White Cradle Inn [High Fury] ** (1947, Madeleine Carroll, Michael Rennie, Ian Hunter) – Classic Movie Review 12,510

The 1947 British drama film White Cradle Inn [High Fury] stars Madeleine Carroll and Michael Rennie as an unhappy Swiss married couple who face a moral dilemma when a French evacuee boy wants to stay in Switzerland rather than go home after World War Two

Director Harold French’s 1947 British drama film White Cradle Inn [High Fury] stars Madeleine Carroll and Michael Rennie as an unhappy Swiss married couple who face a moral dilemma when a French evacuee boy wants to stay in Switzerland rather than return home after World War Two. It is filmed on location in Switzerland as well as at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, UK.

Madeleine Carroll stars as the noble Magda, who lives in The White Cradle Inn in a picturesque Swiss Alp valley. Magda’s unhappy marriage to unfaithful, flirting Rudolph (Michael Rennie) is transformed when French orphan children are evacuated to families in the valley. Magda takes a shine to the teenage wartime displaced French orphan boy Roger (Michael McKeag) who is billeted with the couple. Magda aims to adopt Roger when it is time for the children to return to France, but Rudolph dislikes him, calling him a coward.

White Cradle Inn is a film of high melodrama set in an inn in Switzerland’s mountainscapes, beautifully rendered in exterior-filming by photographers Eric Besche, Cecil Cooney and Erwin Hillier.

Unfortunately, the polished camerawork is not matched by the often rather risible, maudlin script or the sometimes dreary acting, though the estimable Carroll tries as hard as she can to give it a lift, and she does.

Apart from Carroll and the Swiss cinematography, Bernard Grun’s music score and the handsome production are the film’s other main assets. Ian Hunter plays the local doctor Anton.

It is said to be the first film involving self-sacrifice by cutting a rope to save others attached to it.

It runs 83 minutes, but the US cut version as High Fury runs at only 71 minutes.

Also in the cast are Anne Marie Blanc, Michael McKeag, Arnold Marle, and Willi Fueter.

It is based on an original story by director Harold French, who recalled: ‘I got on well with Madeleine Carroll but I didn’t think she was a very good actress. I don’t think Ian Hunter was terribly good either – a bit stolid. But Michael Rennie was marvellous in it. I liked that film because it had a lot of atmosphere, because I used Swiss actors quite a lot.’

It is made by Peak Films, distributed by British Lion Films (UK), is shot by Derick Williams, with Swiss exterior cinematography by Eric Besche, Cecil Cooney and Erwin Hillier, and Art Direction by Carmen Dillon.

It was released in March 1947 (UK), and runs 83 minutes.

Box office £104,411 against budget £135,000.

The cast are Madeleine Carroll as Magda, Ian Hunter as Anton, Michael Rennie as Rudolph, Anne-Marie Blanc as Louise, Michael McKeag as Roger, Arnold Marlé as Joseph,  Willy Fueter as Bernard (Benny), Margarete Hoff as Maria, Max Haufler as Frederick, and Gerhard Kempinski as President.

Madeleine Carroll retired from the movies after The Fan (1949) – much too soon, aged 43. Carroll had damaged her career by abandoning it to devote herself to the war effort by helping wounded servicemen and children from 1942-46, after the death of her sister Marguerite in the London Blitz. She worked as nurse in the line of fire on troop trains and in field hospitals for the Red Cross in Italy.

Carroll was the world’s highest paid actress in 1938, earning $250,000. But after World War Two she made only three more films, White Cradle Inn [High Fury], An Innocent Affair and The Fan. Two of her best films are with Alfred Hitchcock – The 39 Steps and Secret Agent. Her most popular films also include My Favorite Blonde, The Prisoner of Zenda and North West Mounted Police.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,510

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