Saturday Night Cinema: The Card (1952)

Tonight's Saturday Night Cinema selection is The Card. In Edwardian Staffordshire, charming rogue Edward “Denry” Machin (Alec Guinness), the son of a washerwoman, believes he must give destiny a hand to rise in the world. Starting early in his youth, Denry maneuvers to get into a top public school. Later, by outwitting his employer, he becomes a rent collector, and eventually mayor. He uses the lovely Countess of Chell (Valerie Hobson) as his patron - but Denry's ambitions are brought up short by crafty dance instructor Ruth Earp (Glynis Johns).

The Card is a black-and-white film version of the novel by Arnold Bennett. Entitled The Promoter for its American audience, it was adapted by Eric Ambler and directed by Ronald Neame. It was released in 1952. It starred Alec Guinness as Denry Machin, Petula Clark as Nellie Cotterill, Valerie Hobson as the Countess, and Glynis Johns as Ruth Earp. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound.

THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; Alec Guinness and Glynis Johns Play a Crafty Pair in 'The Promoter' at Fine Arts

By BOSLEY CROWTHER, NY Times

Published: October 29, 1952

It is beginning to appear that Alec Guinness has a weakness for rascals and scamps-at least, insofar as they afford him with gay companionship on the screen. He frolicked and fenced with a mass murderer in “Kind Hearts and Coronets” and he gleefully joined in the depredations of robbers and smugglers in “The Lavender Hill Mob.” In “The Man in the White Suit,” he enacted a research chemist who pulled a fast one on his boss. And now, in his latest. “The Promoter,” he is playing an unabashed rogue.

Well, that may be putting it harshly, for the fellow whom Mr. Guinness plays in this new British comedy at the Fine Arts is not exactly a bona fide crook. He is simply an enterprising young man who, in order to make his way in a hard world, invents and resorts to maneuvers a scrupulous person might call sharp. And the only real competition he meets as he pursues his blithe career is an equally crafty young lady, played by Glynis Johns. Neither of these young folk is roguish. They're just fast at embracing the main chance. And the whole amusement and delight in the picture is watching how neatly they perform.

Mr. Guinness' character is a young man, son of a washerwoman in a British industrial town back in the Edwardian era, who, by cheating just a bit when very young, has got himself an education in a high-class public school. By forging his name on an invitation, he gets himself to the countess' ball, elevates his social position and marks himself as a fellow to watch. By outwitting his ponderous employer, he becomes a successful collector of rents, a slick operator of an installment-purchase combine and eventually Mayor of the town. Here and there he even picks up some loose change in a fast deal at salvaging a boat.

And Miss Johns-well, she's a young lady whom our artful promoter meets when he's trying to collect some back rent she owes on her dancing school. A very deceptive miss, this one. Before our hero, with his confident air, has so much as threatened to call the bailiff, she has boffed him with her innocent round eyes. And before the picture is over, she has knotted him up a few times until he-well, his trick on this young lady is the one slim surprise of the film.

And there lies the weakness of this picture. As a sketch of two characters, it is grand, even though the depths of the two characters are never revealed or even probed. Mr. Guinness' scamp is a cross-view of innocent-appearing treacheries-a seeming Milquetoast with monstrous cunning, on whom it is impossible to put your thumb. And Miss Johns' self-propelling young lady is a bundle of feminine guile, but she too is full of contradictions and apparent cross-purposes.

As the countess, Valerie Hobson is lovely and spirited, Petula Clark is sweet as a lady-like thing and Edward Chapman, George Devine and several others are excellent in small provincial roles.

But the script Eric Ambler has adapted from Arnold Bennett's old novel, “The Card,” is provokingly uninfested with dramatic compulsion or push. It just ambles along very gently from one situation to the next, permitting Mr. Guinness primarily to round out his faintly shocking sketch. The trick on Miss Johns is a contrivance with which to wrap up the film. “The Promoter,” while vastly amusing in spots, is not a first-rate Guinness show.

THE PROMOTER, screen play by Eric Ambler, based on the novel. “The Card,” by Arnold Bennett; directed by Ronald Neame; produced by John Bryan. A Ronald Neame Production presented by the J. Arthur Rank Organization and released here by Universal-International. At the Fine Arts Theatre.

Edward Henry Machin . . . . . Alec Guinness

Ruth Earp . . . . . Glynis Johns

The Countess of Chell . . . . . Valerie Hobson

Nellie Cotterill . . . . . Petula Clark

Mr. Duncalf . . . . . Edward Chapman

Mrs. Machin . . . . . Veronica Turleigh

Mr. Calvert . . . . . George Devine

Emery . . . . . Gibb McLaughlin

Police Superintendent . . . . . Frank Pettingell

Mrs. Codleyn . . . . . Joan Hickson

Bank Manager . . . . . Michael Hordern

Mrs. Cotterill . . . . . Alison Leggatt

Shillitoe . . . . . Peter Copley

Widow Hullins . . . . . Dierdre Doyle