So Well Remembered

Plot synopsis:
At the end of World War II in the Lancashire mill town of Browdley, town councillor, newspaper editor, and zealous reformer George Boswell (John Mills) recalls the past 26 years of his life. In 1919, he defends Olivia Channing (Martha Scott) when she applies for a library job. Her cotton mill owner father John Channing (Frederick Leister) had been sent to prison for almost 20 years for speculating with and losing many people's money.
George falls in love with Olivia, though it scandalises the townspeople, and eventually proposes to her. That night, she has an argument with her father. He has Dr. Richard Whiteside (Trevor Howard) drive him into town to speak to George, but they crash on a washed-out road and John is killed. Olivia then agrees to marry George.
Trevor Mangin (Reginald Tate), Browdley's most influential businessman, asks George to run for Parliament. Seeing an opportunity to further his reforming efforts, George agrees, much to Olivia's delight.
Whiteside brings George an alarming report about the danger of an epidemic in the town's filthy slums. Mangin, who owns many of them, produces a more optimistic one. Given that Whiteside has taken to drinking heavily since the accident, George accepts Mangin's report, causing the council to vote to do nothing. However, a diphtheria epidemic breaks out, just as Whiteside feared. A free clinic is opened to inoculate the healthy children and treat the sick. George tells Olivia to take their son there, but she cannot bear to do it, resulting in the child's death.
When George drops out of the election because of Mangin's lies, Olivia tells him that she is leaving him. George realises that she married him solely for his prospects. They go their separate ways. He eventually rises to mayor, while she remarries a rich man and has another son, Charles Winslow (Richard Carlson). Meanwhile, Whiteside takes in a baby girl, Julie Morgan (Patricia Roc), orphaned at birth. George helps raise her.
Many years pass. A widowed Olivia returns, takes up residence in her father's mansion, and reopens the Channing mill. Her son becomes a flier in the Royal Air Force in World War II. On leave, he meets Julie and they fall in love. However, Olivia does not want to relinquish her son. Charles is seriously injured in combat, his face disfigured. This enables Olivia to isolate and retain control of him, until George manages to convince him to break free and marry Julie. When Olivia arrives, looking for her son, George reveals that he has figured out that Olivia did nothing to prevent her father from driving to his death, though she must have known that the road was washed out. Whiteside had overheard the Channings' argument; knowing his daughter, John Channing intended to warn George against her.

Tags: murder, flashback

Review:
A typically well-made British drama (with an Anglo-American cast including John Mills, Martha Scott and Trevor Howard); rarely seen today and deserves a far wider audience.
Based on a novel by James Hilton ("Lost Horizon"), who also does the narration, "So Well Remembered" captures perfectly the gloom of a poverty-stricken British village; chronicles the efforts of a newspaper editor (Mills) to fight for better living conditions.
Great atmospheric black-and-white photography; good performances by Mills and Martha Scott as his ambitious, class-conscious wife who grows ever resentful of her husband's dedication to his village.
It includes exceptional performances by two of the finest actors of our time, John Mills and Trevor Howard.
And sad too because from this talented cast I've seen some of the best performances from them.Another thing that puzzles me as far as the film being lost is that James Hilton was such a popular author on both sides of the pond.
I would have thought this film would have been as frequently revived as Random Harvest, Goodbye Mr. Chips, and The Lost Horrizon.Hilton narrates the film and for both British and American audiences it was a familiar voice, they heard it many times on radio.
Hilton was never shy about promoting his own work on the best media available to him.Like Random Harvest the story takes place in the years between the World Wars.
John Mills is an earnest young reformer who both wants to do some good in this old world for the people of the small Lancaster mill town that he comes from.
Leister went to prison and upon this the story begins as his attractive young daughter Martha Scott is looking for employment as a librarian.The towns folk want to visit the sins of the father on her, but Mills is a forgiving sort and persuades the town to hire her.
And that this performance was lost all these years didn't help Martha Scott for posterity's sake.Trevor Howard plays Mills's best friend, the alcoholic town doctor, no doubt a character Hilton borrowed from many a Hollywood western.
Except he does perform one good act of charity in the film.The hero/protagonist that John Mills plays would have been done by Jimmy Stewart if So Well Remembered had an American setting.
Mills is like so many Capra heroes, the decent and honorable man on whom the people look for leadership and who has his flaws as well.
First of all let me tell you that the copy I watched on video is produced by Hectic House Records and sold in the town of Macclesfield, England, - the location at which the movie was shot.
Trevor Howard once again plays a doctor (recalling "Brief Encounter"), except this time a sullen, often drunken character; but nevertheless a highly moralistic and commendable Dr. Richard Whiteside.
Martha Scott's performance as Olivia Channing reminds males of all ages how it is always possible for a weeping, vulnerable pretty young woman can be a devil in disguise!
Great performances from the rest of the cast, including a 'natural' performance from Hayley Mills as baby Julie.Macclesfield as a Town has changed considerably since 1947; in fact it's one of the wealthiest areas of the whole of the UK in 2004.
I viewed this 1940's movie on TCM last evening and was impressed by the quality of the film-making and the leading character's integrity and social conscience.
These qualities led the youthful councillor, played by John Mills, to defend the woman he would fall in love with, Martha Scott, little knowing the consequences he would face in later life.John Mills always seemed so gifted at portraying classy British gentlemen and this is certainly the case in this role.
The rain was so real it gave me a chill just looking at the screen as the young couple went running through the cobblestone streets and took refuge under a bridge.Though somewhat flawed, this movie is a worthy addition to the library of British black/white cinema from the mid-20th century.
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 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.
Hectic House in Macclesfield bought an original print of this film and have released it on VHS & DVD- primarily as a historic record of the town in the 1940s.
It has been suggested that Macclesfield was chosen as the location for "the Lancashire mill town of Bowdley" in 1946, as the Luftwaffe had paid no visits in the preceding years - and much of the film is set in the 1920's.
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.
The British Rank Organisation came up with a gem of a 1947 film, "So Well Remembered." Interesting to see the usually kind and sympathetic Martha Scott playing a nasty sort of woman here.
You wouldn't think that from the beginning of the film when Scott as Olivia seems to be a victim of her father's imprisonment.Sociologists would enjoy this film tackling the housing situation in Britain circa the post-World War 1 period.
Carlson is extremely good here,especially in his disfigured scenes when mother Scott becomes totally possessive.Trevor Howard shines as an alcoholic doctor.
The unevenness of the film may be shown from the problems of poverty to the all-possessive Olivia who tries to smother her war-injured son.(Carlson).
She is finally rebuked in her effort to do this by Mills, who should have done this years before.An interesting film, well acted..
This film had a great story about a small English town and its people during WWII and the poor living conditions for the average family and the poor health conditions.
John Mills,(George Boswell) ran a newspaper in town and fell in love with Martha Scott,(Olivia Channing) and they eventually were married.
There was great acting performed by John Mills, Martha Scott, and many other great veteran actors..
I bought this film on eBay.co.uk and its cover revealed it is distributed by "Onyx Media International" under the banner of "2 Classic British Movies", the other being "The Rakes Progress" with Rex Harrison, Lilli Palmer, Griffith Jones & Jean Kent.But to "So Well Remembered", like other reviewers I was mildly surprised that I had not heard of this film until now, especially as I am a connoisseur of 1940s films.In 1947 Britain was almost bankrupted by the second world war and only managed to repay its war debt in 2006.For this reason producers who wanted higher production values sometimes had to compromise on cast and market films like this to the U.S.(our biggest creditor), which had the money, to market to American audiences.For this reason and despite a plethora of British acting talent available at the time, they cast Martha Scott (born in Missouri) to play the Cheshire born wife Olivia of John Mills (George Boswell).It is hard enough for even English actresses to get the Lancastrian/Cheshire intonation right and in "Coronation Street" the long running (50 years!) British soap, they tend to cast authentic Lancashire born actresses for the sake of social realism.By the same token casting Richard Carlson as Charles Winslow, I found his American speech patterns destroyed what should have been a realistic story set in a grim northern English setting.Those two actors (not their fault just circumstances) completely destroyed the illusion, making the story seem almost surreal.Another reviewer points out that the fictitious town of "Browdley" was actually shot on location in Macclesfield, now considered an affluent enclave of Cheshire (which borders Lancashire).It is where rich Lancastrians tend to gravitate e.g. premiership footballers.I was pleased to see Patricia Roc (Julie Morgan) and Trevor Howard (Dr.Richard Whiteside) who gave top support billing to Mills & Scott.Also the ever reliable Beatrice Varley (Annie) whose favourite role of mine was as "Aunt Prowd" in "Gone to Earth" (1949).Even the minor actors got my attention, there was Roddy Hughes ("Quiet Wedding" 1941 and "A Girl Must Live" 1939") and Ivor Barnard popping up playing "Spivey" the type setter.Ivor appeared most notably in David Lean's "Great Expectations"(1946) playing "Wemmick" who was "Jaggers" clerk, again with John Mills as Pip.There was a social message in the film which portrayed the abject poverty and disease prevalent amongst the poor between the two world wars.Major improvements to housing and health were urgently required and the pacifist British Governments of the 20s & 30s put this as paramount in their social order (but ignored the threat from Germany).I marked this film 6/10..
I crave the DVD release of The Chalk Garden with Mills, Hayley Mills, Deborah Kerr and Dame Edith Evans!Trevor Howard is another great film actor who never received the recognition he deserved..
James Hilton was the most gentlemanly author in England's 20'th century together with John Galsworthy, and also this Bleak House drama is told very suavely with a gentleman's kind politeness all the way.
You have to love Olivia Channing as much as John Mills does, until he has to face the facts when almost everything is too late.To see this novel realized on screen I experienced as a miracle.
I always enjoyed James Hilton almost more than any other English author of that century for his always musical language, which even that is fully realized in the film.A few years later Edward Dmytryk, exiled from Hollywood, made his masterpiece "Give Us This Day" about Italian immigrant workers in New York 1929 completely filmed in London (with New York recreated in studios), another important milestone of social realism (see my review).
Trevor Howard had just made his "Brief Encounter" perfect gentleman of a doctor, while he here is hard on the bottle from the beginning to end, although John Mills after twenty years only has to carry him home from the pub twice a week.Martha Scott finally is perfect as Olivia, beautiful, charming and mysterious, giving from the beginning quite a good impression of herself as a beauty of mysteries that could be dangerous not only for your peace of mind..
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.
It was during the week between Christmas and New Years, so my mind was occupied with other matters so all I really remembered was that it starred John Mills and that it took place over the span of several decades, but something about the movie stuck in my head.
Thanks to IMDb I was able to identify it as "So Well Remembered", and that it was out on DVD.John Mills is great as George Boswell, reform-minded newspaper editor and member of the town council in a bleak Lancashire mill town, who falls in love with the daughter of the town pariah, a corrupt industrialist.Based on a James Hilton (Lost Horizon) novel, the film has it's share of soap opera-like moments, but enough of its literary heritage to tell a highly compelling story.
Nevertheless, it's one of a number of politically engaged films at that time to reflect the new broom sweeping British politics during the premiership of Clement Attlee.Based on a 1945 novel by James Hilton (who also narrates), it compares interestingly with the Boulting Brothers' adaptation of Howard Spring's 'Fame is the Spur', released a couple of months later, in which as Hamer Shawcross, Michael Redgrave as the film progresses is made up more and more to resemble Ramsey MacDonald as he ditches his early revolutionary principles to rise to the top.
George Boswell (played John Mills) by comparison, despite pressure from his self-centred, patrician wife, remains true to his youthful idealism, resigns from his parliamentary seat and is content to settle for becoming Mayor of the fictional Lancashire mill town of Browdley (actually shot in Macclesfield).The film's cynicism about the compromises required to get on in Westminster are sadly as relevant today as ever; as is attested to by the public support Tony Blair's New Labour received from lifelong Tory voter John Mills in the 2001 General Election..
As some film historians have demonstrated, when Hollywood's main audience began to shift from working class to middle class around 1920, class conflict as a political and economic issue (as opposed to a romantic and social concern) all but disappeared from American movies.But the portrayal of British class conflict is not the main reason to watch SO WELL REMEMBERED (which, in fact, also sets forth the conflict largely in terms of romantic relationships).
(John Paxton adapted James Hilton's novel for the film, and Hilton -- best known as the author of LOST HORIZON -- also narrates some portions.) John Mills makes an appropriate working-class hero, trying to remain loyal to his origins while at the same time tempted by the opportunities presented to him to rise above them.
Trevor Howard, however, steals the film as an alcoholic doctor -- he makes the most of every moment on the screen.
Martha Scott -- a very active actress who nonetheless did not become especially well-known to the public -- has the most difficult part in the film, transitioning from a sympathetic young woman into a selfish (and, horrors!
Patricia Roc was one of England's most popular film performers in the '40s but was rarely seen in the United States.
It would have been interesting to know more about his character, who, in some ways, is at the root of the story.One should also congratulate director Edward Dmytryk and his collaborators for the gritty location photography, another feature that makes this film worth more than one viewing.SO WELL REMEMBERED also is notable for the collaboration of Dmytryk and producer Adrian Scott.
And about the time SO WELL REMEMBERED was first being shown in the United States, Dmytryk, Scott and eight screenwriters -- the celebrated "Hollywood Ten" -- would be ruled in contempt of the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities for refusing to answer the committee's questions regarding Communist involvement in Hollywood.
Considering the class-conflict background of SO WELL REMEMBERED, perhaps it's not surprising that this film has been so well overlooked (one wonders how long it actually played in American theaters in 1947).
However, what makes it interesting is NOT this confrontation between the good man and the prejudiced town,...this is only the beginning of the plot.
He marries the daughter of the most hated man in town and the average viewer will probably THINK they know where the film is heading--and it takes a sharp turn in another direction.
Superb British film written and narrated by James Hilton.
It was filmed in location in England, giving the viewer a really good sense of what England looked like at the end of WWII.
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.
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.
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.
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.