The Legacy (1946)

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Movie
German title The legacy
Original title The Green Years
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1946
length 127 minutes
Rod
Director Victor Saville
script Robert Ardrey
Sonya Levien
production Leon Gordon for
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
music Herbert Stothart
camera George J. Folsey
cut Robert Kern
occupation

The legacy (original title: The Green Years ) is an American melodrama directed by Victor Saville from 1946. It is based on the novel The Green Years (1944) by Archibald Joseph Cronin .

action

1900: The child Robert Shannon travels alone from Dublin to his relatives in Scotland after his mother dies and he is now an orphan. The shy, sad Robert is greeted happily by his grandmother, but the cold-hearted grandfather Papa Leckie has a grudge against the boy. Eventually, Robert's mother - his daughter - had broken up with the family and married a "no good" Irishman. Papa Leckie does not want to provide a separate room for Robert and puts him up with his great-grandfather (on his grandmother's side) Alexander. This is a full-bearded, ancient man with a strange demeanor, of whom Robert is very afraid at first. But they both make friends quickly, because Alexander takes loving care of Robert and shows him the city. Because of his preference for alcohol, the great-grandfather is frowned upon by the strict members of the family. Robert is ostracized because of his Catholic faith in the otherwise Anglican village. In addition, the extremely strict great-grandmother (on the grandfather's side) tailors an ugly, green dress for the boy from her petticoat, with which he should go to school. At school, Robert is initially beaten up, but his great-grandfather gives him boxing lessons so that Robert can win the respect of his classmates and ultimately friendships. His great-grandfather burns the green dress without further ado and asserts against Papa Leckie that Robert get a suit for his communion .

Robert shows himself to be a brilliant student and wants to start studying medicine, but the curmudgeon Papa Leckie prevents that. He must first pay off the money that his upbringing would have cost by working in the mines. However, there are also people who stand by Robert, including his childhood sweetheart Allison, his schoolteacher Mr. Reid and of course his great-grandfather. Together they can outsmart Papa Leckie so that Robert can take part in a scientific competition that could secure him a scholarship to the university. With the help of Mr. Reid, Robert learns from morning to night for weeks. The young man does excellently on the first two days of the competition, but then Robert falls ill and misses the final exam - the scholarship is lost to someone else. Soon after, his childhood friend Gavin is killed by an approaching train, and his loving grandmother Mama Leckie dies - Robert doubts his faith and becomes more and more withdrawn. That Alison can study music at the university because of her extraordinary voice makes Robert all the more bitter.

Papa Leckie and his son Adam are already secretly hoping for the death of their very old great-grandfather, as they would then collect the money from his life insurance . The great-grandfather is treated with increasing cruelty in the house, but Robert now stands by him and accuses Papa Leckie of being cold. When the great-grandfather finally dies after having had a lot of fun at a village festival, Papa Leckie is already eagerly hoping for his fortune - in the will, however, the great-grandfather changed his will and bequeathed all of his money to Robert. As a result, Robert can now begin his medical studies at Allison's side.

background

Family films about earlier times (such as John Ford's Welsh family drama How Green Was My Valley ) were popular in the 1940s. The series of these films also includes The Green Years , which was shot for the then very high budget of over two million US dollars. The book of the same name by AJ Cronin was published two years earlier and became a bestseller. The film was a massive box office hit, grossing over $ 6 million.

The film had no star, but gathered an ensemble of well-known character actors such as Charles Coburn and Gladys Cooper. While Tom Drake had become known as an adult Robert two years earlier for his role as Judy Garland's friend in Meet Me in St. Louis , Dean Stockwell was still at the beginning of his career. This film and the good reviews got his child star career going. A special feature of the film is the cast of the then 35-year-old Hume Cronyn as grandfather, especially since he played the father of his own wife Jessica Tandy. Tandy was pregnant while filming and had her child just one day after filming closed. Hume Cronyn called this the perfect timing that only a talented actress like his wife could have done.

Awards

The film received two Academy Award nominations: Charles Coburn for Best Supporting Actor and George J. Folsey for Best Cinematography .

criticism

The critics in 1946 were mostly positive. The Variety was full of praise for Dean Stockwell, who would stand out through his nuanced and subtle portrayal over the usual child actors. In 1947, on the occasion of a Berlin showing of the film, Der Spiegel wrote: “The Berliners were prepared for a film that would go through generations when they looked up at the directory of M.-G.-M. Films 'The Legacy'. It was reminiscent of 'ancestors, grandmother, mother and child'. But then a varied piece of Scottish petty bourgeois life unfolded under the direction of Victor Savilles. There's a lot to see in this film: fights, school awards, family fights, exam problems, a Scottish fair, Robie's childhood love for a singing girl, and much more. The Berliners found the greatest pleasure in the humorous scenes around Charles Coburn, who plays the great-grandfather. He is a character comedian of stature, and he would be without the huge nose and the Scottish plaid pattern of his pants. "

Looking back over several decades, the Lexicon of International Films also praised itself : “Remarkable, occasionally somewhat laboriously developed film adaptation of JA Cronin's development novel; unobtrusively touching, discreetly socially critical, amiable. “Unfortunately, only the German dubbed version is inadequate. The US film critic Leonard Maltin described the film as a "sentimental tear suppressor" in which Charles Coburn would offer a wonderful performance as great-grandfather.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article on "The Green Years" at TCM
  2. ^ The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  3. ↑ Article on "The Green Years" at TCM
  4. ↑ Article about The Green Years at TCM
  5. ↑ Review in the mirror
  6. ↑ The Green Years at Two Thousand and One
  7. ↑ The Green Years at TCM (web archive)