Alfred Polly is having a mid-life crisis. He has been unhappily married for fifteen years to Miriam, his business is going down the pan and he just doesn't know where to turn next. Deciding to kill himself, he sets fire to his shop so that he will die, but his wife will be left with the insurance money. Things don't go quite according to plan though, when he realises that an old lady may die in the fire too - he saves her life and becomes a local hero. Still stuck in his rut though, he just leaves one day with nothing but the clothes on his back and after several days tramping, finds himself a job in a rural inn run by an easy-going woman. Has he finally found what he is looking for? Or will his guilt over Miriam force him to return to her side?
This has been a The History of Mr Polly year for me. Having been a book I grew up with, I was delighted to see Lee Evans in the title role in a televised version earlier this year. Then I read the book again. And now I have seen the 1949 film version starring John Mills.
So how did it compare? Well, all the versions have their own merits, and nothing will ever beat the original book version, but on the whole, I think I preferred the Lee Evans one over this one for a number of reasons.
Mr Polly is a slightly nervous little man, with a strange turn of phrase and a tendency to like the limelight when he gets the chance. Now, I admire John Mills very much as an actor, but I just didn't think that he was quite right for the role. For a start, at the beginning of the film when Mr Polly is a young man, John Mills is obviously too old for the role, although he does grow into it as the film progresses. But then he doesn't seem to take on Mr Polly's comic touches in the right way - in fact, he is not very comic at all and therefore not at all as he is portrayed in the book. I have to admit it, I was disappointed and it is not just because Lee Evans was head and shoulders better, but because Mills doesn't take on the role of the original Mr Polly either.
Betty Ann Davies plays Mr Polly's wife, Miriam. I thought she was great in the role. She plays it will just enough girlish innocence at the beginning, progressing to the shrewish woman that she becomes with great gusto. I would have liked to see more of her, to be honest, because she offset my frustration with John Mills.
The History of Mr Polly, based on the book by H G Wells (better known for his science fiction books), is a bit of an odd story. In some ways, I am annoyed by his desire to leave his wife in the lurch just so that he can find his own happiness. In another way, I totally sympathise with what is obviously a mid-life crisis - I'm going through one myself at the moment - and I like the way that it has been dealt with in the film, with sympathy for both Mr Polly and his wife. However, for a newcomer to the story, there is a distinct lack of character development and I think much of the charm of the book has been lost in this version.
I like black and white films and am usually very critical of anyone who refuses to watch a film because it isn't in colour. However, in this case, I did find it quite off-putting that it wasn't in colour. Mr Polly's treks through the countryside, his time spent working in shops and the fire in particular all demand colour and the director, Anthony Pelissier, doesn't seem to have made much of an attempt to overcome this by using some other method of catching the eye.
Bearing in mind that this story has been re-made in colour, I doubt very much that I will ever chose to watch this version again - something I rarely say because re-makes are generally inferior to the original. I don't regret having watched this film - I did enjoy it to a certain extent because I have a great fondness for the story - I just don't think it was made as well as it could have been, particularly for an English film of the period. Unless you are a particular fan of John Mills or films of the period, I would recommend going for the Lee Evans version any time. For me, Evans pulled off Mr Polly's idiosyncracies with aplomb and I doubt that anyone will outdo him. With great regret, I don't recommend watching the John Mills' version.
If you are still interested in purchasing a copy of the DVD, it is available from play.com for £9.99.
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 2003 - Drama - Director: Michael Winterbottom - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Tim Robbins, Samantha Morton, Om Puri, Jeanne Balibar
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Oct 14th, 2007
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