The Green Scarf

I spent the first half of this film wondering why Michael Redgrave looked so different. As it turns out, he sure did, but I was looking at Kieron Moore. It didn't occur to me the elderly man was Redgrave.

Kieron Moore plays Jacques, a deaf mute who is arrested for killing a man (Michael Medvin) while on board ship. Worse than that, he's confessed.

Maitre Deliot (Michael Redgrave) is an elderly French attorney lawyer who, believing in the man's innocence, takes his case. The courtroom scenes are talky, and include testimony from Solange (Ann Todd), Jacques' wife, and his mentor who helped raise him (Leo Genn).

I thought this was an interesting film - Jacques is quite brilliant, can finger speak, do Braille, and also use the typewriter. He's actually written a successful book.

Everyone was very good, Redgrave unrecognizable, and I was most touched by Leo Genn's performance. He captured the role of a compassionate teacher beautifully.

I saw this movie in 1954 at a theatre in West Phila where it played continuously for almost six months, an indicator of its popularity. Recalling the movie these many years later, I can nevertheless state that it was a mystery, wonderfully acted, especially by Kiernan Moore. he plot had so many twists that you were cosntantly guessing and yet still astonished at the amazing ending. Why this movie disappeared so soon and why it isn't on video nonpluses me.

Kieron Moore is deaf, dumb and blind since birth. He is also a successful author. Finally, he is the self-confessed murderer of Phil Brown, a man whom neither Moore, nor Moore's wife, Ann Todd, had ever met. French lawyer Michael Redgrave -- for this is a courtroom drama set in France -- does not believe Moore could murder anyone and takes his case to prove him innocent.

I have some issues with the format of courtroom dramas like this, as clever lawyers discover and prove plots far distant from the ones that the entire apparatus of law enforcement could not uncover. Yet this is one in which the reasons for that failure make sense, merely underlining the brilliance of the man who penetrates the haze of lies with such little trouble. That brilliance is underlined by the eccentricity and size of Redgrave's performance, half Charles Laughton, half Michel Simon and half Leo McKern.

I told you his performance was big. It's the third movie I've seen that was directed by George More O'Ferrell, a brilliant producer and director. The vast majority of his work is lost, because he went straight from working in the West End to being "the drama producer" at the launch of BBC Television in 1936. Between then and 1962, he produced more than 120 long-form shows for BBC and ITV; directed 80; wrote a dozen. So the seven big-screen movies he directed over five years in the 1950s -- including one Christmas classic, THE HOLLY AND THE IVY -- seem more like a minor distraction.

I would not call this one a classic, but it is a solid movie with good performances and a fine, mad one by Redgrave. More than good enough.

With a murder mystery of this caliber, it is easy to spoil the suspense. I will just speak of the magnificent courtroom magic worthy of a combination of Poe and Earle Stanley Gardiner, with the elegance of Agatha Christie. Sir Michael Redgrave, Leo Genn, Ann Todd and Kieron Moore are spellbinding — in no way hammy or over the top as some self-important professional critics try to say today. In the 1950's and early 60's this film was CONTINUALLY SHOWN on New York's Million Dollar Movie, 4 times a day for a week at a time, every six months.

I do not know what to say or do to reach and convince the holder of copyright to release this great film on DVD. The time and mix of contemporary film elements are perfect for the restoration of this classic. If no one has copyright, but does have a broadcast copy, may I ask on behalf of a great many film enthusiasts that you make it available. I cannot help noticing that "The Paradine Case" is being heavily marketed even though Hitchcock himself panned it. "The Green Scarf" belongs on the same shelf with "Witness For The Prosecution," the Poirot and Marple series, the Rathbone "Sherlock Holmes" (all right, Jeremy Brett as well . . . but if so, "Without a Clue" with Sir Ben Kingsley and Sir Michael Caine, "Perry Mason," and the wonderful modern "Sherlock" BBC series with Benedict Cumberbatch.

Surely someone who reads this knows how to get a film as widely shown as this, albeit 50 years ago. Please make an effort to help bring this film back before the public.

The reviewers from the U.S.A. invariably use the expression "talky" for a film with a surfeit of words in the screen play, so I was surprised to read the two other reviewers who seem to hail from the U.S.A. praising this film as I considered it too "talky".I found Michael Redgrave hiding behind that beard and moustache playing the French defence counsel rather distracting as well as Kieron Moore who could only communicate with sign language as he played the deaf & dumb mute arrested for the murder.It may have been a long day for me but I found myself drifting off during Michael's long legal discourse and losing interest in the characters and the plot.Ann Todd always seems to play rather frigid roles in the parts in which I have seen her act.

At least the denouement of who was the real murderer kept one guessing which in accordance with IMDb policy I will not reveal.In answer as to the question why this movie is not on DVD in the USA, I readily obtained my copy from "www.myrarefilms.co.uk" and which I awarded 6/10.