The High Command (1938)

Very Cool!!!

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This new DVD was in a bargain bin for 50 cents, and is likely only available (in a poor transfer with bad sound) because it provides an vehicle for a very young James Mason. It has the feel of a movie that would have been given to promising young director, along with a trifling budget and an unrealistic shooting schedule. Props seem to have been borrowed from earlier films, much of it is shot on the back lot, and most was probably the first take. The script was a bit too bookish and wasn't revised as needed; consequently the plot turns heavily on some rather minor points that are not given the necessary emphasis, result being that it takes close attention to figure out that the plot actually does make sense and the story is, in principle, quite promising, although weak direction and acting beat it down, with the editor delivering the coup de grace. Yet in these many flaws lies the film's strength: you can see all of the ways in which this is an amateurish production, and in so doing, you can see what they should have done to get it right. In other words, this film tells you a lot about how to make pictures right by showing you how to make them wrong. It shows you a journeyman's picture out of the heyday of the studio era, and in that sense is historically interesting; and finally, if you see the struggles of cast and crew objectively, you can sympathize with them; they started off with a decent script and good intentions, but were defeated by inexperience, limited resources and too little time. Thus this film works, accidentally, as a movie about making movies.

I was able to see this 1937 film. It is on VHS from 'GoodTimes Home Video'. This film was from the Lewis Robinson's novel 'The General Goes too Far'. This film is a sensitive story of love, friendship and betrayal. Set in Ireland and moved to British East Africa. It is story of a man's forbidden love for a married beautiful woman of a army colleague. A British Army general officer weaves a yarn of tangled lies when he covers up a murder and continues to pursue a forbidden women. The film's final scenes on trial and suicide are most memorable with a watchable with James Mason acting his role very well. Lionel Atwill stars with Lucy Mannhiem. Directed by Thorald Dickinson.

The High Command has the advantage that American made films concerning Africa do not, that being actual location shooting in Africa because the UK was occupying large chunks of it. The story itself did not deal with the jungle per se, but rather is a tedious soap opera involving some of the occupiers.The story really begins back during the Irish Rebellion in 1921 where during a fit of rage Lionel Atwill murders a man who stole his sweetheart from him and married her. The blame is easily put on the Sinn Fein rebels, but a certain army doctor keeps the ballistic evidence of the crime.Fast forward fifteen years later to West Africa and Atwill and the doctor are stationed together again. The doctor is murdered, but the blame falls not on Atwill, but another man, James Mason who was thought to be embezzling company funds.The High Command is static and talky with everybody going around in the best stiff upper lip tradition. We certainly can't let these Africans know that their occupiers morals are less than perfect.Some good photography of Nigeria and the Gold Coast (later Ghana) is wasted on a trite story with characters you really cease caring about halfway through.

The High Command is a static and turgid mess that hints at great promise but never delivers the goods. Lionel Atwill stars as a British army officer who has a dirty secret: before being stationed in West Africa, he murdered a man in Ireland and blamed the death on the Irish Republican Army. Atwill is fine, but the rest of the cast is lacking--particularly a restrained James Mason, who looks uncomfortable underneath an assortment of false moustaches. Director Thorold Dickinson gives it the old college try, and his set-ups reflect the influence of Soviet social realism, the British documentary movement of the period, and even a hint of Hitchcock. Sadly, The High Command's talky story is completely uninvolving and Dickinson's visual flair is held in check as the film trudges to a mind-numbingly dull courtroom conclusion.