What an interesting film in a number of ways. Author James Hilton narrated! It was filmed in location in England, giving the viewer a really good sense of what England looked like at the end of WWII. And, the film disappeared and was thought lost until 2004 when a full print (in good condition) was found in Tennessee! The opening of the film is put in a very nice historical perspective with some interesting photography.As WWII closes, the mayor, newspaper editor, and reformer (John Mills) looks back on his years of knowing, marrying, and divorcing Martha Scott. It begins with him defending her when she applies for the job of assistant library job; many won't consider it because her father had owned the huge mill works there and had gone to prison for years for speculating with the money of the locals. Soon, however, Mills falls in love with her and proposes on the very night that her father is killed when he is being driven into town by the local doctor (Trevor Howard) and the washed-out road reaches out and drags the car down into the river during a heavy storm (keep that in mind). Olivia then agrees to marry George.Once married, Scott pushes her husband to run for Parliament, but an epidemic of diphtheria in the town's filthy slums sidelines him...and takes their own son's life when mother fails to have him inoculated in a mere public clinic. Scott ends the marriage, remarries to a rich man and has another son, (Richard Carlson), who is badly scarred in the war. In the hospital, his mother latches on to him in a predatory way, at first stymieing a relationship between the son and the foster daughter of the village doctor. Meanwhile, Scott has returned to the family mansion and reopened the dangerous and dilapidated mill. Mills intervenes and helps the young couple marry, and only then learns that Scott knew the road had washed out and that her father was likely to be killed using the road, but intentionally did not warn him...thus, murder.And that last factor is the only part of the movie which I felt was handled poorly. Yes, the viewer knew that Scott had just used the road, but it could have washed out after she used it, and so (at least to me) it came as a bit too much of a plot twist, which could have been resolved by simply giving us a couple of clues.John Mills is excellent here. His co-star, Martha Scott is, as well, but the role of such a controlling, domineering, ...well, you know the word, leveled her to being totally unlikable in this film. In a sense, a rather courageous choice of a role to take. For the first part of the film I kept thinking what a good role this would have been for Greer Garson, but of course, Garson would have never taken a role that was so totally unlikable. Richard Carlson plays the injured son perfectly. Trevor Howard had the only role (of the doctor), which I felt was NOT played well. One of the best performances, though the character's death early in the film made it short, was that of Frederick Leister as Scott's father, who played a broken man after his many years in prison.Oh, and BTW, this is one of those films where the leading man slaps the leading lady...twice...and deservedly so, although when the scene where it happens begins, the viewer will assume it will be the other way around.This is an excellent film...and I say that as a person who is not very fond of British cinema.

A web search for Hectic House Records will bring up their website. They are based in Macclesfield and on their site is some excellent detail about the film with some stills included. You can order the VHS tape on line or they give addresses of stockists if you live in the UK and are within striking distance of Maclesfield. It's worth asking if they have it on DVD yet - I wouldn't be surprised if they have. Because they are based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, they have a good reason for keeping the film alive as all the exterior footage was shot in the area and it provides an excellent historical record of how the town looked in the 1940's. Try www.macc.me.uk to find them.

The film was the big cinematic claim to fame of my home town of Macclesfield, Cheshire, England where the exteriors were shot.It portrays the often grim reality of life in a northern mill town when poverty and disease tool a grim toll and a Doctor (played by Trevor Howard) could be a really vital link between life and death contrasted with the ambitious figure of Mills as the would be Mayor. The film starts with him as Mayor looking back on his life, so a lot of it is therefore a flash back.I won't spoil the story. The acting shows the young and developing talents of both Mills and Howard before they were the legends they were to become.Following its rediscovery it has been released on video. I don't think it has yet been released on DVD.

It's a shame that this film is not available on DVD or VHS. It can be seen now and then on TCM. John Mills and Trevor Howard head up a stellar troupe of actors in the British RKO-MGM co-production based on the novel by James Hilton, who also wrote "Lost Horizon". Story is centered on the consequences of a mis-matched romance and marriage between an idealistic reformer, intent on improving living conditions for the working class inhabitants of his hometown, Bowdley (an English mill-town), and the daughter of the war-profiteering owner of the mill, a certain Mr. Channing. Portrays the price paid for political and economic ambition in a way that is current today as when it was in 1947.