Hatter’s Castle *** (1942, Robert Newton, Deborah Kerr, James Mason, Emlyn Williams, Beatrice Varley) – Classic Movie Review 10,199

Director Lance Comfort’s 1941 British noir drama Hatter’s Castle has the tasty prospect of starring Robert Newton, Deborah Kerr, James Mason, Emlyn Williams and Beatrice Varley, along with Enid Stamp-Taylor, Henry Oscar, Tony Bateman, June Holden, George Merritt and Lawrence Hanray.

It brings to the screen A J Cronin’s 1931 novel about an 1890s tyrannical Scottish hatter, James Brodie (Newton, giving a superbly judged performance), spoiling things for his wife (Varley) and daughter Mary (a sweet performance from Kerr). Newton goes mad as a hatter when his helper seduces his girl and his wife contracts cancer. Mason heads the good support cast as the girl’s doctor suitor, Dr Renwick.

It plays like a Victorian melodrama and it comes as a surprise that it is written as late as the Thirties. It is good fun, for all that, and played fruitily, as it has to be – and it is well crafted, too, with eye-catching black and white cinematography by Mutz Greenbaum [Max Greene].

It is shot at D&P Studios, Denham Studios, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England.

Also in the cast are Ian Fleming, Claude Bailey, Brefni O’Rorke, Aubrey Mallalieu, Stuart Lindsell, David Keir, Roddy Hughes, John Slater and Mary Hinton.

Hatter’s Castle runs 102 minutes, is made by Grafton Films, is released by Paramount British Pictures (1941) (UK) and Paramount (US), is written by Rodney Ackland (scenario and dialogue), Rudolph Bernauer (screenplay) and Paul Merzbach (screenplay), based on A J Cronin’s novel, is shot in black and white by Mutz Greenbaum [Max Greene], is produced by Isadore Goldsmith, is scored by Horace Shepherd and is designed by James A Carter.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,199

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