Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

dracher Here is a magnificent play and screenplay, beautifully written and conceived. Much has been made of the performances of Michael Redgrave and Jean Kent, both of whom are brilliantly cast in a physical sense. Good as Redgrave and Kent both are, it is to the supporting cast that we must look for the strongest and most credible performances; Nigel Patrick is rock solid as Frank Hunter, the popular science teacher who transforms from thoughtless philanderer to decent human being, and Wilfred Hyde White is at the peak of his game as the headmaster who is self seeking, self satisfied, unfeeling and ultimately rather cruel. Michael Redgrave, for some unknown reason decided to give Crocker-Harris a rather thin dry voice which is obviously "stuck on" he also fails to show any vestige of the human being behind the persona of the school master until it is far too late, his performance is just that, a surface study of a rather frail failure, rather than a man who tries and fails. He is expected to be unpopular, but Redgrave's characterisation is, unfortunately, rather cold. Jean Kent is brilliantly cast in the physical sense, here is woman who could well be the wife of a rather lacklustre school master, but also has the magnificent womanliness, and frankly, sex appeal, to stir any man's biological chemistry. For all this, her performance as Millie Crocker-Harris is patchy, at times so very believable and at others driven by a surface petulance, a false grandeur and an unnecessary viciousness which guilds the lily of the already powerful writing. I have seen Ms Kent's work in other roles, she was well capable of more subtle work than this, which leads me to feel that the direction by Anthony Asquith may have been rather heavy handed or just plain careless in her case. Michael Redgrave has the more difficult role with which to contend, and in my honest opinion, his characterisation, flawed from the start, fails him absolutely at the vital moment of Taplow's gesture, and in spite of an effective gear change in his defiance of the headmaster and a fine delivery of the final speech, the overall performance is under the bar for an actor of Redgrave's standing.

Robert J. Maxwell This movie is quite good, though it starts off a bit sluggishly and is talky and in black and white and is a serious character study and nobody wrenches off anybody else's head amidst a fountain of gore.Michael Redgrave's performance is almost all interior. He's a cold and distant teacher at what Americans would call a prep school. The kids dislike him. He has no sense of humor, no warmth, and he's critical of their best efforts to translate Latin verse. They do impressions of him behind his back. It comes to his attention that the Headmaster has referred to him, without malice, as "the Himmler of the fifth form." He's retiring due to his health and most of his colleagues and students are happy enough to see him go. His new job will be at a less prestigious school for backward boys and will pay far less. He's not going to get a pension because, as Wilfred Hyde White, the persuasive Headmaster tells him, that would be exceptional, even after eighteen years of service at the school.The future may look a little bleak for Redgrave, but then the present and past are no gift from God either. His wife -- in a one-dimensional role -- is given to tearing him down at every opportunity and is having an affair with a science teacher. At this point I began to experience some vague redintegrations of my marriage. I almost sobbed with pity for the poor slob.Yes, he was once a brilliant scholar and began a verse translation of the Agamemnon of Aeschylus but gave up on it and apparently lost it somewhere along the way. One of his students, Taplow, discovers the lost manuscript, reads it, and gives it back to Redgrave, saying that he found it really exciting. Taplow had previously given him an inexpensive gift, a copy of Robert Browning's version of the Agamemnon, with a Latin inscription, "God favors the gentle teacher." It causes Redgrave to momentarily break down because, after all, he's starved for any kind of love. He treats the incident as a humiliation.But, knowing of his own arid performance as a teacher, and of his wife's infidelity, which is strictly sexual in nature, he gives a brief farewell speech that sounds like a confession. When the sits down, the Headmaster tries to introduce the next speaker but his efforts are eclipsed by applause. I don't know that a two-minute speech could reverse the sentiments of a hundred students and faculty, but it's an extremely touching scene.It may not seem so at first but the movie belongs to a certain sub-genre. Someone (or some group) suffers unspeakable misery with a stiff upper lip and dissolves finally in a cathartic scene. Other examples include "The Mark," "Deliverance," and Kubrick's "Paths of Glory," in which the French soldiers first laugh at a German girl in a saloon singing a simple folk tune and then are swept up in her efforts and hum tearfully along with her.The wife is a weakness. She's given no redeeming qualities, no human features. But the film belongs to Michael Redgrave and his performance is masterful. Forget the light-hearted train passenger in "The Lady Vanishes." This character is an ice sculpture that melts suddenly, completely, devastatingly when he comes face to face with himself.

kenjha Forced to retire from an English school, a professor disliked by his students and colleagues and despised by his wife, comes to the realization that his life has been a failure. Redgrave is superb as the stern, introverted professor, providing a finely nuanced portrait of a man who is proud and devoted to his job, but who also harbors regrets about his decisions in life. Also excellent are Kent as his cruel wife, Patrick as a sympathetic colleague, and young Smith as a kind student who feels sorry for the professor. This is an incredibly poignant film based on Rattigan's play. Veteran director Asquith pushes all the right emotional buttons but does not wallow in sentimentality.

edwagreen Michael Redgrave is absolutely phenomenal here. He gives a subtly powerful performance as a schoolmaster, forced to go to another school, where his workload will be lighter. He needs to do this as he has developed a serious heart condition.Redgrave is absolutely mesmerizing as the no nonsense teacher, utterly despised by his pupils for his cruelty and lack of human understanding and compassion for his charges.The man is literally obsessed with Greek translations and syntax. This is all he conveys to his pupils in his narrow-minded world. His contempt for everything and everyone is vividly depicted here in a totally memorable performance. He is equally matched by Jean Kent, who portrays his unfaithful wife.He too at the end realizes his shortcomings as depicted by his farewell speech in the assembly.