The Ware Case (1938) User Reviews

a man is accused of drowning his brother-in-law

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 9 December 2021]

By 1938, this film had already been remade twice.

Clive Brook stars with Jane Baxter and Barry K. Barnes in "The Ware Case" from 1938.

Clive Brook plays Ware, a man always in trouble due to money and women. He's been given an extra three months by his creditors to pay his debts, naming his unpleasant brother-in-law Eustace as his guarantor. Eustace doesn't know anything about it, but when he finds out, he hits the roof.

Ware doesn't seem concerned. In fact, he wants to take a trip to Cannes. His wife (Baxter) refuses to go along. She feels it's time to face some facts and get their economies in hand.

Some time later, Eustace is found dead on the grounds of the Ware estate, and Ware is arrested for murder. Defending him will be a family friend (Barnes) who also happens to be in love with Lady Ware. However, he doesn't believe Ware is a killer.

Based on a play, the ending has a twist. The high point is the actual court case.

The revelation for me in this film was Jane Baxter. I had never seen her in a film. She was a lovely actress and beautiful to boot - in fact, a favorite of Sir Winston Churchill's.

Little seen thriller holds the interest.

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 18 April 2013]

Brooks plays a playboy whose financial expenditure exceeds his income but without the wherewithal to support his extravagances.He is constantly unfaithful to his wife and gets cited as a co respondent in a divorce case.he celebrates being given 3 months grace by his creditors by going to the south of France on a gambling spree.He gives a rubber cheque for £1000,a lot of money then,to a casino,and flees back to England once he has lost the lot.He invites his brother in law,Peter Bull,down to his country house.Bull refuses to get him out of his financial mess.Whilst walking in the grounds that night he is shot and killed.Brooks is put on trial for murder and is defended by his best friend,Barry K Barnes.He is acquitted and goes home to his flat.His wife and friend are waiting for him and tell him that they are in love and are going off together.Brooks cant take it.he goes to the balcony to address a cheering throng.He admits that he killed Bull and then throws himself off the balcony.It is a reasonably entertaining thriller.Lots of familiar faces pop up from time to time.Wally patch is a taxi cab drive,Athene Sayler,a prospective house buyer and John Laurie a gamekeeper. Difficult to understand why this film has never been shown,either on TV or at the NFT.Lets hope that a DVD release may follow one day.

"Jealous husbands are as thick as doctors on Harley Street"

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 16 March 2023]

The directorial debut of Robert Stevenson soon to go to Hollywood where he eventually found his niche with Disney.

The third screen version of George Pleydell Bancroft 1915 play was made in 1938 but despite a reference to Neville Chamberlain remains stubbornly set in the era of The Great War. Clive Brook's Jack the Lad is thoroughly patrician and Ealing Studios' plush production hadn't yet achieved the common touch of their classic postwar comedies.

Frank Cellier plays his usual cold-eyed capitalist, the lower orders are represented by Edward Rigby, John Laurie - whose mirthless smile when one of his masters turns up dead provides the film's most amusing moment - and Wally Patch as a cabbie.

A decent pot boiler.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 16 January 2023]

Sir Hubert Ware is an unscrupulous businessman and philanderer, when his creditors reach the end of their patience with him, he provides the name of his wealthy brother in law, Eustace as Guarantor, not long after Ware is accused of his murder.

Definitely a pot boiler, I imagine it would have been something of a crowd pleaser back in 1938.

It doesn't break any new ground, and some of the dialogue is very drawn out, but I'd say there's enough here to keep you entertained.

Made way back in 1938, it looks pretty good, and for the time it doesn't have a heap of static scenes, there is some imagination on the production. The acting for the most part is rather good.

I wonder if Hubert would have been something of a shocking character at the time, a day where decency and morals were perhaps top of many agendas.

There is no denying that Clive Brook is entertaining as Sir Hubert, he plays the part with a degree of flamboyance, he really does have a bit of presence. Jane Baxter is very good in support.

Look out for a young John Laurie, pre Dad's Army days, definitely entertaining on the stand as Hanson.

It's watchable, 6/10.

Forgotten way of life

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 21 February 2023]

THE WARE CASE is one of those murky country house potboilers that were all the rage throughout the 1930s, and even a brief train interlude fails to liven things up very much. The story involves an aristocrat, played by Clive Brook, getting into hot walker that involves his irritating brother in law, but when the latter is found murdered he ends up accused. Part courtroom thriller, part sedate romantic drama, this only really springs to life in the last ten minutes and at that point it's far too little, too late. As usual the depiction of a forgotten way of life is the most interesting aspect of this one, similar to that parodied in Wodehouse novels.

The crusty old stage play still has a lot of zing!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 14 October 2017]

Director: ROBERT STEVENSON. Screenplay: Robert Stevenson, Roland Pertwee. Additional dialogue: E.V.H. Emmett. Based on the stage play of the same name by George Pleydell Bancroft. Photography: Ronald Neame. Film editor: Charles Saunders. Art director: Oscar F. Werndorff. Music: Ernest Irving. Producer: Michael Balcon. Associate producer: S.C. Balcon.

A CAPAD/Associated Star Production, filmed at Associated Talking Pictures Studio, Ealing. U.S. release through 20th Century-Fox: 21 July 1939. New York opening at the Little Carnegie: 21 July 1939. U.K. release through Associated British Film Distributors: December 1938. Australian release through British Empire Films: 23 February 1939. 79 minutes. Cut by Fox to 72 minutes in the U.S.A.

SYNOPSIS: A baronet is brought to trial for murder.

NOTES: Third re-make of the George Pleydell Bancroft stage play. The first film version was released in 1917. Matheson Lang, no less, starred as Sir Hubert Ware, opposite Violet Hopson as Lady Magdalen Ware, Ivy Close as Marian Scales, Gregory Scott as Michael Adye and George Foley as Sir Henry Egerton. Walter West produced and directed from a script by J. Bertram Brown. In the 1928 version, directed by Manning Haynes from a scenario by Lydia Hayward, Stewart Rome starred as Sir Hubert, Betty Carter was Lady Magda, Ian Fleming played Michael Adye, and Wellington Briggs impersonated Sir Henry Egerton.

COMMENT: I always get this film muddled up with "Action for Slander". Although Brook gives a dilettante performance in both films, and although both contain a lot of dull and dated footage, they both incorporate standout trial scenes with Francis L. Sullivan as the opposing counsel.

In this one, director Robert Stevenson handles the murder (which doesn't occur until the halfway mark) and the trial particularly well, bringing across their dramatic impact most convincingly and suspense-fully.

True, most of the other scenes are put across in a fairly routine manner, but that's all to the good as they contrast most effectively with the trial, which is after all the story's high point.

A bit clunky.

[gnok2002 · 4/10 · 3 April 2012]

I intend to do a review of all the films on IMDb that I have seen that presently lack one, like many of these films this was shown at the Gothique film society in London, March-2012, review follows...

Ealing, the 2nd of the 95 M.Balcon produced Ealing films, this rather clunky tale of a death at a country house, possibly murder, is all too clearly based on a play, of interest to people trying to see all the 'Ealing' films, this is one of their weakest efforts.

Note version I saw ran 71m 28s, not stated 79m.

If anyone is wondering what was the 1st M.Balcon Ealing film, then it is the far superior THE GAUNT STRANGER (1938)