Michael Powell – Early Works

Fans of Michael Powell’s work will be eager to add this rarity to their collection. In this case, we are talking about a 2-disc Blu-ray set which showcases the director’s early work, with five films directed between 1931 to 1936.

We start with the little crime thriller RYNOX from 1931 (47 min) – this, by many, was thought lost but in 1990 a copy of the original print was found. Aficionados of vintage crime fiction will note it is based on a novel by Philip MacDonald (possibly best known for 'The List of Adrian Messenger' - filmed by John Huston in 1963). Powell and producer Jerome Jackson worked with MacDonald on the script, with cinematography by top men Geoffrey Faithfull and Arthur Grant (who many years later became virtually Hammer Films resident cameramen). Successful businessman F.X. Benedik (Stewart Rome), founder of Rynox Co. has a guilty secret… were it to be revealed it would give away the plot. We soon discover trouble is brewing for Benedik when starts receiving death threats from the mysterious and wildly eccentric Boswell Marsh. The trouble here is that you hardly need to be Sherlock Holmes to work out who the ridiculously disguised Marsh is. Of course, everyone is frightfully posh, it goes without saying. The film is somewhat static and moves at a rather unnaturally slow pace, or so it would seem to the modern viewer. We must bear in mind that the film was made n 1931 and talkies had only been around for a couple of years. The film was favourably received at the time although the twist doesn’t really come as a surprise.

The 1932 comedy caper HOTEL SPLENDIDE (53 min) is far more entertaining and we have practically all of the same technical team on board, though it was Ralph Smart (later to produce 'Danger Man' among other things) providing the script. Although you can invariably see what's coming round the corner, this will not spoil the overall enjoyment. Disillusioned bank clerk Jerry Mason (Jerry Verno) is a daydreamer who loathes his job, his colleagues and his superiors in equal measure. At the film's beginning we witness Jerry pretending to be 'the man in charge' (for his own amusement) and is caught in the manager's office playing out this lone charade by the actual manager. Oh dear! Next day our hero receives a letter informing him he has inherited a coastal hotel from a little known and recently deceased uncle. Wasting no time in telling the manager what he really thinks of him (he was going to be sacked anyway for his little prank from the previous day) he packs his bags and heads for 'Hotel Splendide', dreaming (once again) of a magnificent looking old building. Unfortunately, he’s in for a shock surprise when the place in question turns out to be far from being 'splendide'… much to poor Jerry's chagrin. This rather humble little dwelling had been built but a few years previously and ‘Gentleman Charlie’ (Edgar Norfolk), a recently released crook, had buried a trinket of exceedingly valuable jewels on the site before the hotel was built. So, we have the rather ridiculously overdressed (his dreams being on a grand scale) Jerry arriving at the 'Splendide' who, together with the young female caretaker, vows to vamp up the place. Would you believe it that the first guests are the crooks looking for the trinket which had already been unearthed and chucked unwittingly into the bushes when Jerry dug a deeper hole in the garden to plant a ‘Hotel Splendide’ flagpole to encourage visitors. And who is the mysterious and wheelchair-bound Mrs. LeGrange? At times you can almost see the basic bones of an early 'Carry On' flick here, with Kenneth Williams in the lead and Sid James as the head crook. Eagle eyes will spot a young and un-credited Michael Powell making a fleeting experience as the bugging device engineer (the crooks’ contact, that is).

On the second disc we are moving up a gear and are presented with the 63 min film called THE NIGHT OF THE PARTY from 1935. It was written by Roland Pertwee (father of Jon) and novelist John Hastings Turner. In this ‘whodunnit’, we are only too aware from the off that we are in the land of the ultra-posh who live in luxury still undreamt of by the masses. Here we witness the machinations of powerful and corrupt newspaper magnate (now there's a turn up for the book) Lord Studholme (Malcolm Keen), manipulating people more or less for his own amusement. He, however, will be hoist on his own petard, namely when he arranges a big party at his luxurious Grosvenor Square mansion inviting a number of disparate guests - most of whom have good reason to dislike him. They decide to play the 'murder game' – good, innocent childish fun where one guest is nominated to kill another (not for real, of course) but only the murderer and victim will know they have been nominated after the lights go out. You can guess what will happen here. The film did not receive terribly good reviews at the time and would have been nothing special had we not had the inimitable 'King of quirkiness' Ernest Thesiger ('Dr. Pretorius' in ‘The Bride of Frankenstein) on board as the disillusioned would-be novelist Chiddiatt, whose career was nipped in the bud by bad reviews from Studholme's newspaper. Thesiger is that curious mixture of an old man and a naughty errant child. His 'uniqueness' gives the film the uplift it needed. Powell's direction is as always competent. Top billed Leslie Banks has not a great deal to do as the titled detective Sir John Holland.

1930s matinee idol Hugh Williams (father of Simon Williams – Captain James Bellamy in ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’) is the leading man in HER LAST AFFAIRE (68 min). This crime drama from 1935 also offers a fine performance from Francis L. Sullivan as powerful businessman Sir Julian Weyre. Here we have a slightly awkward and somewhat complex situation: Alan Herriot (Williams) is employed as secretary to Sir Julian and we discover later why he's been given this high-ranking job. Anyway, Alan and has fallen in love with Sir Julian’s daughter Judy (Sophie Stewart) but there is no way Sir Julian is going to have his secretary marry his daughter! To complicate things further, Alan is also having an affair with his boss's wife, Lady Avril (Viola Keats). Well, we can see why she's attracted to dashing Alan. But wait… he is not having an affair with Lady Avril because he's a cad. No, he does in fact have a noble reason. The Lady in question knows the real reason why Alan's father was imprisoned for a felony he did not commit and he wants her to write a letter exonerating him. This she does despite now realising that Alan had an ulterior motive all along. This leads to a quarrel, which in turn leads to Lady Avril’s untimely death… and Alan is forced to scarper without finding the letter. And now our man Alan is in deep trouble as the two of them had absconded for an apparent 'romantic' weekend at an Inn in the English countryside when in reality, he was supposed to be in France. Upon his return, he hopes to find the letter but by that time, feisty chambermaid Effie (Googie Withers) had not only discovered the corpse but the letter, which is now in her possession. Reason being, she has taken a shine to Alan and tries to keep him out of trouble….

The final film starts out promising but then tends to run out of steam. BEHIND THE MASK (1936 but with an abridged version made in 1944) once again stars Hugh Williams as ace pilot Nick Barcley, who wants to marry Lady June Slade (Jane Baxter), something that Lord Slade (Peter Gawthorne) is anything but happy about. Yet again we are in the land of the ultra-rich. A magnificent masked ball is taking place in a luxurious mansion held by the pompous Lord Slade who proudly (and rather stupidly) displays to some of his guests his near priceless ancient shield 'The Shield of Kaam’ - which is more ancient than the Tower of London and the gem of his collection. Shortly afterwards a mysterious and heavily masked guest arrives - on his invitation card is written Nicholas Barclay Esquire, but is it our ace pilot? A shooting in the real Nick's flat earlier will alert you to some possible scenarios. The masked guest makes off with the shield and escapes in a waiting car outside - which just happens to have his Lordship's daughter Lady June sitting in it, but she isn't exactly panicked about this situation as she thinks it is Nick… Within minutes we have a number of suspects including his Lordship's own spendthrift son Jimmy (Ronald Ward) and of course Nick - all of whom were at college together and have a triangle-shaped tattoo on their right wrist. Meanwhile we have another super criminal in the shape of satin-robed ‘The Master’ (Maurice Schwartz), whose initial plan of getting his hands on the fabulous shield have gone awry. Just who was the bearded 'foreigner' who knew so much about the shield at his Lordship's ball… It all moves at a fairly cracking pace but somehow falls short of the mark - but it looks good and we have to bear in mind that 23 minutes are missing. While Powell’s early work is not in the same class as his later collaborations with Emeric Pressburger, these five films provide a fascinating window into what was to come.

As ever with BFI, a plethora of Bonus Material is on offer here, including:
Riviera Revels – Travelaugh No.1 and No.10 (1927, 26 mins total): Powell himself appears in these rare short comedy curiosities from the silent era / Inside the Archive: Riviera Revels (2024, 12 mins): Bryony Dixon explores the origins of Riviera Revels / Inside the Archive: The Early Films of Michael Powell (2024, 42 mins) documentary / Visions, Dreams and Magic: The Unmade Films of Michael Powell (2023, 41 mins) / Interview with cinematographer Erwin Hillier (1988, 26 mins, audio) / The Archers in Argentina(1954, 21 mins): Michael Powell and an international film-star entourage are captured on camera at an Argentinian film festival / Image galleries / Illustrated booklet (first pressing only).