Film Review
Based on a now largely discredited biography (
Friese-Greene, Close-Up of an Inventor
by Ray Allister), this romanticised biopic recounts the life story of
William Friese-Greene, one of the early pioneers of the moving
image. At the time
The Magic
Box was made, its claim that Friese-Greene was the man who had
invented the forerunner of the modern movie camera was highly
contentious, but in recent years it has gained currency. Whilst
the film is littered with factual inaccuracies it provides a warm
tribute to one of the all-but forgotten pioneers of cinema and helped
to prevent Friese-Greene's name from languishing forever in total
obscurity.
The Magic Box is a lavish
Technicolor production commissioned for the 1951 Festival of Britain, although it
was not put out on general release until the festival had ended and
proved to be an expensive box office flop. Produced by
Ronald Neame and directed by John Boulting (of
Brighton Rock and
I'm All Right Jack fame), the
film features a host of distinguished British character actors, most of
whom appear only fleetingly in small cameo roles. This cast list
reads like a
Who's Who of
British cinema circa 1950, the most prominent names being Margaret
Rutherford, Laurence Olivier, Joyce Grenfell, Peter Ustinov and Cecil
Parker. The eager-eyed will have fun putting a name to the famous
faces that momentarily appear on the screen, from Googie Withers and
Thora Hird, to William Hartnell and Sid James.
It was most probably on the strength of his Oscar-winning performance
in
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) that
Robert Donat was chosen to portray William Friese-Greene across many
decades, from spry young thing to frail oldster. Donat's
affable screen persona enlivens what could so easily have been a dull
and plodding melodrama, and few other English actors of this period
could have handled the pathos of Friese-Greene's declining years with
such delicacy and charm. Out-shining both his female co-stars,
Margaret Johnston and Maria Schell, Donat fills each scene he appears
in with the infectious enthusiasm of the dedicated inventor, but still
leaves place to reveal the human side of his character.
Eric Ambler's script is perhaps too faithful to Allister's biography,
but by employing a tidy flashback structure it manages to defer
Friese-Greene's moment of triumph to the end, allowing the film's final
sequence to have a particularly acute sense of poignancy. More an
inspirational film than an informative one,
The Magic Box both celebrates the
work of one overlooked genius whilst reminding us all that the most
important thing in life is not the attainment of success, but the
honest pursuit of one's dream.
© James Travers 2013
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
In 1921, an elderly William Friese-Greene visits his estranged wife
Edith and tries to persuade her to come back and live with him.
She refuses and recalls their earlier life together. Throughout
the time she was married to him, Friese-Greene worked tirelessly on his
experiments, neglecting his duties as a husband and father as he toiled
to improve the film camera he had invented. Edith concludes that
she never really knew her husband at all. Whilst attending a film
industry conference, Friese-Greene casts his mind back over an earlier
phase of his life, beginning with the period when he worked as a
portrait photographer in Bristol. It was here that he came to
meet his first wife, Helena, who selflessly supported him as he worked
on the invention he was certain would bring him fame and fortune: a
camera that could record moving images and project them onto a
screen...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.