Tom Brown's Schooldays

Tom Brown's portly father sent him off to Rugby in 1834, when Dr. Arnold was just starting to strip the school of some of its more brutal and debasing traditions. Little Tom found plenty of brutality nonetheless. He faced it straightforwardly, never whimpering, never compromising.

John Howard Davies somehow manages to keep his portrayal of Tom from falling into the superficial cliches of the usual schoolboy hero, and Robert Newton saves Thomas Arnold from becoming the well-known, stock Kindly Schoolmaster.

The whole movie, in fact, is a winning battle against cliches and stock characterizations. For every consequential character is either very good or thoroughly evil. Tom Brown does one outstanding feat of heroism and pluck after another. Dr. Arnold exhibits wisdom, patience, and understanding in an endless succession of situations. And Flashman, the bully, spends hardly a moment without doing something nasty, sadistic, and depraved. Yet the film moves along quickly, with humor and charm.

Davies is chiefly responsible for the success of the film, since he occupies the screen more than 90 percent of the time. His intelligent and perceptive face, dominated by large, expressive eyes, makes him the most interesting child actor in decades. In a role such as this, where there is no doubt that Tom Brown will do the heroic thing, it is most essential that the actor convey a great deal of emotion. If it weren't for Davies, the movie would probably be hopelessly dull.

Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt is the second feature. This revival stars Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright as uncle and niece in a tense family situation involving murders, detectives, and telepathy. For a Hitchcock, this film moves along very slowly, though it has some fine moments. Patricia Collinge, the world's most insipid mother, lives through the picture. Otherwise, this is a highly satisfactory co-feature.