Newton Wonder

During the Second World War, Robert Newton enlisted in the Royal Navy and served on H.M.S. Britomart as an escort ship on several Russian convoys. He was medically discharged in 1943. He resumed his acting career with Noel Coward's This Happy Breed (1944)and Laurence Olivier's production of Henry V (1944), playing Ancient Pistol in the latter. After the war, two of his films were Odd Man Out (1947) and David's Lean's version of Oliver Twist (1948). By now in his mid forties, he was given the lead role in the attempted-murder thriller Obsession (1949).

Newton plays a well-off doctor, Clive Riordan, who finds out his wife Storm (Sally Gray) is having an affair with a younger American, Bill Kronin (Phil Brown). He forces Kronin to a deserted cellar (the bombed site is especially creepy) and chains him to a bed. The aim is to keep him there until interest is lost by any police search, then dissolve him in an acid bath. He slowly fills a bath with the acid, using hot water bottles (which, strangely don't perish!). The scene in his small medicine-cum-laboratory reminded me slightly of Jekyll and Hyde and it gave rein to what little Newtonesque eyeballing there was in the entire film.

On his trail is Supt. Finsbury - a very laid back Naunton Wayne. Although the first part of the film was perhaps a little slow, I never found it tedious. Storm's dog played its part well - the play from which the film was taken was called A Man about a Dog - and Riordan was caught. I was impressed with the sober (pun intended) way Newton approached the role. He exuded gravitas - mildly like the early scenes in Hatter's Castle - with the obsessive dedication and ruthlessness required.

If one had only seen that one film of Newton's, then one would have been very surprised by the following year's outing. Walt Disney's Treasure Island.

Long John Silver is perhaps the role that Newton is best remembered for. It was his tour-de-force.

There were some lovely, hammy remarks, such as "You couldn't say more, not as if you were my mother" and the relish with which he said "Amen" and "dubloons" was top notch. The huge white (sclera) of his eyes deserved an Oscar and the teeth followed on behind. Although there were sterling performances from Blind Pew (John Laurie!), Israel Hands (Geoffrey Keen), and Finlay Currie (Capt. Billy Bones) and a dollar one from Bobby Driscoll (Jim Hawkins) - I suppose an American input is vital if the film is going to bring in the $s - it is undoubtedly Newton's film.

Rather like some of the Errol Flynn films, Treasure Island was rollicking good fun - easy on the eye and no hidden depths. Newton reprised his role in Long John Silver (1954) and The Adventures of Long John Silver (TV series 1954), before, sadly, dying of alcoholism  one year later. I may yet watch more of his films and Blog about them.