Fame Is the Spur *** (1947, Rex Harrison, Lilli Palmer, Margaret Johnston, Godfrey Tearle, Griffith Jones, Guy Middleton, Jean Kent, Marie Lohr, Garry Marsh, David Horne, Alan Wheatley) – Classic Movie Review 4431

Honor Blackman makes her film debut in Fame Is the Spur (1947).

The Boulting Brothers’ 1947 British film adaptation of Howard Spring’s book Fame Is the Spur, chronicling the rise and disillusionment of a British Labour Party politician, Hamer Radshaw (Michael Redgrave), is a solid if not scintillating piece of work.

Radshaw’s story is supposedly fictionalised from the real-life story of the first Labour Party Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald. As Radshaw rises from a Manchester slum to a job in the British Cabinet, his socialist beliefs take a battering, while he sacrifices his ideals and friends along the way.

Redgrave is on fine form in one of his notable star appearances and there is also worthy acting by Rosamund John as Radshaw’s women’s rights fighter wife Ann, Marjorie Fielding as the suffragette aunt Lizzie, Carla Lehmann as Lady Lettice, Hugh Burden and Bernard Miles as Radshaw’s friends Arnold Ryerson and Tom Hannaway, Seymour Hicks, as Lord Lostwithiel and David Tomlinson as a stuffy Tory, Lord Liskeard.

The film is interesting but somehow the intriguing material does not ignite and inspire on screen, and a BBC TV serial version in 1982 had the same problem.

Though it is based on the career of Ramsay MacDonald, the closing credits state: ‘The characters depicted in this film and the names used are entirely fictitious and bear no relation to any living person.’

Also in the cast are Anthony [Tony] Wager as The Boy Hamer Radshaw, Brian Weske as The Boy Arnold Ryerson, Gerald Fox as The Boy Tom Hannaway, Charles Wood, Milton Rosmer, Maurice Denham, Kenneth Griffith, Roddy Hughes, Philip Ray, Ronald Adam, Clifford Buckton, Campbell Cotts, Vi Kaley, Guy Verney, Laurence Kitchin, H Victor Weske, Jean Shepeard, Percy Walsh, Wylie Watson, Gerald Sim, Ben Williams and Fred Wood.

Honor Blackman makes her film debut in the uncredited non-speaking part of Emma in Fame Is the Spur (1947). It is also the uncredited theatrical movie debut of Gerald Sim (reporter) and the final theatrical movie of Carla Lehmann (Lady Lettice).

Fame Is the Spur is directed by Roy Boulting and John Boulting, runs 116 minutes, is made by Two Cities Films, Boulting Brothers and Charter, is released by General Film Distributors (1947) (UK), is written by Nigel Balchin, based on the novel by Howard Spring, is shot in black and white by Gunther Krampf, Harry Waxman and Richard S Pavey, is produced by John Boulting, is scored by Alan Rawsthorne and John Wooldridge, with Art Direction by John Howell.

Redgrave appeared in four films in 1947 (also The Smugglers, Mourning Becomes Electra and Secret Beyond the Door) but was absent till 1951’s The Browning Version.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4431

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The Right Hon Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister of the UK, 5 June 1929 – 7 June 1935.