Autumn Crocus

Fay Compton is a teacher in Manchester. She takes a European trip with her fellow teacher, Muriel Aked. When they stop at a small Tyrolean inn, she finds herself enchanted by the mountains and by the innkeeper, Ivor Novello.

It's Novello's last movie. He's mildly ridiculous, and knowingly so, with his accent and his open manner, and his tale of being a failure as a waiter in England. Yet he is openly so, and so honest in his thoughts and actions, that for a while, I thought he was simply a man who enjoyed taking care of his guests, and whose kindness and generosity of spirit Miss Compton has fallen in love with. Her performance is perfect as a woman who has never known anything but the deadly atmosphere of England factory, trying to teach children something: 35 (Miss Compton was 40 at the time), pretending to be 29, trying to do the right thing, she is a perfect embodiment of the well-written character confronted with beauty and happiness she has never before known.

With George Zucco, Jack Hawkins, and a 19-year-old Pamela Blake.

Basil Dean has always struck me as an underused director who had considerable talent but was sadly overlooked for reasons that I do not know.

AUTUMN CROCUS shows some very good directorial touches, even though the naissant sound cinema of the time - 1934 - did not help. On the positive side, he had a very good leading trio in Ivor Novello, Fay Compton, and Muriel Aked... each a very different personality from the next.

Aked struck me as the nag and domineering school boss who tries to curtail 35 year old Compton's possible first foray into love, Compton plays very effectively the naive schoolteacher taken in by the beauty of the Austrian Tyrol and in particular the charm of hotelier Mr Steiner, who has a good singing voice, a splendid sense of humor, and knows how to entice the willing female he senses in Compton.

Obviously, all that shines is not gold, and his flirting and the crocus flowers that he keeps giving Compton hide a surprisingly deceptive side. Novello's performance deserves plaudits for his sympathetic stealth, yet it is Aked's loyalty that I take foremost from this film in moral and acting terms.

Cinematography is competent, the script overladen with singing and Tyrolese music, which I found annoying after a while. 7/10.

Shy school teacher on a holiday in the Tyrolian Alps is romanced by a married man with children, for whom a second relationship is of no consequence to his morals, but is impossible with her British upbringing

Fay Compton deserved an Oscar or Bafta nom for her incredibly sensitive performance. The latter didn't exist then and the former only honored USA films. She is superb. Novello is again charming as the boy-child persona of his talkie performances, full of life and love, regardless of society's judgments. This was to be his last film.

Of the six talkies he made, I have seen five. He was totally awful in THE PHANTOM FIEND, an inept remake of his silent success under Hitchcock's direction of THE LODGER, giving an over the top melodramatic performance that was execrable under any criteria. However, of the remaining talkies I have seen, he is brilliant, with superb dramatic and comedic timing. Seek out this, plus I LIVED WITH YOU (his best), and SLEEPING CAR.

There is a subtle lesbian attraction implied between the leading lady and her traveling companion, well done.

This DVD from a private collector timed out at 1:20, six minutes short of its official timing.

Note the similarity in plot of Arthur Laurents' play THE TIME OF THE CUCKOO, later the classic David Lean film, SUMMERTIME, and still later, the Rodgers-Sondheim musical play, DO I HEAR A WALTZ?

This reminded me a little of "Mr. Chips" at the start as school-mistresses "Jenny" (Fay Compton) and "Miss Mayne" (Muriel Aked) set off on a trip to Venice via one night in the Austrian Tyrol. The latter woman is a bit finicky and after two or three hotels their bus driver all but abandons them at a guesthouse run by "Andreas" (Ivor Novello). His is a cheery establishment, largely devoid of insects, that suits both women. The scenery is beautiful, the company lively and the food good - and it's only for just one night. Pretty clearly, there is soon a chemistry between "Jenny" and her host, and the rest of the film uses the Alpine scenery and a few charming songs to depict a slowly developing love story. By way of distraction there are other guests - notably the rather Bohemian "Alaric" (Jack Hawkins) and "Audrey" (Diana Beaumont) who refuse to conform to marriage and so openly flit from each other's rooms much to the chagrin and amusement of the other guests. There is something of the whimsy to this - the setting, the songs, the gentle pace of it all, and as the story throws a few obstacles into their otherwise loving path, we see both with decisions to make. I always found Novello a very engaging actor to watch - even if his roles sometimes left substance to be desired - and here he delivers, as does Compton, effectively for a pleasing ninety minutes.

Basil Dean decided to make both this film and The Constant Nymph with Tyrolean backgrounds.He sent a second unit to Austria in charge of Carol Reed.They were beset by problems including days of rain.Dean decided to direct this film himself and was rightly dissatisfied by his efforts.He was concerned that some actors looked down on the cinema and their minds were on their evening theatre performance.Clearly this refers to Novello who gives a truly awful performance in his final film.He is totally miscast with a woeful accent.Compton on the other hand gives a sensitive performance.Whilst the film did well in better class cinemas it did not fare well with what he called the cheaper seats.Another step on the path to his exit from Ealing.