Customer Reviews

Major Barbara [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A previous reviewer noted that the film was basically a platform to expound on George Bernard Shaw's views on munitions, war and other issues of the day, and rated it with one star.

I found that Shaw's social views, brilliantly elucidated by Robert Morley in a better acting performance than many of us have ever seen him in, are what make this a great film; whether you agree with them or, like Morley's estranged screen daughter Wendy Hiller in the title role, disagree, the dialogue is fascinating; the acting from Morley, Hiller, Rex Harrison, Robert Newton and a youthful Deborah Kerr, is first-rate; and the gritty London locales add greatly to the atmospheric ambience of the film. I hope the powers-that-be favor us with a DVD version of this great film soon.

First came on this movie while reading "The Arms of Krupp" by William Manchester ISBN: 0736607161 the paragraph that mentions this film is:

"Yet war ministers abroad were still very much aware of the family. So were the critics, as George Bernard Shaw demonstrated brilliantly in December 1905 when his "Major Barbra", a thinly veiled satire largely based on the Krupps, opened in London. In the play Barbara is substituted for Bertha, the head munitions family is named Sir Andrew Undershoot, and Bertha-Barbara is given a pacifist brother called Stephen."

The movie its self has some "Major" actors as Windy Hiller, Rex Harrison, and Robert Morley.

If you love Deborah Kerr, this film is one of her first acting gigs. She is about 19 years old. I loved it. The DVD is in a Non-USA Format so you will need a DVD Player that plays the different regions. I have a Phillips and it's great.

I have just watched the Eclipse DVD of Gabriel Pascal's version of "Major Barbara," and I was thoroughly delighted with it. Many viewers today might not sit still for a movie as talky as this, but for those with the patience, Shaw's witty, cutting observations on religion, society and money hit home just as strongly today as they did when this film was made 70-odd years ago. Watching the disillusionment of Salvation Army Maj. Barbara Undershaft (Wendy Hiller) as the General (Sybil Thorndike) accepts an enormous donation from Barbara's munitions-manufacturing father (Robert Morley), I thought, "When did I last hear about a controversy like this? Oh yes--Christopher Hitchens and Mother Teresa!"

The film is a virtual Who's Who of British theatre and cinema; besides Hiller, Morley and Thorndyke, the cast includes Rex Harrison, Robert Newton, Deborah Kerr, Emlyn Williams, Torin Thatcher and Stanley Holloway, and all are at their best. The technical credits are just as impressive--William Walton wrote the music, David Lean was an assistant director, etc. I found the movie enthralling, especially Morley's performance as that most benevolent devil, Andrew Undershaft, delivering his rapier lines with wide-eyed, childlike innocence. At one point he says to his son, "You know nothing, but you think you know everything. You are clearly suited for a career in politics." At another point, when a homeless man assails him--"I wouldn't have your conscience, sir, for all your income!"--Undershaft replies, "And I wouldn't have your income, sir, for all your conscience!"

My only complaint about this DVD is its total lack of extras; a "Making Of" documentary would have been extremely welcome. Otherwise, this version of "Major Barbara" deserves to be considered a classic.

First came on this movie while reading "The Arms of Krupp" by William Manchester ISBN: 0736607161 the paragraph that mentions this film is:

"Yet war ministers abroad were still very much aware of the family. So were the critics, as George Bernard Shaw demonstrated brilliantly in December 1905 when his "Major Barbra", a thinly veiled satire largely based on the Krupps, opened in London. In the play Barbara is substituted for Bertha, the head munitions family is named Sir Andrew Undershoot, and Bertha-Barbara is given a pacifist brother called Stephen."

The movie its self has some "Major" actors as Windy Hiller, Rex Harrison, and Robert Morley.

Once more the irreverent vision of Georges Bernard Shaw, carves in relief with this story about a rich girl who decides to join the Salvation Army. Wendy Hiller one of my beloved "brides" of the screen makes a delightful and terrific performance in this satire of mistakes where she will discover the other side of the life.

I am a hugh fan of Robert Newton, made famous as Long John Silver in Disney's Treasure Island. Seeing him in his younger days as would-be tough guy Bill Walker, was very interesting. You can clearly see glimpses of his future characters such as Long John Silver, Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist and so on. Having seen him mostly play rough guys it was aslo fun to see what a cutie his really is. The film isn't the greatest but I would definatly recommend see it despite critics pointing out its cinematic weaknesses and plot flaws. I am one of those people who simply watches a movie instead of analysizing the film to death, and it is worth watching.

When one watches a George Bernard Shaw play, one does not expect three-dimensional characters with social roles and inner lives. As the author puts it in a pompous forward to this film, 'Major Barbara' is a 'PARABLE' (his capitals), and the preaching never lets up. The title character (Wendy Hiller) is the daughter of a millionaire arms manufacturer (Robert Morley); she is a zealous Salvation Army officer, trying to convert the destitute of London with enthusiasm, sympathy and 'a bribe of bread'. She is seen one afternoon in mid-proselysation by Adolphus Cusins (Rex Harrison), an impoverished Classics scholar who determines to marry her. The stage is set for a typical Shavian problem play - you might subtitle the piece 'The Soul of Man Under Capitalism', with the religious fanatic and the urbane industrialist doing battle for the souls of the English working and middle classes. Barbara is tested by drama; Undershaft fights back with mind-numbing spectacle - capitalism's genius is that it absorbs all opposition. The loser is the audience. 'Barbara' is one of Shaw's less intolerable plays, with the odd funny line (all snatched by Marie Lohr as Barbara's aristocratic mother) peeping through the flat epigrams, laborious dailogues and general sterile clever-cleverness. The wonderful cast - Hiller saintly and sexy in military uniform; Harrison hysterically smart-*r*ed; Morley unflappably Machiavellian and Mephistophelean - do what they can, but they are playing Ideas, not Characters, and their attempts to blow life into cardboard only results in soggy paper. It's never nice being aggressively lectured to, and Shaw's grinding dialectic becomes less agreeable on the big screen - his use of old dramatic forms for non-dramatic purposes stops everything dead (although you can see how filming an ironic play about the armanents industry might have seemed radical during World War 2). The works isn't improved by Pascal's hapless filming (what can he do?), his style as clunky and grey as Shaw's sub-Wildean wit. There are some major talents behind the scenes, including David Lean as editor and William Walton as composer.