Captain Boycott

Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott is one of those figures in history who by their careers or actions actually contributed to our language - usually without thinking about it. Lord Cardigan, who led the charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War, wore a tight sweater which still bears his name. Lord Brougham, the great lawyer and Lord Chancelor, had a special carriage designed for him, which is named for him. William Burke (with his partner William Hare) suffocated a dozen people to sell their bodies to Dr. Robert Knox, the anatomist. The method of suffocation is still called "burking". Reverend Spooner's weird confusion of letters and syllables is still called a "spoonerism". The edited censorship of literary masterpieces is called bowdlerizing after Bowdler the originator of the censorship.

Captain Boycott is remembered for not what he did or wore or said. He is recalled for what was done to him because of his behavior to others. In 1878 the lower classes in Ireland began a series of acts of violence against landlords, especially Protestant landlords. The reasons were connected with unfairly high rents and misuse of economic power to force people to do what their landlords wanted them to do. The worst incidents resulted in the murders of landlords (Lord Leitrim in 1878, Lord Mountmorres in 1880) and Mr. Walter Bourke (an agent for a landlord) in 1882. Boycott was a rather heavy handed landowner, who threw out tenants who did not do what he wanted (including voting for Tory candidates). He became targeted for punishment, but what happened turned out to be more effective and less bloody than what happened to Leitrim, Mountmorres, and Bourke.

On the advice of cooler heads than armed terrorists, such as political leader Charles Stewart Parnell, it was advised to socially and emotionally ostracize Boycott. Instead of threatening his possession of his estate (which would allow him to call in British troops) the locals would not sell him needed food or supplies, nor do work on his estate, nor even talk to him and his staff. This ostracism (now called "boycotting") proved very effective - it led to Boycott, after nearly half a year's struggle, to give up his estate and leave Ireland forever.

The movie basically tells the story, with Cecil Parker actually playing the central role of Captain Boycott. Parker plays one of his rare negative characters, but he has moments of typical befuddled Parker humor (when talking to a friend about the unwanted London reporters in his home following the ostracism campaign, he notes the reporter for the TIMES appears to be drunk under his dinner table - we see the man's legs).

Since he is the villain actually (with Mervyn Johns as his sneaky estate agent ably assisting him), we look elsewhere for our hero. Here it is Stewart Granger, as an independent minded tenant of Boycott's, whose prize race horse excites the Captain's greed. But Granger is also a voice of reason. Although he doesn't care for Parnell (he mentions rumors about Parnell's sex life), he hears the great man give a speech advocating peaceful protest rather than violence. This is how the campaign against Boycott begins.

Alistair Sim plays the local Catholic pastor, who also counsels peaceful protest. Noel Purcell plays an interesting semi-villain - the local schoolteacher who is an accomplished agitator (for violence). And playing Parnell for one scene only is Robert Donat, who gives the great man's speech his normal eloquence, and actually looks like Parnell (unlike Clark Gable in the 1939 biographical fiasco from Hollywood). A little stiff at times, it is (on the whole) a wonderful example of a good historical movie. As such I recommend catching it when you can.

A year earlier Frank Launder directed the excellent 'I see a dark stranger' which concerns an Irish woman with a visceral loathing of the English. His next film, although sympathetic towards the downtrodden Catholic peasantry, does not go so far as to point the finger at the complacent English establishment or the curse of Anglo-Irish 'absent landlords' but lays the blame solely at the door of one unscrupulous land agent, Captain Boycott. He is played by the superlative Cecil Parker. The character is arrogant, bigoted and blinkered, as were so many of his ilk but this actor's persona makes him far more of a buffoon than an outright villian whilst the character of land-leaguer McGinty played by Noel Purcell is nothing less than a blood-lusting rabble rouser.

The voice of reason is supplied by the character of charismatic leading man Stewart Granger as Hugh Davin, whose name is perhaps suggested by that of Michael Davitt, noted land-leaguer and republican. He is inspired by a speech of Charles Stuart Parnell, a strong 'cameo' from Robert Donat who has the beard but not a trace of an Irish accent(!) who preaches the effectiveness of non-violent resistance. Davin is assisted in this by the wily Father McKeogh, played with his customary eccentricity by scene-stealer Alistair Sim. The obligatory love interest is supplied by Kathleen Ryan but it is lacklustre and inclined to get in the way, especially as the chemistry between her and Granger is non-existent. The eviction scenes are visceral and the sub-plot of Davin's racehorse is a delightful and much-needed diversion.

All-in all Launder has struck a good balance here and has avoided Gaelic 'quaintness'. The film is aided by full-blooded performances, the sweeping Irish landscape and a splendid score by William Alwyn.

Were this film to be made now there would be a lot of axe-grinding recriminations but we hardly need reminding of the terrible injustices committed and the lasting hatreds they created.

This is quite interesting if only for an etymology lesson in the origins of the word "boycott". Cecil Parker is the eponymous gentleman who stokes the hatred of his Irish Tenant farmers in the late 1800s. Charles Parnell (Robert Donat) preaches a more pacifist approach to protest - and so Stewart Granger ("Hugh") encourages his colleagues to down-tools and stop collecting the crops, stop paying the exorbitant rents - and to shun anyone who is prepared to co-operate with this horrendously arbitrary system. Using his agent "Connell" (Mervyn Jones), the Captain has his farmers evicted and this soon leads to conflict between Granger and his love "Anne" (Kathleen Ryan) who has taken over one of the tenancies from an evicted family and earned the scorn of her neighbours... This story is essentially just a vehicle for Granger - his dashing good looks and on-screen charisma shine, as do Parker as the pompous Captain; Mervyn Johns as his really quite weaselly acolyte and Alastair Sim is engaging as the not-so-neutral priest "McKeogh"; but the dialogue is pretty wooden (the star's accent seems a bit confused) and the story of grit and determination lacks any substantial portrayal of either, really. Certainly, it passes 90 minutes easily enough, but maybe just a bit too light and fluffy for the subject matter...

"Captain Boycott" is a film that caught me by surprise. I thought it would be a nice adventure story starring Stewart Granger...period. However, there was less adventure than I'd expected AND I ended up learning some cool history. As a retired history teacher, this was mega-cool (I cannot believe I just said 'mega-cool'....that is so unlike me). What I didn't realize is that the film is about the origination of the term 'boycott'...and that boycotts are named after someone...a very jerky someone at that!

The story is set in Ireland in the 19th century. Considering the potato blight had decimated the population (many migrating abroad and many simply dying of starvation), it's no wonder that the story is very pro-Irish--the 19th century was certainly bad for them. What made it worse were jerk-face (I cannot believe I just said 'jerk-face') landlords who responded to this poverty by evicting the tenant farmers--thus increasing the misery. Fed up with one particularly nasty landlord, Captain Boycott (that was his real-life name!), the Irish set about stopping these excesses through the use of boycotts! Watch the film to see what all this is about and if you like history lessons, you'll probably enjoy this surprisingly interesting and well made film. Worth a look.

This was the film that caught the eye of Hollywood. The Americans saw a tall, dark and fairly handsome man that could lead their movies.

The best thing that happened to Granger in the 1940's was being teamed up with James Mason as his nemesis. Granger was the protagonist and Mason was the sinister antagonist whom we had sympathy for.