A.J. Cronin's Hatter's Castle (1942) User Reviews

Brodie family values

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 26 September 2015]

Although future mega stars James Mason and Deborah Kerr appear in Hatter's Castle, the film truly belongs to star Robert Newton. Most people today are familiar with Newton in his later pirate roles like Blackbeard or Long John Silver which allow full expression for his florid style. In Hatter's Castle Newton is kept in check by the director until the climax which calls for nothing less than what Newton was known to deliver on the screen.

Newton dominates Hatter's Castle playing a haberdasher with lots of pretensions. He's made a lot of money at business and that's what he's all about. His business, his family are all merely extensions of himself and his drive for what he considers respectability. He's going to have the grandest house for miles around, something they would call a castle back in the day, Hatter's Castle. With a house that would support a lord, can a peerage be far behind. That's what he's ultimately aiming for.

Newton's family, his props are his doormat of a wife Beatrice Varley who is dying from cancer and Newton wants to hear none of it and his children Deborah Kerr and Anthony Bateman. There are traces of incestuous longing for Kerr with Newton as he allows her no male companionship whether it's earnest young doctor James Mason who secretly treats Varley on the side and sneaky and sniveling clerk Emlyn Williams who also has ambitions. Newton also has mistress Enid Stamp-Taylor and their carrying on is an open scandal around the town. I'm sure Newton figures if that was good enough for all the lords and ladies in olden and modern times it's good enough for him. Of course they already had their titles, something he overlooks.

In the end it all blows up around him. Emlyn Williams really loses it all in the famous Tay railroad bridge disaster where a bridge over the Tay River to Dundee collapses and a train goes over with it with all crew and passengers lost. This might be the only film that deals with that tragedy and A.J. Cronin did incorporate it in his novel. Good special effects for its time in the British cinema.

The bare essentials of Cronin's work is incorporated here. The plot of the novel was shorn of several subplots and characters the most prominent was another son for Mr.&Mrs. Brodie. Speaking of which young Anthony Bateman should be given kudos for a very nice portrait of a shy young kid trying so hard to please his uncaring father.

After almost 80 years Hatter's Castle holds up well today. Honestly I can't think of a cast to match this one for a remake. Especially for Robert Newton.

Mad Hatter's Me Party

[Gazza-3 · 6/10 · 10 November 1998]

This has all the trappings of a classic melodrama: family disputes, unwanted pregnancy, banishment, financial ruin, adultery, rape and suicide. Yet the film also has overtones of tragedy as the hatter's tragic flaws lead him to lose his family, his castle and ultimately his life. The film has added resonance from the parallels between the hatter and Hitler. The film uses techniques of German expressionist cinema: light and shadows, obtuse camera angles etc, and the hatter is clearly identified as a despotic tyrant. If we accept this parallel, his ultimate downfall is a matter for rejoicing and indeed the film ends on a high note as his daughter and the Doctor leave the dark church and enter into the light. It's not blatant propaganda but the parallels are clear

There was no prime for Mr. John Brodie.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 9 May 2020]

"Can a man not go to his club to see his friends and leave his house in peace?" Robert Newton inquires as he cakes jeep heart from his ailing wife (Beatrice Varner). The issue is, and Brodie would certainly deny it, that he really has no friends. He is a bully. A tyrant. His wife, daughter (Deborah Kerr) and son (Tony Bateman) cower around him, and when a young doctor (James Mason) stands up to him, Brodie dismisses him like a servant. Brodie treats the employees of his hat shop with complete contempt, and some of them probably wish that they were Bob Cratchit, Ebenezer Scrooge's clerk, who at least suffered in silence. The public and his customers treat him with respect, but it's obvious bike various gossipers and the looks he gets that he truly is hated.

The father in "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" was a gentle soul in comparison to Newton, adding another fine performance to his gallery of villains. On the night of a fabulous ball, Brodie learns that the lineage he has claimed come from is a lie and the fact that his wife has an advanced diagnosis of cancer. Little by little, his world seems to be crumbling around him, but he has a sinister look on his face as he learns of his wife's diagnosis even if he denies it as being true simply because it came from Mason. Meanwhile, Kerr spends time hiding out with her father's clerk, Emlyn Williams, who forces himself on her when he is hidden in her room is it true that when her parents returned home.

This film is perfect pretty much in every detail, with future megastars Mason and Kerr subtle in their performances but commanding when necessary. Newton, melodramatic ensnaring when his performance calls worth, manages not to go over the top and over act, and there are a few moments where his character does express a brief moment of gentility. he does have his share of secrets though, which compounded with the drama going around him, drives him further to madness and his ultimate destruction. This is a hidden gem among British classics, with a fine story by A.J. Cronin ("The Citadel", "The Green Years') pretty much guiding itself and an excellent ensemble acting it out brilliantly.

One Man's Hubris

[theowinthrop · 1 December 2004]

James Brodie is a very successful hatter in 19th Century Scotland. He is also tyrannical to his family and employees, distant from most people, and totally unsympathetic. The film (based on an A.J.Cronin novel) details how he builds himself a stone castle, and how he is destroyed in everything by his selfishness and harsh characteristics. His wife dies when he rejects her for a mistress, who in turn leaves him when he tries to turn her into the doormat - drudge that his wife was. His business is destroyed by a competitor who formerly worked for him, and who purposely builds his business across the street from him. He is also ruined by the mistress's brother (Emlyn William as a slimy, subsidiary villain) who works in his store and robs him. His son, a promising student, is caught cheating on a major exam - he was under great pressure to pass it by his father - and commits suicide rather than face his expulsion from school or his father. In the end, alone and broke in his castle, Brodie kills himself.

It is a harsh film, and not a popular one. I watched it once on television in the 1970s. It rarely is revived. As Brodie, Robert Newton is savagely restrained (his best scene is when he goes beserk as he watches his best, "quality" client go over to the opposite side of the street store, and he starts throwing his stock of hats into the street into a crowd of bewildered onlookers.

I do note one more thing. The death of Williams is of cinematic notice. The film is set in the 1870s, and the dastardly thief Williams goes onto a train traveling in a storm. We see him playing cards, and he loses. "That finishes me!", he says as he watches his last coin taken. The train is passing over the Tay Bridge at that moment, and it collapses. I believe it is the only time that the Tay Bridge disaster ever appeared in a movie.

Old Hats On New Heads

[writers_reign · 7/10 · 8 June 2017]

This is a ten plus for Robert Newton who chews his way through the scenery as much as he acts it. It's a part that might have been created for him albeit its origins were in the novel by A.J. Cronin. Although there is decent support in the shape of Beatrice Varley, James Mason, Deborah Kerr and Emlyn Williams it's impossible to take your eyes off Newton who takes the movie by the scruff of the neck and shakes it until it cries Uncle. The melodrama boasts just about every cliché known to the silver screen but what it boils down to is the one about the tyrant who finally gets his come-uppance and after being indirectly responsible for three deaths brings about his own in spectacular style. Arguably Newton's finest hour.

Fantastic Robert Newton

[kidboots · 9/10 · 28 December 2012]

Who knows why it took seven years to find an American distributor (Paramount) - maybe because by then James Mason and Deborah Kerr had become international names and writer A.J. Cronin was becoming increasingly popular. The movie with it's Victorian Dickensian narrative of a stern patriarch and a wronged young woman is simply dominated by the fantastic Robert Newton who even when he gets his comeuppance towers over everyone else in the movie - as with all his roles he attacks this one with a flourishing bravado.

He plays James Brodie, proprietor of a stylish hat shop and lord and master of "Hatter's Castle", a bleak stone mansion built on the outskirts of town. He may have the grudging respect of the other shop owners (who are just itching to witness his downfall) but at home he is a tyrant whose family live in fear of him. His wife is battling cancer and is only diagnosed by young Dr. Renwick (James Mason) who is driven from the house for his insolence - she can then go back to being the work drudge (he will not allow her to have any servants). His daughter Mary (Deborah Kerr) is afraid of her own shadow and even his favourite, Angus, is nervy and on the edge of a breakdown because of his father's relentless driving him to study.

The film is saved from absolute grimness by Emlyn Williams portrayal of the oily Dennis. He is a villain too but played with William's usual flippant charm. He is the "step brother" (read lover) of barmaid Nancy, who is also the lover of Brodie, but when she persuades him to find Dennis a position in his shop events are put in place for Brodie's downfall. Next door is the iron monger who is going through a tough time financially and is desperate for Brodie to buy him out. Of course he won't - he wants to see the failing shopkeeper hit rock bottom. Enter slippery Dennis who seems to have a few irons in the fire and puts the grateful storekeeper in the way of a very eager buyer - the Mungo Hat Company!!!

It is the beginning of the end but Dennis hasn't finished with the family yet. He has his eyes on Mary and when she is forbidden to go to the ball (for defending Renwick) Dennis brings the ball to her, including a bottle of champagne - fade to darkness!!! The following scene is a blistering showdown between Brodie and Nancy, he realises he has been two timed by cocky upstart Dennis, who then sneeringly says of Mary "your daughter asked me to marry her - and she'll be very glad if I say yes"!!! Mary then finds herself (literally) thrown out into the storming rain (almost as melodramatic as Lillian Gish's turn out in "Way Down East"). She inadvertently catches the same train as Dennis but he gives her the cold shoulder and is almost gleeful when she leaps from the train into the night - if only he had followed!!!

The twists and turns in this quite hokey bit of Edwardian Gothic are too many to mention. James Mason was still in his bland leading man stage but Deborah Kerr was just super. She wasn't the original choice, Margaret Lockwood was and only bowed out because of pregnancy but I don't think Kerr could have been bettered. But holding the whole film in the palm of his hand is Robert Newton - he and Deborah Kerr are the reasons this movie should be highly praised.

This is a difficult film to watch...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 20 February 2021]

... not because it is dull or bad, but because the main character, James Brodie (Robert Newton) has no redeeming values whatsoever. He is a cruel vile man, a complete narcissist. People are either customers, servants, or enemies to him. Everyone else is invisible to him.

Brodie is a Scottish hatter in Victorian times. He has a sickly wife that he constantly belittles, a grown teen daughter Mary (Deborah Kerr) that he practically keeps prisoner, and a son Angus that he sees as an extension of himself, so he puts tremendous pressure on the boy to excel in school to show off to his rivals. Brodie also lives in a large castle, "Hatter's Castle", it is called derisively by the town, because it is just ridiculously large and medieval for a simple merchant to be living there. But because his customers tend to be important men, Brodie sees himself as important. Oh, and he has a mistress. And this mistress' brother-in-law, Dennis, needing a job, and Brodie granting that job, brings chaos into Brodie's family and business. For one thing, Dennis is not exactly a brother-in-law, and also he is a slimy little weasel, the likes of which a brute like Brodie would never expect would get the better of him.

James Mason, as a physician, is one of the few nice and normal characters in the cast, if you can believe that. He has very few scenes. There is a really good rendition of the Tay Bridge railroad disaster of 1879, and it is too bad that the film's physical condition is so rough, because it would be great to see in detail. In fact, this film is just crying out for a restoration. What you can see of the art design is impressive. It would be wonderful to see it in its original glory. A clearer print might even raise its appraisal another star. Mainly, though, this is Robert Newton's film. He does a splendid job of playing a despicable human being. I cringed every time he entered a room, and he made me want to stick around to the end to see what happened to his character. Recommended.

"You spoiled my appetite" : the hatter is a hater

[happytrigger-64-390517 · 10/10 · 23 March 2019]

"Daughter of Darkness" convinced me that Lance Comfort is a great director. "Hatter's Castle" strongly confirms it, it's a drama about a cruel tyran spoiling everybody's life, from his hatter's business to his family.

All casting is fantastic : James Mason as the young true lover of Deborrah Kerr (as the tyran's daughter, in her fifth movie), Emlyn Williams as the bad man, Enid Stamp-Taylor as the badman' and the tyran's mistress. And the best of course is Robert Newton as the tyran, he pronounces each line cruelly with sadistic expression, destroying eveything and everybody : a total complete toxic person (one of his best performance with "Oliver Twist" and "Long John Silver"). In the first sequence with Robert Newton, I was puzzled how it reminded me of another tyran, and I rapidly thought of Opale played by Jean-Louis Barrault in "le Testament du docteur Cordelier" 17 years later.

Cinematography is of course virtuoso with intelligent travellings avoiding editing, having several informations in the same sequence with two faces shot in depth of field, brilliantly rare.

Castle of Cards.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 27 June 2011]

The greedy and authoritarian Robert Newton is the dominant figure in this story -- very dominant. He's extraordinarily mean, both in the American and British senses. Wardrobe has decked him out with wide, pointed shoulders and he holds them back so that they look like a pair of folded wings. His chest is puffed out, his scowling face lowered, and he looks so much like a raptor that, if he actually were one, he could be on a postage stamp. The rough-legged hawk of the Fourth Firth of the Clyde. And he has a carefully hewn Scots accent. "Mirror" sounds like "midda."

Actually, he runs the only hatter's shop in town and his clientèle include Levenford's most highly place residents. Newton has hoarded all his profits and built a mansion above his station. He pretends to be related to someone in the peerage. The first time we meet him is at a meeting of the Town Counsel or whatever it is, in which he puts the kibosh on a proposal to hire a permanent doctor for the town's school children. The author of the novel, A. J. Cronin, was a doctor himself and was instrumental in launching Britain's National Health Service.

But, man, is he brutal towards everyone. His elderly wife is pale and sickly, dying of incurable cancer actually, but Newton makes her slave around the house regardless of her pain. He's too cheap to hire a maid.

His browbeaten daughter is Deborah Kerr. She has a supporting role, so you don't get to see much of her. You get to see even less of the town's principled new doctor, James Mason. Kerr is pale, withdrawn, and innocent -- so much so that she is, with some difficulty, seduced, coaxed, or raped by Newton's shop employee, an esurient weasel, who deserts Kerr when she becomes pregnant and Newton throws her out of the house on a dark and stormy night. I wouldn't have thrown Deberah Kerr out. She's everything the perfect woman should be, totally unlike my ex. Deborah Kerr shivers breathlessly. Her voice is tremulous. She does whatever she's ordered to do by Newton. She'd roll over, beg, or give him her paw if he demanded it.

Of course, Newton gets his just desserts. A rival hatter moves into the shop next door and attracts all the customers because, after all, nobody likes Newton. He can't pay the mortgage. His wife dies and the funeral costs him money, if not tears. His mistress leaves him. His son -- of whom he's inordinately proud -- commits suicide. Another reviewer pointed out the resemblance between Newton and Hitler's career and the comparison is apt, although the film makers may not have realized quite how apt it was in 1942. Three years later, Hitler would do what Newton does in this movie -- burn the empty house down around himself. At his funeral, I believe the minister even quotes a proverbial saying used by "Bomber" Harris of the RAF. Newton sowed the wind, and now he has reaped the whirlwind.

But, okay, Cronin set his story in 1872. If it had been written and located some forty years earlier it could have been done by Dickens because it has all the usual British agonies in it. Well, not exclusively British. Movies about powerful men or families whose empires collapsed seemed to be very popular during the 1930s on both sides of the Atlantic. "Gone With The Wind" and "Citizen Kane" come to mind.

I never know how to assess them because, basically, romantic melodramas about powerful people living in splendor -- the secrets, the intrigues, the outrages -- bore me, with a number of exceptions like "Rebecca." This one strikes me as a bit above average, chiefly because of the performances of Newton and Kerr. Each character, and the performers in the roles, is in his or her own way unforgettable.

A thoroughly brutal display of tyranny

[clanciai · 9/10 · 15 November 2019]

It's a ghastly story and as close to a horror tale as you can get within the limits of realism. It was A.J.Cronin's first major novel and very Dickensian as such, telling an alternative Scrooge story without the main character ever learning his lesson. So things go consistently from bad to worse all the way through. James Mason and Deborah Kerr, both still very young here, provide some kind of a balance against all the wicked tyranny but not enough to bandage the very serious wounds of this gruesome detailed account of tyranny. Robert Newton is magnificent as always in his consistent viciousness, and all the other actors are perfect as well. The one thing you could object against here is the meaning and reason for A.J.Cronin to tell such a story.

seen three times

[marktayloruk · 7/10 · 20 September 2018]

Newton chews the scenery more than usual- a rare feat. I've a feEling Cronin's novel was inspired by an earlier book, The House with Green Shutters. Leaving this aside-I'd like to have sent Brodie a copy of Alice in Wonderland. A total bastard with no virtue other than courage I suspect that the cRowd at his funeral just wanted to make sure he was dead. But surely he'd have had servants just to keep up pretensions?

Brilliant piece of British drama

[trolli-88179 · 10/10 · 13 April 2017]

James Brodie (played by the incredible Robert Newton) is the only hatter in a Scotland town, as well as a tyrant to all around him. His family fears him, his peers despise him, and he frankly doesn't care about anyone but himself. Things start to go downhill fast though, when his mistress asks him to get her 'step-brother' Denis (boyfriend) a job. Soon, Dennis worms his way into Brodie's family, and being the force behind a rival hat company moving into the shop next to Brodie's store. As Brodie tries to keep up with the mortgage on his house and shop, daughter Mary becomes pregnant and is thrown out, Mrs. Brodie dies of cancer, and son Angus commits suicide after being caught trying to cheat on his exams. With nothing left, and no repentance whatsoever, Brodie sets his house aflame and dies a mad man. It seems though that perhaps Mary has a happy ending, as she and the town doctor walk out of her father's funeral together.

Robert Newton, a true master of his craft, delivers in my opinion his best performance of his career. I thought he was evil as Bill Sykes in 'Oliver Twist', but boy, I had seen nothing of his talent. He demands attention, and you can't tear your eyes away from him as he looms over all the other characters in the film. Every single word he says in his deep Scottish accent, you believe. He worked with his eyes a great deal in all his movies, and this one is no exception. He is absolutely incredible to watch, and his mastery of the part is more than evident.

James Mason, the town's young doctor, doesn't have much of a role, but he's still great to watch. Practically the opposite of Newton's character, he is somewhat shy but extremely kind. He is the one who discovers Mrs. Brodie has cancer, and sneaks into the house regularly to treat her, while also falling in love with Mary in the process. The picture of an English gentleman, Mason does very well in his part.

Deborah Kerr, Mary, plays her part extremely well. She is trapped under her father's thumb, and though she sometimes tries to stand up to him, she lives in fear. She is gentle and shy, and instantly smitten with James Mason's character. Your heart really goes out to the poor girl, as she gets the bad end of the stick every time. A good performance on her part.

Emlyn Williams, Denis, delivers a performance that he should get much more credit for. He is a worm and you despise him from the very beginning. Cunning and always using others for his betterment, you finally get to pump your fist in the air and yell 'yes!' when Brodie punches him around. Williams held his own against Newton in this film, and I'd say that's quite a feet. Excellent, albeit a despised performance.

In summary, this film will grab you by the throat and shake you around for 1 hour and 42 minutes, and I promise you, you will never forget it. As arguably one of Newton's best performances, this piece will be a film I will continue to watch throughout my life.

Absurdly over the top melodrama

[louiseculmer-85734 · 3/10 · 27 January 2023]

Robert Newton plays James Brodie, a hatter who is consumed by the desire for power and importance. He has built himself a large grand house (the Hatter's Castle of the title) He bullies his wife and children, tyrannises over his employees, and is horrible to everyone who he encounters. His daughter ( Deborah Kerr) is loved by the handsome young local doctor James Mason, who (of course) Newton hates. Newton has a mistress, the lovely Enid Stamp-Taylor, who persuades him to give a job to her 'step brother' (actually former lover) played by the splendidly slimes Emlyn Williams. This of course leads to trouble and not just for Newton. The character of James Brodie is so unrelentingly horrible that I was unable to take him seriously. Especially absurd is the idea that he won't have servants and expects his wife to do all the housework - nobody with social pretensions in the Victorian era would have thought of not having servants, they were simply essential.

One of the great classics of the silver screen

[HotToastyRag · 10/10 · 2 April 2018]

It's incredibly unfortunate that Robert Newton isn't a household name. He was an unbelievably talented, versatile British actor from the silver screen era, but while his name hasn't lasted through the decades, other, far less talented actors have remained household names, like Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, and Gary Cooper. If you have no idea who Robert Newton is, rent Hatter's Castle tonight.

Robert Newton plays the patriarch in A.J. Cronin's epic Hatter's Castle. He owns a hat shop, and we are treated to his hardened business persona as well as his cold demeanor at home. He's extremely strict with his innocent, frightened daughter, Deborah Kerr, and he's cruel and callous to his wife, Beatrice Varley. Beatrice slaves away as a homemaker, and her exhaustion is palpable through the screen. Deborah is very young and very sweet, and she's quickly torn between two potential lovers, the slimy Emlyn Williams and the handsome doctor James Mason.

But back to Robert Newton. It's his movie, after all, and his tour-de-force performance-which was not honored by a single award or nomination-that makes this movie one of the great classics from the silver screen. As he always does, he completely embodies his character. He doesn't care about making the audience hate him, and even though he made a career out of playing villains, this role is totally different from the other bad guys he's played. He's cold, selfish, and merciless, yet as the story unfolds, he compels the audience to care about what happens to him. Bobby has an incredibly expressive face, and his intense energy makes his performance worth remembering.

This is a very heavy story, so if you like Thomas Hardy stories, you'll find a new favorite in Hatter's Castle. If you don't think you can handle it-if you walked out of The Mayor of Casterbridge-I don't think you'll like it. Try Jamaica Inn instead for an introduction to Robert Newton.

Great performance by Robert Newton

[miked-26800 · 9/10 · 14 December 2020]

Basically the plot is based on a domineering, egocentric small business owner who's arrogance eventually destroys his family and ultimately himself. An old style melodrama which won't be to everyone's taste but a real classic if you like films of this type. A brilliant performance from Robert Newton who is menacingly over the top without becoming hammy. Good supporting performances from fine actors including a very young James Mason.