Owd Bob [To the Victor] **** (1937, Will Fyffe, John Loder, Margaret Lockwood, Moore Marriott, Graham Moffatt) – Classic Movie Review 2800

Director Robert Stevenson’s sweet, lovingly crafted 1937 film drama stars Will Fyffe as an old Scots farmer called Adam McAdam who has a sheepdog by the name of Black Wull, which is alleged to be a sheep killer.

This rare gem, restored by the British National Film Archive, is a bit mawkish and old fashioned but it’s an extremely carefully handled, appealing picture, and very pleasing of its kind. Fyffe is excellent in his ideal role as a cantankerous, hard-drinking but kind-hearted Scot who sets out to prove Black Wull (though accused of being the local sheep killer) is the best sheepdog in the land at the sheepdog trials, even if newcomer David Moore (Loder)’s dog Owd Bob seems a better bet.

Happily, both of Will Hay’s movie pals, Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt, are also here in the Cumberland hills, though John Loder and Margaret Lockwood (struggling with a fake Scots accent as Fyffe’s daughter Jeannie, whom Loder falls for) are less entertaining. With Michael Hogan and J B Williams’s screenplay based on the novel Bob, Son of Battle by Alfred Olivant, Owd Bob is amusing, skilfully made and even quite affecting.

Also in the cast are Wilfred Walter, Elliott Mason, Alf Goddard, Wally Patch, Edmund Breon, H F Maltby, A Bromley Davenport, Marie Ault, Charles Rolfe, Leonard Sharp and D J Williams.

It was remade as Thunder in the Valley in the US in 1947 and again as Owd Bob in 1998 with James Cromwell, Colm Meaney and Jemima Rooper.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2800

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