The History of Mr. Polly

I echo all the good things said about this brilliant film. As for the contributor who claimed Mills did not receive enough credit in his career. . . the man was given a knighthood - how much credit does one need? As I write this comment, the film is being shown (yet again) on the Film 4 TV channel. It's one of those films (and there are many of them) which one can watch year after year and still find it entertaining, despite knowing each scene by heart. Since I discovered that a version of the film was planned and then abandoned in Hollywood with Charles Laughton in the title role, I can't help imagining Laughton speaking the lines as I watch the excellent John Mills.

... because in its entirety the film is very satisfying.

Mr. Polly (John Mills) is hard to root for. He is a lazy employee in a shop who gets fired for reading novels when he should be working. He spends months looking - not very hard - for another job when he gets news his father died. His father left him a small inheritance, and so he decides to open a shop himself, although he hated working in one. Then he decides he needs a wife. He falls for a schoolgirl ten years younger than himself, but it turns out she is just teasing him for the amusement of her friends, so he dispassionately marries a spinster cousin.

15 years later we are shown where Polly is - on the verge of bankruptcy, with his wife constantly nagging him about things that seem to be very true about himself. The shop is a failure, in part because it is chaotic - it does not seem to have a theme at all. So the unhappy Polly decides to commit suicide by burning his shop down with him in it while his wife is at church. Polly succeeds at burning the shop but not himself, and decides to hit the open road. And it is at this point he becomes a completely different kind of person than he has been for the first half of the film. In other words, he does become somewhat admirable - focused, not lazy. The odd thing is that Polly has no real basis for any of the actions he takes at any stage of his life. He certainly isn't doing anything because he wants to do so, and in some cases his actions make him unhappy, and in latter cases they lead to happiness.

The entire thing is very ironic as the first and second parts merge into a very ironic and short third act. It's definitely original, and John Mills always improves any film.

This is probably H.G.Wells' best story or at least his most human and charming one. It's a petty triviality, but in the small things you can find some golden traces of hidden treasures worth discovering, which is what Mr. Polly does. John Mills is perfect for the job, especially since he fails in all his official ones, while all he is good for is reading old tales of chivalry and dreaming of some faint ideal far beyond his reach. Accidentally he gets married, and she turns out to make the worst for him, so he plans to get away by suicide and fails completely even with that. But a great momentum is waiting for him.

Finlay Currie is equally perfect as the hooligan Uncle Jim, who is only good at making mincemeat of people and tries hard at it, (they were better partnered together just previously in "Great Expectations" as Pip and Magwitch,) but also he fails completely, leaving Mr. Polly out of breeches and in a strange situation with a lost body, which later turns up to most accidentally again save him from further trouble...

The small man finally finds his kingdom and the proper idylls to it, where he can at last get thorough in reading his tales of chivalry and enjoy some meditation and fishing.

It's an idyllic comedy with some hardship to it and a titbit as such, with excellent acting, enjoyable direction and tailor-made music to suit it all as well. I saw it the first time some 40 years ago but enjoyed the revenue even more.

"The History of Mr. Polly" is an odd British film. On one hand, it has some well respected and excellent British actors (notably, Sir John Mills). But, on the other, it has a story that really doesn't make a ton of sense and which creates a portrait of a guy who is often less than likable or honorable. I found the overall experience quite underwhelming.

When the story begins, Mr. Polly (Mills) is getting fired from a job because he's lazy. Soon, however, he is extricated from this predicament when he learns his father has died....and has left him a small inheritance. Polly then goes shopping for a wife, as he plans on getting married and opening a small shop. He marries a cousin and the film jumps ahead 15 years. Now, they are both pretty miserable and Polly comes up with a plan....run away. He soon finds a job and settles in to a new life...though a drunk bully promises to make this a very short life!

The hero in the film, Polly, is in so many ways an anti-hero. He's lazy, he's run away from his marriage and he's not much of a person. Yet, out of the blue, this all changes near the end...or at least changes enough that you don't quite know what to make of the guy. Overall, a mildly interesting film but far from Mills' best.

John Mills prefers to read and dream rather than learn the haberdasher's trade, so he's fired. His father up and dies, and leaves him a nice sum of money. He enjoys bicycling around, saying he is "looking for a busienss to invest in", but marriage with his cousin, Betty Ann Davies, forces him to be a shop. It soon turns into a dull routine and marginal business. He burns it down for the insurance, then takes off. Soon he has settled down at a waterside inn run by Meg Jenks, punting the ferry and doing odd jobs.

Anthony Pelissier did not have a tremendously productive career as a writer-director, but he turned out fine screen transitions of literary works. In his first movie, he tackles H. G. Wells novel about a man who just wants to get by and not meddle in affairs that are none of his business.... and as it turns out, he does meddle and demonstrates that, as ridiculous as he appears fighting off Miss Jenks' drunk and vindictive uncle Finlay Currie, time and chance are on his side. What we are to make of this, except that people are ridiculous, I don't really know. But it does demonstrate that. With Diana Churchill, Sally Ann Howe, Juliet Mills, Moore Marriott, and Irene Handl.