Private Potter

Last updated

Private Potter
Private Potter FilmPoster.jpeg
Directed by Casper Wrede
Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
Casper Wrede
Produced byBen Arbeid
Starring Tom Courtenay
Mogens Wieth
Ronald Fraser
James Maxwell
Frank Finlay
Cinematography Arthur Lavis
Edited byJohn Pomeroy
Music byGeorge Hall
Production
company
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • 1962 (1962)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Private Potter is a 1962 British drama film directed by Caspar Wrede and starring Tom Courtenay, Mogens Wieth, Ronald Fraser and James Maxwell. [1] [2] The screenplay was by Wrede and Ronald Harwood.

Contents

Plot

During the Cyprus Emergency (1955–1959) Private Potter is a soldier who claims that the reason he cried out leading to the death of a comrade was that he saw a vision of God. There is then a debate over whether he should be court-martialled.

Cast

Production

The screenplay was written by Ronald Harwood for a television play that was broadcast on ITV in 1961 featuring some of the same main cast, including Tom Courtenay, and Caspar Wrede again as director. [3] Finnish-born director Wrede first spotted Courtenay while he was still at RADA [ citation needed ] and the leading role of the fragile young soldier who wilts under pressure was his first film appearance.

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote:

As the slack direction of the opening night scenes indicates, Casper Wrede has an eye for composition but lacks, as yet, the ability to use it constructively. Irritatingly inconsistent, he tediously over-emphasises that the slightest sound will ruin the initial military operation, and then allows some fairly noisy conversation among the men and staccato drumbeats behind the actual advance. Deprived even of the sort of significance it could so easily have had as the first sound to pierce a perfectly preserved silence, Potter's cry makes little impact: what is worse, the soldier's strange predicament never arouses much more than academic interest. This is not the fault of Tom Courtenay, who quickly establishes Potter as a credible human being in the grip of something he doesn't understand. The playing of the officers, however, sometimes displays that seeming lack of total involvement that can result from an uneasy amalgam of old school and "new wave" styles of acting, but in this case more obviously originates in an unconvincing script. James Maxwell gets the worst of it as a colonel apparently paralysed by the need to make a decision. His unlikely dilemma, finally exploded by the Brigadier's ponderous statement of the obvious, is presumably written in to give credence to the spirituality of Potter's experience. ... In fact, the scenes that should throw most light on Potter's development – like the session with the psychiatrist ... are shallow as well as undramatic. This failure to explore its own theme is the most disappointing thing about a potentially interesting film. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Courtenay</span> British actor

Sir Thomas Daniel Courtenay is an English actor. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he achieved prominence in the 1960s as part of actors of the British New Wave. Courtenay has received numerous accolades including three BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Silver Bear, and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Emmy Award. He was knighted for his services to cinema and theatre in the 2001 New Year Honours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Maxwell (actor)</span> American-British actor, director (1929–1995)

James Maxwell was an American-British actor, theatre director and writer, particularly associated with the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Exchange, Manchester</span> Grade II listed building in England

The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal Exchange Theatre and the Royal Exchange Shopping Centre.

<i>Gettysburg</i> (1993 film) 1993 film by Ronald F. Maxwell

Gettysburg is a 1993 American epic war film about the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. Written and directed by Ronald F. Maxwell, the film was adapted from the 1974 historical novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. It features an ensemble cast, including Tom Berenger as James Longstreet, Jeff Daniels as Joshua Chamberlain, Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee, Stephen Lang as George Pickett, and Sam Elliott as John Buford.

Sir Ronald Harwood was a South African-born British author, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for his plays for the British stage as well as the screenplays for The Dresser and The Pianist, for which he won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald Fraser (actor)</span> British actor (1930–1997)

Ronald Fraser was a British character actor, who appeared in numerous British plays, films and television shows from the 1950s to the 1990s.

<i>Otley</i> (film) 1969 British film by Dick Clement

Otley is a 1968 British comedy thriller film directed by Dick Clement and starring Tom Courtenay and Romy Schneider. It was adapted by Clement and Ian La Frenais from the 1966 novel of the same name by Martin Waddell, and released by Columbia Pictures.

<i>Gods and Generals</i> (film) 2003 American film

Gods and Generals is a 2003 American epic war drama film written and directed by Ronald F. Maxwell. It is an adaptation of the 1996 novel of the same name by Jeffrey Shaara and prequel to Maxwell's 1993 film Gettysburg. Most of the film was personally financed by media mogul Ted Turner. The film follows the story of Stonewall Jackson from the beginning of the American Civil War to his death at the Battle of Chancellorsville.

<i>One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich</i> (film) 1970 British film

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a 1970 biographical drama film based on the novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn with the same name.

<i>The Gentle Sex</i> 1943 British film by Leslie Howard

The Gentle Sex is a 1943 British black-and-white romantic comedy-drama war film, directed by Leslie Howard and Maurice Elvey and narrated by Howard. It was produced by Concanen Productions, Two Cities Films, and Derrick de Marney. It was Howard's last film before his death.

Baron Casper Gustaf Kenneth Wrede af Elimä, known as Caspar Wrede, was a Finnish theatre and film director. He was long active in the English theatre, co-founding the Royal Exchange theatre company in Manchester.

<i>Joey Boy</i> (film) 1965 British comedy war film by Frank Launder

Joey Boy is a 1965 British comedy war film directed by Frank Launder and starring Harry H. Corbett, Stanley Baxter, Bill Fraser, Percy Herbert, Lance Percival, Reg Varney and Thorley Walters. It was based on the 1959 novel by Eddie Chapman.

Braham Sydney Murray, OBE was an English theatre director. In 1976, he was one of five founding Artistic Directors of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, and the longest-serving.

Michael Elliott, OBE was an English theatre and television director. He was a founding director of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

Dilys Hamlett was a British actress.

<i>My Wifes Lodger</i> 1952 British film

My Wife's Lodger is a 1952 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Dominic Roche, Olive Sloane and Leslie Dwyer. The screenplay concerns a soldier who returns home after the Second World War only to find a spiv lodger has established himself in his place. It was based on the play My Wife's Lodger written by Roche.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Lang (British actor)</span> British character actor (1923–1970)

Harold Lang was a RADA-trained British character actor of stage and screen. During the 1950s, in particular, played many sly or menacing roles in B-films. At one time he managed his own theatrical company. From 1960, Lang, a devotee of Stanislavski, also taught acting at Central School of Speech and Drama; and director John Schlesinger filmed his work in a documentary, The Class, for BBC TV's Monitor, in 1961. He died of a heart attack in Cairo, Egypt, shortly before he was due to give a lecture.

<i>Fun at St. Fannys</i> 1955 British film by Maurice Elvey

Fun at St. Fanny's is a 1955 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Fred Emney, Cardew Robinson and Vera Day. The film revolves around the teachers and students at St Fanny's private school. It was based on Robinson's "Cardew the Cad" character which he created in 1942 and was featured in the BBC's Variety Bandbox programme.

<i>The Fourth Square</i> 1961 British film by Allan Davis

The Fourth Square is a 1961 British second feature crime film directed by Allan Davis and starring Conrad Phillips, Natasha Parry and Delphi Lawrence. The screenplay was by James Eastwood, based on the 1929 Edgar Wallace Four Square Jane. It is part of the series of Edgar Wallace Mysteries films made at Merton Park Studios from 1960 to 1965.

<i>The Barber of Stamford Hill</i> 1962 British film by Casper Wrede

The Barber of Stamford Hill is a 1962 British drama film directed by Casper Wrede and starring John Bennett. The screenplay was by Ronald Harwood, adapted from his own 1960 television play of the same name. It was made at Shepperton Studios.

References

  1. "Private Potter (1962)". BFI. Archived from the original on 25 October 2020.
  2. "Private Potter (1963) - Casper Wrede, Caspar Wrede | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie" via www.allmovie.com.
  3. "Private Potter (1961)". BFI. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  4. "Private Potter". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 30 (348): 18. 1 January 1963 via ProQuest.