The film has a fine pedigree with
it based on a novel from H. G. Wells, a script from Sidney Gilliat, directed
by Carol Reed and a fine British cast including Michael Redgrave who began
the Redgrave dynasty of actors. But I just didn't have a lot of patience
for it and it was a bit of a struggle to get through. It all felt too predictable
and polite to me. It is all about class differences which in England is always
a big deal. If the setting had been set fifty years previously instead of
the first decade of the 1900's it could have passed as a Dickens tale of
a working class lad making it through an indifferent world. Class was important
to Wells as he was a dedicated Socialist and social reformer in his time.
I am not sure if the film adheres very strictly to the book, but the message
seems to ultimately be - stick to your class, boy. But it had so little
bite to it. No Angry Young Man here. Another 20 years or so before that came
to England.
Mr. Kipps (Redgrave) has been apprenticed
to a cloth and clothing store (called a draper back then) of some prestige,
but with no possibilities due to his class which is clear in his accent and
manners. He tells his co-workers that someday he hopes to have his own shop
and they all laugh - how are you going to do that on this salary they ask.
He wants to better himself so attends a night school where he gets shunted
into a wood work class which he has no interest in - until he meets
Miss Walshingham (Diana Wynyard) who is a few clicks in class above him.
Kipps knows he has no chance because of that. Until he gets a legacy - a
very nice one with a huge house to boot - and suddenly everything and everyone
is available to him. He of course realizes that even with money he does not
belong.
Redgrave plays his character with such understatement
that you expect him to float away. That worked in The Lady Vanishes but here
a bit more gumption was in need. He is like a piece of driftwood that ebbs
and flows with those around him - unable to make decisions or use common
sense. A bit of a twit really. A backbone of melted cheese. This was remade
years later as a musical of all things - Half a Sixpence starring Tommy Steele.
Mr. Kipps is up on YouTube.
