The Card
(also known as The Promoter in US)
Go-Getters In Vintage
Movies: Review by Esmerelda Jones
1952
UK black and white, 85 minutes runtime
Adapted
from the novel by Arnold Bennett
Original
Music by William Alwyn
Alec
Guinness as Edward Henry 'Denry' Machin
Glynis
Johns as Ruth Earp
Valerie
Hobson as Countess of Chell
Petula
Clark as Nellie Cotterill
Edward
Chapman as Mr. Duncalf
Veronica
Turleigh as Mrs. Machin
George
Devine as Mr. Calvert
Joan
Hickson as Mrs. Codleyn
Set in the 1880's in the
five-towns Potteries of North Staffordshire, England.
With
a tagline "He's the cheekiest man in town!" The Card (Alec Guinness)
will teach you a few tricks about how to make it in business from
scratch.
Alec Guinness plays the witty and
self-basting Denry, a slum baby who uses his merry attitude to scoot
himself along in life, capping it off with some clever smooching to be
voted in as town mayor. Their is no encouragement from his mother (a
washerwoman widow), who clutches onto her poverty as if it's the last
thread of security. She is even afraid of money. Denry has
heard her pinched warnings about hard work and council housing being
good enough for his father. Dreary years scraping will not do for The
Card however. He's going to escape.
Denry decides that the only way to gain
entry to college is to re-arrange his exam results. He enjoys his free
education with the sons of gentlemen, although suffering the necessary
pelting for being a washerwoman's boy. By seeing opportunity in every
moment Denry walks into a clerical position and then obtains employment
as a rent collector from a dissatisfied client of the company (Miss
Marple fans will see Joan Hickson). His cunning ability is spotted by a
flustered agent who offers him the rent roll. Coins clink against coins
and Denry proudly watches the funds grow in his bank account. While
calling on Miss Ruth's Academy For Dancing to collect embarrassingly
overdue rent, he encounters a charming kindred spirit on the prowl for
money (gold-digger Glynis Johns). He works out a solution for
repayments and she pins herself to him in gratitude. She realizes that
Denry is a jackpot but needs some gentle guidance to obtain his ideals.
Now he is ready to invest. He knows
instinctively that business multiplication is the route to riches.
After a few quick turnovers for profit, Denry has two women on his
arms; Nellie the coy dove and Ruth the materialistic beauty.
Denry plots the approval of the Countess of
Chell and begins a social climb. He launches the Universal Thrift Club
where customers may purchase on credit, but only at the stores that
oblige him with prime percentages. Even an awful mishap with a donkey
cart turns into glory for Denry. The mossy rock of fortune keeps
rolling. Denry's mother submits to his gift of a fur coat, but not
before she has scorned the gorgeous frippery and threatened to box it
up in mothballs because it is too fine to wear.
While
you watch Denry (Alec Guinness) stride through his blueprint for
fortune, don't miss the smart tactics of Ruth (Glynis Johns). No wonder
he chose to marry the soft Nellie; Ruth was sharp competition (but how
did he resist those amorous blue eyes and pouting appeals?). She urged
him to stand for mayor while Nellie was happy with pennies. It's a
satisfying ending, but Denry would have been a bigger cracker with Ruth.
Secret
Symbols: Bank accounts, a bag full of coins that spill onto the floor,
the Universal Thrift Club membership for approved shops only.
Ferret
out this crackly black and white classic; it's worth 85 minutes of your
time. Writers and entrepreneurs: view it with notebook and pen. My
rating: a 9-star must.
