The Tenth Man

N.B. THIS JOHN LODGE IS NOT JOHN DAVIS LODGE, WHOSE FILMOGRAPHY AND BIOGRAPHY ARE ATTRIBUTED TO HIM An interesting look at a successful scoundrel, both as financier and politician. George Winter may have been inspired by Horatio Bottomley, and the film could be seen as a precursor of Citizen Kane or Allthe King's Men, but it is most interesting as a study of charm and ability in itself: Winter may be a swindler (though not- he makes plain- a common one), a thief, an adulterer and a blackmailer, but he is also shown as genuinely exciting and entertaining as none of the other characters are. By the end of the film he has won back the wife whose plan to divorce him looked like ruining him, kept his seat in Parliament and charmed all around him. The only person he has not won over is the only one who admired him sincerely and honestly all along, and it is because that man will denounce him to the police he kills himself when he need not. That is the flaw in the portrayal of Winter, in fact, imposed, I suspect, for moral reasons, as we don't believe someone like Winter would allow trivialities like conviction for fraud or a gaol sentence to keep him down for long. It's a competently and briskly directed film, with good sets and surprisingly well-acted for the time; even the grotesque characters are credible, and the camera work is efficient and unobtrusive.