The Birthday Present *** (1957, Tony Britton, Sylvia Syms, Jack Watling, Geoffrey Keen) – Classic Movie Review 11,330

Director Pat Jackson’s 1957 drama The Birthday Present stars Tony Britton as British toy salesman Simon Scott who finds his life, career and marriage heading disastrously downwards after he is convicted for six months of smuggling in to Britain from Germany a costly watch to swap as a birthday present for his wife.

He is stuck in jail because he couldn’t afford a legal appeal, and then he can’t find work afterwards, until finally compassionate old managing director Colonel Wilson (Geoffrey Keen) gets his former colleagues to re-hire him.

The Birthday Present is an interesting and good-hearted if dour and low-key drama, done with slightly too little power and conviction, though Britton and Sylvia Syms, as his wife, battle hard and valiantly with the rather turgid and mundane plot. Many elements of the film do hit home strongly and convincingly though. There are some excellent support performances, especially by Geoffrey Keen, Ian Bannen, Thorley Waters, Harry Fowler and John Welsh. And director Jackson brings a good, realist view to it, providing a revealing snapshot of the time, with its customs, attitudes and prejudices.

Also in the cast are Jack Watling, Geoffrey Keen, Walter Fitzgerald, Howard Marion Crawford, John Welsh, Thorley Walters, Ian Bannen, Richard Leech, Lockwood West, Harry Fowler, Cyril Luckham, Ernest Clark, Frederick Piper, and Malcolm Keen.

It is shot by Ted Scaife in black and white.

It is written by producer Jack Whittingham.

It is made by British Lion Films at Shepperton Studios, Surrey, England.

Happily, it has been rediscovered on the Talking Pictures TV channel.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,330

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