Son of Fury **** (1942, Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, George Sanders, Frances Farmer, Roddy McDowall, John Carradine, Elsa Lanchester) – Classic Movie Review 4656

Director John Cromwell’s rousing 1942 20th Century Fox romantic period adventure Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake finds ideally cast Tyrone Power and George Sanders both on top form. It also features the fine team of Gene Tierney, Frances Farmer, Roddy McDowall, John Carradine and Elsa Lanchester.

Power stars as young Benjamin Blake, a Victorian nobleman’s bastard son, and George Sanders plays his sadistically caddish uncle, Sir Arthur Blake, whom young Ben is bound to serve as his bonded servant.

Cheated out of his estate by his uncle, Benjamin does what a man’s gotta do – he runs away to sea, jumps ship, goes to the South Seas to make his fortune, and then falls for young Polynesian woman Eve (Gene Tierney) on a tropical isle. All this just so that he can return to claim his birthright.

Entertainingly and lavishly made, with bright, full-blooded performances, this is such an engaging picture that it is easy to forgive the slight sag in the middle for the romance, particularly as there is a strong, eagerly awaited climax when Power avenges himself on Sanders. It is a pity that Arthur Miller’s photography is in black and white when this kind of movie cries out for Technicolor.

Philip Dunne’s literate screenplay is based on the 1941 novel Benjamin Blake by Edison Marshall. It is remade by 20th Century Fox as Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953).

Roddy McDowall plays Benjamin as a boy. Also in the cast are Frances Farmer as Isabel Blake, John Carradine as Caleb Green, Elsa Lanchester as Bristol Isabel, Halliwell Hobbes as Purdy, Ray Mala as Marnoa, Cliff Severn as Paddy, David Clyde as Shellback, Harry Davenport, Dudley Digges, Kay Johnson, Ethel Griffies, Arthur Hohl, Pedro de Cordoba, Heather Thatcher, Lester Matthews and Charles Irwin.

It is notable as Frances Farmer’s last film before her legal problems and eventual commitment to psychiatric hospitals until 1950. Farmer inherited the role after Ida Lupino was replaced by Maureen O’Hara, who fell ill, and her replacement Cobina Wright Jr fell ill too.

[Spoiler alert]  Producer Darryl F Zanuck bought the film rights to the novel Benjamin Blake in January 1941 before it was published in March 1941. He decided to have a happier ending, ditching the idea in the original script that Gene Tierney’s character dies. He also changed the film’s title to Son of Fury.

Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake is directed by John Cromwell, runs 98 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Philip Dunne, based on the novel Benjamin Blake by Edison Marshall, is shot in black and white by Arthur Miller, is produced by Darryl F Zanuck and William Perlberg and scored by Alfred Newman.

It was released on DVD on 1 May 2007 in The Tyrone Power Collection.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4656

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