Revenge is a Dish Best Served Complicated
Today's review: The Long Memory.
As so often happens, I saw a review of The Long Memory on movie_greats, put the movie on my “To Watch” list, then took so long to find a copy that I’d pretty much forgotten everything when I actually sat down to watch it. While this does allow me to approach a movie blind and be surprised by the details, it also runs the risk of the movie baffling me and letting me down. I don’t think this movie went quite that far, but I do think it missed some opportunities.
The movie starts out on an odd but interestingly ominous note when a man (John Mills) gets off a train, is immediately followed for no apparent reason (the man following him eventually breaks off tailing him and makes a phone call to another character), and then makes his way to an abandoned wreck of a boat, where he makes a home for himself. After about six and a half minutes, we get a flashback that explains what’s going on. The man is named Phillip Davidson, and he was once in love with a girl named Fay (Elizabeth Sellars). But on the night he was going to ask her father for permission to marry her, they were interrupted by a group of crooks, who were familiar with Fay’s father and were trying to orchestrate passage for one of them to flee to safer waters. A fight broke out, the fleeing man was killed, Davidson leapt in in an attempt to do the right thing, and it all ended with the father’s boat on fire. Fay, her father, and the muscle man named Pewsey (John Slater) all decide to protect themselves and swear that the fleeing man wasn’t there that night. So when the police investigation finds a single body and no trace of Boyd (John Chandos), the man Davidson was fighting with, they conclude Davidson murdered Boyd and send him to prison for twelve years. Now released, Davidson has revenge on his mind, which has the police, especially Superintendent Bob Lowther (John McCallum) nervous. Though Lowther has another reason to be worried; he’s married to Fay, complete with a child, and there’s no telling if Davidson will care about collateral damage.
There are a lot of good ideas in this movie. Fay being married to Lowther may not be original, but I like the idea of her grappling with her guilt over staying silent and putting Davidson in jail, especially as her husband uncovers the truth. There’s a newspaperman, Craig (Geoffrey Keen), who’s been assigned to keep tabs on the various parties for his paper, but he wants to get all the facts instead of just telling a story that will sell and has a very refreshing attitude. And the movie goes in an unexpected direction two-thirds of the way through that’s very novel, one that’s a bit corny, but also not over-the-top. Combine that with some nice moments (some comedic, some dramatic), and you could have a neat little story. Unfortunately, the filmmakers didn’t quite combine everything quite right.
One of the big problems is that the movie doesn’t end when it feels like it should. There’s a scene where we get some uplifting lines, the music swells, and the screen fades to black…only to immediately come back up on a new scene, with twenty-one minutes left to go. While those familiar with older film conventions know that the movie can’t end until all wrong-doers have been punished, it still feels jarring to have a moment that feels like an ending, only for the movie to continue. As a result, the last third of the movie feels dragged out and overlong. It still has some good moments in it, but I do think it would have been better if it wasn’t included. Or perhaps if some of the lingering plot threads were resolved before that point.
Another problem is that some of the good ideas I mentioned above don’t wind up going anywhere. Craig is an interesting character, but he’s actually not given all that much to do, and all the stuff surrounding him adds nothing to the plot. Well, there’s one exception, but they could have conveyed that information in some other way. Even more disappointing is the material around Fay and Lowther. There are definitely some good moments, but once the truth inevitably comes out, it all kind of falls apart. We don’t get any proper resolution for what’s going to happen to the two of them (singly and in terms of their relationship), and Lowther makes a comment that winds up casting doubt on their whole marriage. I’m not sure if that’s what the filmmakers intended, but it seemed kind of gratuitous, especially in light of what Lowther and Fay had just been talking about. Though admittedly, you could probably get an interesting story out of the concept…
There’s enough good ideas on display here that I’d probably recommend giving this a look. However, I’d strongly advise you to prepare for the ending that’s not an ending, which may make the last twenty minutes easier to handle and reduce the feeling of letdown. And perhaps that will allow it to stick in your memory for good reasons instead of bad ones.
CAT ALERT: At one point, Pewsey is forced to put the cat out for the night. After about thirty seconds of conversation about the cat, we finally get a glimpse of it…just as Pewsey gets a glimpse of Davidson. It’s a predictable moment, but still very well framed and shot. I’m also partial to the fact that a little later, it looks like the cat just nonchalantly strolls past Davidson, without paying any attention to the drama going on. That’s definitely typical cat behavior.
As so often happens, I saw a review of The Long Memory on movie_greats, put the movie on my “To Watch” list, then took so long to find a copy that I’d pretty much forgotten everything when I actually sat down to watch it. While this does allow me to approach a movie blind and be surprised by the details, it also runs the risk of the movie baffling me and letting me down. I don’t think this movie went quite that far, but I do think it missed some opportunities.
The movie starts out on an odd but interestingly ominous note when a man (John Mills) gets off a train, is immediately followed for no apparent reason (the man following him eventually breaks off tailing him and makes a phone call to another character), and then makes his way to an abandoned wreck of a boat, where he makes a home for himself. After about six and a half minutes, we get a flashback that explains what’s going on. The man is named Phillip Davidson, and he was once in love with a girl named Fay (Elizabeth Sellars). But on the night he was going to ask her father for permission to marry her, they were interrupted by a group of crooks, who were familiar with Fay’s father and were trying to orchestrate passage for one of them to flee to safer waters. A fight broke out, the fleeing man was killed, Davidson leapt in in an attempt to do the right thing, and it all ended with the father’s boat on fire. Fay, her father, and the muscle man named Pewsey (John Slater) all decide to protect themselves and swear that the fleeing man wasn’t there that night. So when the police investigation finds a single body and no trace of Boyd (John Chandos), the man Davidson was fighting with, they conclude Davidson murdered Boyd and send him to prison for twelve years. Now released, Davidson has revenge on his mind, which has the police, especially Superintendent Bob Lowther (John McCallum) nervous. Though Lowther has another reason to be worried; he’s married to Fay, complete with a child, and there’s no telling if Davidson will care about collateral damage.
There are a lot of good ideas in this movie. Fay being married to Lowther may not be original, but I like the idea of her grappling with her guilt over staying silent and putting Davidson in jail, especially as her husband uncovers the truth. There’s a newspaperman, Craig (Geoffrey Keen), who’s been assigned to keep tabs on the various parties for his paper, but he wants to get all the facts instead of just telling a story that will sell and has a very refreshing attitude. And the movie goes in an unexpected direction two-thirds of the way through that’s very novel, one that’s a bit corny, but also not over-the-top. Combine that with some nice moments (some comedic, some dramatic), and you could have a neat little story. Unfortunately, the filmmakers didn’t quite combine everything quite right.
One of the big problems is that the movie doesn’t end when it feels like it should. There’s a scene where we get some uplifting lines, the music swells, and the screen fades to black…only to immediately come back up on a new scene, with twenty-one minutes left to go. While those familiar with older film conventions know that the movie can’t end until all wrong-doers have been punished, it still feels jarring to have a moment that feels like an ending, only for the movie to continue. As a result, the last third of the movie feels dragged out and overlong. It still has some good moments in it, but I do think it would have been better if it wasn’t included. Or perhaps if some of the lingering plot threads were resolved before that point.
Another problem is that some of the good ideas I mentioned above don’t wind up going anywhere. Craig is an interesting character, but he’s actually not given all that much to do, and all the stuff surrounding him adds nothing to the plot. Well, there’s one exception, but they could have conveyed that information in some other way. Even more disappointing is the material around Fay and Lowther. There are definitely some good moments, but once the truth inevitably comes out, it all kind of falls apart. We don’t get any proper resolution for what’s going to happen to the two of them (singly and in terms of their relationship), and Lowther makes a comment that winds up casting doubt on their whole marriage. I’m not sure if that’s what the filmmakers intended, but it seemed kind of gratuitous, especially in light of what Lowther and Fay had just been talking about. Though admittedly, you could probably get an interesting story out of the concept…
There’s enough good ideas on display here that I’d probably recommend giving this a look. However, I’d strongly advise you to prepare for the ending that’s not an ending, which may make the last twenty minutes easier to handle and reduce the feeling of letdown. And perhaps that will allow it to stick in your memory for good reasons instead of bad ones.
CAT ALERT: At one point, Pewsey is forced to put the cat out for the night. After about thirty seconds of conversation about the cat, we finally get a glimpse of it…just as Pewsey gets a glimpse of Davidson. It’s a predictable moment, but still very well framed and shot. I’m also partial to the fact that a little later, it looks like the cat just nonchalantly strolls past Davidson, without paying any attention to the drama going on. That’s definitely typical cat behavior.