The Green Scarf

There are some great courtroom dramas,but this is not one of them.I consider that this makes the Scales of Justice a classic in comparison.The plot is so convoluted that I just lost interest in it.Like many great actors Michael Redgrave is under the delusion that wearing a long beard equates to great acting.Well it doesn't.Sad to say this film is a thoroughgoing bore.

Why in the world IMDB has some amateur critic's review of this film as the top review of this movie is well beyond my comprehension. The nine negative comments should be a clue to solve this crime. In my humble opinion, this film is a top-notch mystery. Right from the start, the game is afoot. The accomplishments of the accused young man are no less impressive than those of Daniel Day Lewis in My Left Foot. It is a truly inspiring film that highlights the struggles of the handicapped and how they overcome them. But even that noteworthy goal is secondary to the plot. The play's the thing. And one jumps to an immediate conclusion that will most likely be wrong as the film progresses. A movie not to be missed.

PS if 9 out of 10 people think you are drunk, you are probably drunk.

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.

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.

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.