Review: The Scapegoat

Sir Alec Guinness stars as a rather despondent English teacher on holiday in France, who runs into his seemingly exact double, a wealthy Frenchman (also played by Guinness), at a pub. After some heavy drinking, the Englishman wakes up the next morning a little worse for wear, and his French counterpart nowhere in sight. However, the latter’s chauffeur (Geoffrey Keen) believes him to be the Frenchman, and eventually Guinness agrees to go to the Frenchman’s lavish estate to meet him and clear the confusion up. Unfortunately, his double is not home, either, and his eccentric family members refuse to believe his crazy story that he’s really an English tutor and bachelor. The Frenchman’s Italian mistress (Nicole Maurey) won’t hear of it, either. And then the wife apparently falls from a window to her death. Accident or foul play? Bette Davis plays the Frenchman’s bed-ridden mother, Annabel Bartlett is his precocious but slightly odd daughter, Irene Worth plays his wife, Pamela Brown is the taciturn Aunt, and Peter Bull his brother-in-law, who runs the family business.

Although it’s not terribly highly regarded, this 1959 adaptation of a Daphne Du Maurier book is jolly good Hitchcockian fun. In fact, as directed by Robert Hamer (“Kind Hearts and Coronets”), it’s vastly superior to Hitch’s own Daphne Du Maurier films, the vastly overrated “Rebecca” and the uneven “Jamaica Inn”. Sir Alec Guinness (Du Maurier’s own choice for the dual lead roles, apparently) looks to be having a good time of it playing doppelgangers, and with one exception, there isn’t a bad performance to be found in the entire film.

I said that Guinness appears to be having a good time, but one of the film’s strengths that helps set it apart from many other mysteries, is that it’s a rather melancholy mystery. Neither character Guinness plays is terribly happy with their lot in life. One’s life feels empty and is despondent, the other’s life is apparently too full. I’m not normally a fan of voiceovers, but when the voice is as mellifluous as Guinness’, one can’t complain. Guinness is held in high esteem as an actor, and in my opinion, that esteem isn’t high enough. He’s a brilliant actor, and does terrific work here. Also impressive are the inimitable Bette Davis and young Annabel Bartlett. Davis does a pretty damn convincing English accent here, and although not given much screen time, she makes an immediate and lasting impact. If you like Bette in “Baby Jane” or “Sweet Charlotte” mode as I do, you’ll enjoy her work here. She steals her every moment on screen, and in a way it’s quite a shocking role for her. It’s a real treat to see two of cinemas finest actors and greatest movie stars sharing the screen, and in my opinion, they don’t disappoint (Apparently they weren’t terribly fond of one another, and knowing Bette’s tempestuous reputation in particular, I can imagine that). It’s a shame Annabel Bartlett never acted again, because she’s good, and plays well off Guinness. Everyone’s a bit cracked here, and like the rather melancholic outlook of its protagonist, it adds something unique to the film. The one dud performance here is from Pamela Brown, who has been made up to resemble Mrs. Danvers from “Rebecca” to an annoying distraction and gives a rather stiff performance.

Excellent, noirish B&W cinematography by Paul Beeson (“Dunkirk”, “To Sir With Love”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”), and an immediately impressive score by Bronislau Kaper (“Gaslight”, “Mutiny on the Bounty”, “Song of Love”, “Them!”, “Home From the Hill”) add much to the overall effectiveness of the film.

Scripted by the director and Gore Vidal (“Ben-Hur”, the notorious “Caligula”), I wish it weren’t so transparent from the outset, because it’s otherwise a really interesting and unusual mystery. The film has an interesting ending that isn’t as conclusive as you might think, or as conclusive as the filmmakers might think, even (The novel, however, makes it clear, as does one important storytelling device in the film. So there is a definitive answer). Like the film itself, the ending probably works better today than it did on original release (It was a box-office flop, unfortunately).

Reminding one of films like “The 39 Steps” and “North by Northwest”, this is a nifty nourish mystery, with some fine performances and an unusually sad tone. It’s just a shame that the title pretty much gives the game away.

Rating: B-