Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake

Plot synopsis:
The story is set during the reign of King George III, in Bristol, England, where young Benjamin Blake (Roddy McDowall), son of the deceased Baronet of Breetholm is taken from his commoner grandfather, gunsmith Amos Kidder (Harry Davenport), and forced to serve his vengeful uncle, Sir Arthur Blake (George Sanders). Arthur inherited the title and land from his brother Godfrey, and fears that Ben may not have been born out of wedlock and might claim his inheritance. He compels the boy to become his ward and bonded servant, giving Arthur life-and-death power over the lad. Ben runs away to his grandfather, but rather than force the old man to live a life on the run, returns to Breetholm, vowing to endure whatever he must in order to one day prove himself a "true Blake" and recover his birthright.
Ben, now a young man (Tyrone Power), has fallen in love with Isabel (Frances Farmer), his cousin and Arthur's haughty and scheming daughter. Arthur discovers the relationship and thrashes Benjamin with his fists, knowing that he dare not resist. Ben confronts Arthur that night, but is threatened with jail for breaking into his room to assault him, a hanging offense. Ben flees arrest but his grandfather is imprisoned for helping Ben escape. Ben stows away on a ship bound for the South Seas, where he can make his fortune, prove his claim, and release his grandfather from prison. Ben is forced to join the ship's crew, but joins shipmate Caleb Green (John Carradine) in jumping ship at a Polynesian island. There he wins the trust of the native islanders, finds fortune (pearls), and takes a new love, a native girl he calls "Eve" (Gene Tierney). When a Dutch ship happens by, allowing them to fulfill their ambitions, Caleb discovers that the idyllic life in the islands is worth more than the pearls they have amassed, but Ben remains true to his vow and his imprisoned grandfather.
With their combined treasure, he returns to England under an assumed name to prove his birthright with the help of noted "man of influence," Bartholomew Pratt (Dudley Digges). Ben is betrayed after he goes to Breetholm to see Isabel, and is convicted by jury for the earlier offenses. Just as his death sentence is about to be pronounced, he is saved by Pratt, who proves that no crime was committed by showing that Ben's father and mother were married aboard a ship to India, and that "Sir Benjamin Blake" was in law the rightful baronet at the time. Ben discovers that it was Isabel who betrayed him and also repays the beating he received from Arthur. He emancipates the bonded tenants of Breetholm and divides the estate among them, deeding the manor house to his grandfather. Ben then returns to the Polynesian island to live out his life with Eve.

Tags: revenge, sadist

Review:
Those who claim Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift were the screen's all-time most beautiful couple apparently have never seen Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney.
George Sanders (looking amazingly like John Wayne in the early scenes) has one of his most brutally villainous roles and he plays it without flinching, this is no character you love to hate, he's one scary SOB.
This major 1942 film is also notable for giving breaks to two actresses who had been brushed off by many in Hollywood, the troubled Frances Farmer who plays Sanders' daughter (and Power's first love) and early talkie star Kay Johnson, making a very rare appearance, as Sander's wife.
Piper Laurie said of Tyrone Power, "Tyrone Power was Saturday afternoon at the movies." "Son of Fury" surely must have been one of those films that young people flocked to see on a Saturday afternoon - an island adventure starring one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.Power costars with a great cast that includes George Sanders, Frances Farmer, Gene Tierney, Roddy McDowell, and Elsa Lanchester.
He and Power would fight on screen again in "Solomon and Sheba." Power collapsed while he and Sanders rehearsed a sword fight and died very shortly afterward.Son of Fury, of course, is the type of film at which Power excelled, and there would be many more period pieces to come before his contract, interrupted by the war, finally expired.
Georgian Cad. Done a year before Tyrone Power went to war in those lovely South Sea Islands depicted here, Son of Fury is the film adaption of a best selling novel of that period, Benjamin Blake.
He puts him to work in the stable.As McDowall grows up to be Tyrone Power, he gets a thing for Sanders's daughter Frances Farmer and she him.
In fact Son of Fury is distinguished because of Power's involvement with two of the great screen beauties, Gene Tierney and Frances Farmer.
Tyrone Power's break out film was Lloyd's of London, also set in Georgian England and also having George Sanders playing a Georgian cad.
Perhaps because of the charm of past times, as a rule the characters are very nice guys, even the villains, like in "Son of Fury": who is really able to detest George Sanders?
The four leads- Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Frances Farmer, and George Sanders are perfect in thir roles.
SON OF FURY is a truly enjoyable if somewhat underrated adventure.Dashing Tyrone Power stars as Benjamin Blake who for many years vows to avenge himself against his cruel and tyrannical uncle(brilliantly portrayed by George Sanders).And so Benjamin sets forth on an adventure to the south seas to find his fortune.He is accompanied by Caleb Green(John Carradine).Together they find more than they expect in a remote pacific island when Ben falls head over heals for a local native girl which he calls Eve(played by the extaordinaraly beautiful Gene Tierney).
This film also features the late Frances Farmer before her tragic ordeals began and also Elsa Lanchester who aids Power and Harry Davenport as Ben's kind hearted grandfather.A great saturday afternoon movie with all the right elements of a classic adventure.
Some may remember Kenneth Anger taking this lush film's title and gender-bending it a bit to give his Frances Farmer chapter in "Hollywood Babylon" its tabloid tone, but this is truly a great movie (outside of the fact that it features not one, but two Tinseltown beauties who, in Anger's salacious words "drank at the well of madness") ...
Farmer, after a string of uneven pictures, is relegated to a supporting role here, but actually fares better than leading lady Gene Tierney because 1) her role is far more complex and 2) her on-screen chemistry with star Tyrone Power is much more palpable.
To see Farmer surrounded not only by the likes of such A-list talent as Power and Tierney, but a stellar George Sanders and very young Roddy McDowell is to get a glimpse of what might have been.
Well, all this DOESN'T go exactly as planned and Power meets a beautiful native girl played pretty convincingly by Gene Tierney.
...George Sanders would still have style (Ray Davis,"Celluloid heroes") Treacherous,diabolical,suave,cynical,sadistic ,but with a lot of class ,a touch of aristocracy ,an infinite refinement and a zest of noblesse oblige,Sanders was the villain of that era ;To see him play opposite dashing Tyrone Power is once more cause for celebration.Add Gene Tierney and it is a dream come true;too bad the actress's appearance does not exceed 20 min,but Power has nevertheless plenty of time to teach this Tahitian girl some elements of Shakespeare's language.Power portrays the proud hero ,whose wicked uncle takes to his home (the young man's home in fact)to make him a stable lad.This lord has stolen everything from his late brother but the nephew is not prepared to accept it.He is abetted by his grand pa and a crude girl with a golden heart.Very entertaining and the scenes where Power and Sanders play together are just a joy.Hasn't the ending got something from Rousseau or Thoreau?.
And he's at his darkest in the early scenes of SON OF FURY, where poor RODDY McDOWALL must do work as a stable boy for his cruel and mean spirited uncle.Later, when McDowall grows up to be TYRONE POWER (now that does strain credibility a bit), he finds romance on a desert isle with GENE TIERNEY and he seems to have found paradise.
That alone stretches credibility again, but the plot is the thing.We follow Power back to London again to be reunited with his lady love (a beautiful FRANCES FARMER) and resolve his problematic relationship with sneering Sanders.It's the kind of costume epic made for someone like TYRONE POWER, the sort of tale that played on the fantasies of young men who wanted to do the sort of adventurous wandering that he does, especially if someone like Gene Tierney was still waiting for his return.It's absorbing all the way, full of dark menace whenever he has to confront GEORGE SANDERS, in one of his best jobs as a sarcastic villain.
Gene Tierney makes one of her first and best appearances of a sort she could never repeat, Tyrone Power is here still on top, and George Sanders makes a typically unsympathetic bully with bravura.
It's the story of Benjamin Blake (played as a child by Roddy McDowell and later by Tyrone Power) who after being orphaned at an early age, is cheated out of his title and inheritance by Sir Arthur Blake (George Sanders), his sadistic uncle who keeps him as a bonded servant.Ben escapes and stows away to a remote island in the South Pacific at a time when travel was a lot more difficult than dropping into Harvey World Travel or hitting the Trivago App on your iPhone.
This was her last movie before her life fell apart.The second is Eve, the native girl Ben meets on the island played by Gene Tierney.
Not just darkly handsome, you felt there was depth to his characters, and he could wear a Regency top hat and coattails as though he was born to the era.For anyone who loves movies of the golden age, the fact that the film stars George Sanders is reason enough to see it.
The film features brilliant characterisations right down the cast list, and Alfred Newman contributed a vibrant score drenched in salt air and the aroma of the South Seas.You don't have to be a film buff to enjoy "Son of Fury", but it adds to the enjoyment if you know something of the stars and the filmmakers.
Nasty uncle's daughter (Farmer) secretly loves Blake, who ends up shipping out and eventually lands on a Pacific island full of friendly natives.
Great character actors support Power and Sanders, including John Carradine as a fellow ocean voyager, Harry Davenport at Ben's grandfather and Dudley Digges as Ben's quirky barrister.
Son of Fury is a fun movie featuring George Sanders, Frances Farmer, Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power.
(I think censors believed they were evil.)  Supposedly Power was having affairs with both Farmer and Tierney during the making of the film which must have kept him busy.Otherwise, a slight but interesting historical/romance with a disinherited hero (Power), his evil relative (Sanders), and final revenge..
'Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake' sounded like my kind of film.
It is inviting enough to see especially Gene Tierney, George Sanders and Elsa Lanchester in any film, to see them in the same film along with Tyrone Power, Frances Farmer and Harry Davenport is enough to get anybody excited.
'Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake' turned out to be a very well done and entertaining film.
This is a shame because 'Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake' does deserve to be better known and more widely available, and some of the cast actually give some of their most interesting and best work here (especially Tyrone Power and George Sanders), with such talent on board that is reason enough to see it.Didn't find an awful lot wrong actually.
The story is a slight one and can be predictable in places.Also thought that Tierney's character was underused and underdeveloped.However, 'Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake' is a gorgeously photographed film and while the locations may not be exactly authentic they are still handsome.
Regardless of whether Tierney is believable as an island girl (personally don't think she is, somewhat too glamorous), she still charms and is entrancingly beautiful, making the most of too little screen time.Farmer makes just as much of an impression with more to do and with the more interesting role, and really gives it her all to both icy and poignant effect without being cold.
In the movie, Roddy McDowell plays Ben as a boy while Tyron Power plays him after he grows into manhood.
His information proves to be correct, and they soon harvest a fortune in pearls to free themselves from their past stations.However, while on the island, Ben meets and falls in love with one of the island natives, whom he calls 'Eve' (Gene Tierney).
SON OF FURY, The Story of Benjamin Blake (20th Century-Fox, 1942), directed by John Cromwell, based on the novel "Benjamin Blake" by Edison Marshall, stars Tyrone Power in one of his finer adventure movie roles of his career.
The one with the least amount of time and most poignant of all comes from Elsa Lanchester, coming off best as the kindly barmaid who "was born in jail." Frances Farmer, in her last screen performance before personal tragedy took its toll, is exceptionally good as Power's initial love interest, though it seems rather odd for his Benjamin Blake to have a romantic interludes with his own cousin!
The scene where she's taught English from Benjamin is almost reminiscent to a Tarzan movie, only in reverse.Of the supporting male players, the bearded Carradine in striped shirt could very well be a character right out of "Treasure Island," but there's no question about the scene stealing George Sanders.
And George Sanders does a great job as well, and in 1947, to once again perform with Gene Tierney in one of my favorite movie classics "The Ghost And Mrs. Muir".I'll have to say this movie looked like it was quickly made to get to the theaters!
it is worth watching for the sheer fact that to have a film with both Gene Tierney and Frances Farmer in is pretty damn unusual!
He vows to return to a waiting Frances Farmer (Isabel) and to settle his own score with Sanders.The four main actors/actresses in this film had tragic outcomes in their lives and this is interesting in itself - the two main female leads spent time in mental institutions.
Turning to the male cast, it is George Sanders that excels as the villain of the piece and John Carradine (Caleb) plays a likable buddy for Tyrone on the island.
Farmer looks quite lovely in the picture and is probably her best remembered role.Ty Power is in his element as the young Benjamin Blake in the early part of the nineteenth century seeking restitution after being cheated out of his proper inheritance by his roguish uncle (Saunders).
After some time he meets and falls in love with a beautiful Polynesian girl (Gene Tierney).
He hires a lawyer (Dudley Diggs) who clears his name (in an excellent courtroom scene) and restores his rightful inheritance much to the chagrin of his uncle resulting in a well staged fist fight between Power and Saunders (an interesting analogy - some 15 years later in a fight scene with the same two actors while filming "Solomon & Sheba" (1959)- Tyrone Power would die on set from a massive heart attack.
He was only 44 years old!) SON OF FURY ends with him returning to the island and taking up where he left off with the native girl.This is my only complaint about the movie - the casting of Gene Tierney as a Polynesian native girl!
A charmingly innocent historical adventure, with a great cast of character actors (as well as Tyrone Power).
During the reign of George III, Benjamin Blake (Tyrone Power) is thought to have been born on the wrong side of the blanket, leaving his father's rich, titled inheritance to Ben's wicked uncle, Sir Arthur Blake (George Sanders), now baronet and the master of Breetholm Manor.
There are many other memorable characters...Elsa Lancaster as a prostitute with a heart of gold, another cliché but Lancaster turns the woman into someone we hope has a future...Dudley Diggs, so ripe and forgotten now, as the lawyer Bartholomew Pratt and Benjamin's deus ex machina...Frances Farmer, beautiful and calculating, who lets us know when she's aroused by breathing through her mouth...Harry Davenport as Ben's aged grandfather, kindness itself...and Roddy McDowell as young Ben. He was one of the best of Hollywood's child actors and is completely believable here.
Benjamin grows up to be a handsome young man, and now, as played by Tyrone Power (riding high on the success of 1940's "The Mark of Zorro"), after several violent turns with his uncle, flees to Polynesia to make his fortune.
Entering into a pearl-diving endeavor with fellow sailor Caleb Green (an untypically likable John Carradine), he makes his pile, falls in love with a beautiful native girl who he dubs Eve (Gene Tierney, in her seventh film), and returns to Bristol to claim what is his.
But many surprises await him on his return...."Son of Fury" is a marvelous adventure film, given the A-list treatment by 20th Century Fox. It features handsome production values, rugged direction by John Cromwell (father of modern-day actor James), and a beautiful score by Alfred Newman.
Young Ben Blake (later played by Tyrone Power) lives with his grandfather until his uncle George Sanders wants him, but only because Ty is the rightful heir to George's brother's and Ty's father's estate.
If you want to see an old-fashioned film with an epic feel to it and a lot of fun, then discover "Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake.".
The tale of a man who starts poor, goes away to a South Pacific Island in order to seek rare pearls (for wealth), plotting his return to London to claim the estate and title that he's been cruelly denied and is rightfully his, to do so, using money to fight, to exact his revenge, but in the end give it all up to return to the Island and the heart-melting Eve (Gene Tierney) (for love) is beautifully told and tremendously touching.The great strength of this movie is its sharp observations about the great fraud of the class system, human rights, and what's really important in life.
Yes the film Son of Fury --story of Benjamin Drake has always been one of my favourite films since I first saw it at age 14 in 1942I always liked adventure films where our hero starts off as a young lad, grows up under adverse conditions, has romances,runs away from a tyrannical uncle, Finds romance & wealth on a tropical Island paradise, goes home, vanquishes the uncle & returns to the tropic island & his lady love.That is basically the story line of this movie, John Cromwell directed this from the screenplay by Philip Dunne (both have extensive famous credits to there names.) This was adapted form the novel Benjamin Blake by famous(at that time) novelist Edison Marshall..Darryl F Zanuck produced this film himself (he ran & owned the studio 20 th.
Roddy McDowell (billed as Master Roddy McDowell) played him as a 12 year old.The beautiful Gene Tierney (one film away from her STARRING roles) was the island girl he falls in love with.
The ill-fated Frances Farmer (in her last major role) is the uncles spoiled daughter.John Carradine (he was making films for about 8 yrs already) plays sailor who befriends our hero.
The full blooded, lusty historical adventure "Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake" was the last of six films that John Carradine teamed with good friend and sailing buddy Tyrone Power.
The story opens some years earlier, with 'Master Roddy McDowall' playing the young orphaned Ben, quietly living with gunsmith Amos Kidder (Harry Davenport), his maternal grandfather, until the unwelcome arrival of his uncle, Sir Arthur Blake (George Sanders), who has carefully tracked down his nephew because Ben is the rightful heir to the estate of Breetholm Manor, following the death of his father, Arthur's brother Sir Godfrey.
I enjoyed this film a lot -- Tyrone Power is absolutely in top form in the role of the title character, Benjamin Blake, a man robbed of his inheritance and accused of being a bastard by his father's brother, the villainous Sir Arthur Blake as performed in high style by George Sanders.
Gene Tierney is the real love interest in the film, somewhat ridiculously cast as a native island beauty.
An entertaining tale of Tyrone Power, cheated out of his birthright by the villainous George Sanders.