms thanks to it's post-WWII optimism and gorgeous colour cinematography.

Beginning with a determined Scott, played heartily by John Mills, rounding up his crew, the film takes it's time to get to the Arctic. Relying on Captain Scott's beautifully written diary for its source of information, the film feels more documentary than straight feature. It is all the more detailed and authentic for it, but it comes at the expense of any real character development. By the time the credits roll, we know little more about Scott than when we started, apart from that he was obviously a determined and courageous man. But it makes up for this neglect with a startling final third, where director Charles Frend puts us through every step of Scott's exhausting final thrust to get back to civilisation.

Mills and the supporting cast (James Robertson Justice, Kenneth More, Harold Warrender et al) are excellent throughout, starting out as eager and boisterous, and later, as the last survivors wait to die in the tent that would become their tomb, withdrawn and contemplative. The setting plays as the main villain, and it's captured as both a place of isolated beauty and uninhabitable terror , thanks to Jack Cardiff's stunning cinematography, and it's the encroaching sense of doom that gives Scott of the Antarctic a raw power. Although it obviously ends badly, Scott's death proved to be the making of him. Amundsen was (somewhat cruelly) dismissed as a bad sportsman, and Scott was instantly labelled a hero for daring to stare such overwhelming odds in the face and hold his head high. For a country still recovering from the ravishes of war at the time of the film's release, it must have been a powerful sentiment indeed. One of Ealing's most overlooked efforts.


Directed by: Charles Frend
Starring: John Mills, Harold Warrender, Derek Bond, James Robertson Justice, Kenneth More, Diana Churchill
Country: UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #369: 'The Magnet' (1950)

This post-war British film from the great Ealing studios, is a charming tale of innocence lost, and particularly the idea of childhood guilt, brought on by a small incident and exacerbated by fear and misconstrued information. Johnny Brent (a young James Fox - billed as William Fox), a 10 year old wanderer, cons a younger boy into giving him his magnet. After feeling guilt (and particularly the fear of being caught out) he hands the powerful magnet to a charity organiser, feeling that he would be rid of his culpability. His imagination - coupled with his stricken conscience - takes over, as the boy with the magnet becomes of interest to the local authorities.  He overhears and misinterprets some information he believes is connected with the boy he stole from. Fearing that he has caused the death of the boy, Johnny runs away.

The Magnet is full of genuine charm. It almost perfectly captures those moments of childhood where we believe we have done great wrong - a usual emotion of guilt, but particularly it is the acquisition of information in these situations that are fundamentally ingrained on our conscience. Johnny's father, Dr Brent (Stephen Murray), is a Jungian Psychoanalyst who attempts to interpret the unusual behaviour of his son, which leads to some interesting asides - this could possibly even be a criticism of this form of psychology, and it's intrinsic hypotheses that all strange behaviours are connected to the parents.

This is by no means the greatest of Ealing Studios output, but it is a delightful story of youth, with a good lead performance from Fox. It is always irresistible to watch old British films, and see an autonomous country that looks individual, before the signs and signifiers of American consumerism invaded and changed the landscape forever.


Directed by: Charles Frend
Starring: Stephen Murray, Kay Walsh, James Fox
Country: UK

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy