Edward, My Son **** (1949, Spencer Tracy, Deborah Kerr, Ian Hunter) – Classic Movie Review 6167

Director George Cukor’s compelling, well-acted 1949 film version of Robert Morley and Noel Langley’s Broadway stage play teams Spencer Tracy and Deborah Kerr, who was Oscar nominated as Best Actress for the first of six times.

The slightly altered story is about a wickedly ruthless tycoon called Arnold Boult (Tracy) who obsessively builds a fortune for his son Edward (who is killed in battle in World War Two at the age of 23 and never appears).

The movie features outstanding work from Tracy and from Kerr as his Londoner wife Evelyn, who is driven to drink by his fanaticism that she cannot cure.

There is a fine British supporting cast, and Cukor brings out the best in them. However, gimmicky touches like Tracy breaking the fourth wall and talking to camera are a mistake though.

Ian Hunter (as Doctor Larry Woodhope) and Leueen MacGrath (as Eileen Perrin) re-create their roles from the Broadway production, though their characters’ surnames are altered. The play opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on 30 September 1948 and ran for 260 performances till 14 May 1949.

Also in the cast are James Donald, Mervyn Johns, Felix Aylmer, Harriette Johns, Walter Fitzgerald, Tilsa Page, Ernest Jay and Colin Gordon.

It is written by Donald Ogden Stewart, shot in black and white by Freddie Young, produced by Edwin Knopf and scored by John Woolbridge and Malcolm Sargent.

It was a flop, resulting in a loss of $1,159,000 for MGM, on a budget of $2,421,000.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6167

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