The Winslow Boy (1999)

Director:

David Mamet

Writers (WGA):

Terence Rattigan (play)
David Mamet (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 April 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Early 20th century England: while toasting his daughter Catherine's engagement, Arthur Winslow learns...

Plot Keywords:

Parliament | Engagement | Royal Naval Academy | Military | Generation Gap

Awards:

4 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Matthew Pidgeon	...	Dickie Winslow
Rebecca Pidgeon	...	Catherine Winslow
Gemma Jones	...	Grace Winslow
Nigel Hawthorne	...	Arthur Winslow
Lana Bilzerian	...	Undermaid
Sarah Flind	...	Violet
Aden Gillett	...	John Watherstone
Guy Edwards	...	Ronnie Winslow
Colin Stinton	...	Desmond Curry
Eve Bland	...	Suffragette
Sara Stewart	...	Miss Barnes, Beacon Reporter
Perry Fenwick	...	Fred
Alan Polonsky	...	Mr. Michaels
Jeremy Northam	...	Sir Robert Morton
Neil North	...	First Lord

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:S (video rating) | Iceland:L | Norway:A | Canada:F (Ontario) | USA:G (certificate #36284) | Canada:G (Alberta/British Columbia/Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Nova Scotia) | South Korea:12 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | France:U | Germany:o.Al. | New Zealand:G | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | UK:U | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Winslow Partners Ltd.

Trivia:

Not only do both movies The Winslow Boy (1999) and An Ideal Husband (1999), feature Jeremy Northam as a character named "Sir Robert", his performances in those movies also won him the same two awards (Evening Standard British Film Award's "Best Actor" & ALFS Award's "British Actor of the Year").

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Reflected in the cab window as Mr. Curry gets out.

Quotes:

Grace Winslow: You don't behave as if you are in love.
Catherine Winslow: How does one behave as if one is in love?
Arthur Winslow: [Looks at the book Catherine is reading] One doesn't read "The Social Evil and The Social Good." One reads Lord Byron.

Movie Connections:

Version of The Winslow Boy (1958) (TV)

A matter of honour

Terence Rattigan's classic English play from the 1940s but set just before WW1 has been filmed at least five times. This 1999 version is by the American director David Mamet, with his wife Rebecca Pidgeon in a lead role as the Boy's sister Catherine, along with Nigel Hawthorne and Gemma Jones as the parents. The acting honours however truly belong to Jeremy Northam as their barrister, Sir Robert Morton, who finds himself strangely attracted to young Ms Winslow. He is the full QC-MP, urbane, smooth as silk (dammit he is a silk) and deeply cynical, scambling up the greasy pole at Westminster, using his legal skills as best he may. Yet he compromises his career by taking the case. It involves the absurdly trivial matter of the alleged theft of a five shilling postal order but by the time it's over Sir Robert and his clients have managed to put the Navy and half the government on trial. Northam make this almost unbelievable transformation seem not just likely but inevitable.

`The Winslow Boy' is of course based on a real case, the Archer-Shee affair, though Rattigan modified the story substantially. In particular the Archer-Shee's counsel, Edward Carson, the prosecutor of Oscar Wilde and raving anti-Irish home ruler, never became personally involved with the family. He was made a law lord (top British judge) shortly after so his quite spectacular career was not affected by his involvement in the Archer-Shee case. Yet the most interesting thing in the film is the entirely ficticious relationship between Sir Robert, the conventional male supremacist and Catherine, the dedicated suffragette. In the end sex triumphs over politics, as it so often does. A pity it did not do so in the case of Lord Carson.

The Boy himself has a wonderful line in English Public School patter (I'm sure an American audience would need sub-titles). Sadly the real Boy was killed in WW1, which also killed the society to whom the Archer-Shee case was so important.