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Fame Is the Spur (film)

Fame is the Spur is a 1947 British drama film directed by Roy Boulting. It stars Michael Redgrave, Rosamund John, Bernard Miles, David Tomlinson, Maurice Denham and Kenneth Griffith.[2] Its plot involves a British politician who rises to power, abandoning on the way his radical views for more conservative ones. It is based on the 1940 novel Fame Is the Spur by Howard Spring, which was believed to be based on the career of the Labour Party politician Ramsay MacDonald.[3]

Fame is the Spur

Boulting Brotherrs in association with Two Cities Films
  • 23 September 1947 (1947-09-23)

116 minutes

United Kingdom

English

over $1 million[1]

Plot[edit]

When Hamer Radshaw, a young man from a North country mill town, commits to help the poverty-stricken workers in his area, he takes as his Excalibur a sword passed down to him by his grandfather from the Battle of Peterloo, where it had been used against workers. As an idealistic champion of the oppressed, he rises to power as a Labour M.P., but is seduced by the trappings of power and finds himself the type of politician he originally despised.

as Hamer Radshaw

Michael Redgrave

as Ann

Rosamund John

as Tom Hannaway

Bernard Miles

as Lady Lettice

Carla Lehmann

as Arnold Ryerson

Hugh Burden

as Aunt Lizzie

Marjorie Fielding

as Old Buck

Seymour Hicks

as Hamer as a boy

Anthony Wager

as Ryerson as a boy

Brian Weske

Gerald Fox as Hannaway as a boy

Jean Shepeard as Mrs Radshaw

Guy Verney as Grandpa

as Suddaby

Percy Walsh

as Lord Liskead

David Tomlinson

as Dai

Charles Wood

as Magistrate

Milton Rosmer

as Pendleton

Wylie Watson

as Radshaws' Doctor

Ronald Adam

as Emma

Honor Blackman

as Meeting chairman

Campbell Cotts

as Prison doctor

Maurice Denham

as Wartime Miners' Representative

Kenneth Griffith

as Wartime Miners' Spokesman

Roddy Hughes

as Old Woman in Election Crowd

Vi Kaley

Laurence Kitchin as Radshaws's secretary

as Doctor

Philip Ray

as Reporter

Gerald Sim

as Man in Election Crowd

Harry Terry

as Woman Who Opens Front Door

Iris Vandeleur

H Victor Weske as Wartime Miners' Representative

as Radical Orator

Ben Williams

Critical reception[edit]

In The New York Times at the time of the 1949 American release, Bosley Crowther commented: "this John and Roy Boulting film has vivid authority and fascination...But, unfortunately, a full comprehension of the principal character in this tale is missed in the broad and extended panorama of his life that is displayed...Mr. Redgrave is glib and photogenic; he acts the 'lost leader' in a handsome style. But he does not bring anything out about him that is not stated arbitrarily";[4]


The Radio Times reviewer David Parkinson has praised Redgrave's "powerhouse performance, with his gradual shedding of heartfelt beliefs as vanity replaces commitment having a chillingly convincing ring. But such is Redgrave's dominance that there's little room for other characters to develop or for any cogent social agenda."[5] According to Allmovie, the film is "sometimes slow-moving", but "is an interesting look into the reasons why the Labor [sic] and the Conservative factions are at loggerheads with each other in Great Britain".[6]

at IMDb

Fame Is the Spur

at Variety

Review of film

at University of Birmingham

Archived copy of Nigel Balchin's screenplay c1946