• Source: Fame Is the Spur (film)

      • Fame is the Spur is a 1947 British drama film directed by Roy Boulting. It stars Michael Redgrave, Rosamund John, Bernard Miles, David Tomlinson, Maurice Denham and Kenneth Griffith. Its plot involves a British politician who rises to power, abandoning on the way his radical views for more conservative ones. It is based on the 1940 novel Fame Is the Spur by Howard Spring, which was believed to be based on the career of the Labour Party politician Ramsay MacDonald.


      Plot


      When Hamer Radshaw, a young man from a North country mill town, commits to help the poverty-stricken workers in his area, he takes as his Excalibur a sword passed down to him by his grandfather from the Battle of Peterloo, where it had been used against workers. As an idealistic champion of the oppressed, he rises to power as a Labour M.P., but is seduced by the trappings of power and finds himself the type of politician he originally despised.


      Cast


      Michael Redgrave as Hamer Radshaw
      Rosamund John as Ann
      Bernard Miles as Tom Hannaway
      Carla Lehmann as Lady Lettice
      Hugh Burden as Arnold Ryerson
      Marjorie Fielding as Aunt Lizzie
      Seymour Hicks as Old Buck
      Anthony Wager as Hamer as a boy
      Brian Weske as Ryerson as a boy
      Gerald Fox as Hannaway as a boy
      Jean Shepeard as Mrs Radshaw
      Guy Verney as Grandpa
      Percy Walsh as Suddaby
      David Tomlinson as Lord Liskead
      Charles Wood as Dai
      Milton Rosmer as Magistrate
      Wylie Watson as Pendleton
      Ronald Adam as Radshaws' Doctor
      Honor Blackman as Emma
      Campbell Cotts as Meeting chairman
      Maurice Denham as Prison doctor
      Kenneth Griffith as Wartime Miners' Representative
      Roddy Hughes as Wartime Miners' Spokesman
      Vi Kaley as Old Woman in Election Crowd
      Laurence Kitchin as Radshaws's secretary
      Philip Ray as Doctor
      Gerald Sim as Reporter
      Harry Terry as Man in Election Crowd
      Iris Vandeleur as Woman Who Opens Front Door
      H Victor Weske as Wartime Miners' Representative
      Ben Williams as Radical Orator


      Critical reception


      In The New York Times at the time of the 1949 American release, Bosley Crowther commented: "this John and Roy Boulting film has vivid authority and fascination...But, unfortunately, a full comprehension of the principal character in this tale is missed in the broad and extended panorama of his life that is displayed...Mr. Redgrave is glib and photogenic; he acts the 'lost leader' in a handsome style. But he does not bring anything out about him that is not stated arbitrarily";
      The Radio Times reviewer David Parkinson has praised Redgrave's "powerhouse performance, with his gradual shedding of heartfelt beliefs as vanity replaces commitment having a chillingly convincing ring. But such is Redgrave's dominance that there's little room for other characters to develop or for any cogent social agenda." According to Allmovie, the film is "sometimes slow-moving", but "is an interesting look into the reasons why the Labor [sic] and the Conservative factions are at loggerheads with each other in Great Britain".


      References




      External links


      Fame Is the Spur at IMDb
      Review of film at Variety
      Archived copy of Nigel Balchin's screenplay c1946 at University of Birmingham

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