Rent Fame Is the Spur (1947)

Political Epic. - Fame Is the Spur review by Steve

This is an adaptation of Howard Spring's best selling novel about the rise of a Labour politician in the nineteenth century and the slow sell out of his principles leading up to the crisis of the Great Depression. Michael Redgrave plays a flawed idealist whose principles come from philosophy rather than a love of the people.

He gives an excellent, epic performance, from a self taught teenager growing up in the slums of Manchester to a stubborn, thin skinned mainstay of the establishment. He has to face down the entrenched interests of capital and the aristocracy, but ultimately he also becomes a malign influence on the poor.

The obvious question is, why was this film made midway into the radical Attlee government? Boulting's film has little regard for the left. Or indeed any political party or class. But the MP's long life intertwines with a capitalist from his own streets (Bernard Miles) first seen rather grotesquely selling rats, and he is even less sympathetic.

The film runs out of puff as Redgrave ages. But it's full of period atmosphere from the dawn of the Labour movement; all cobble streets, austerity, Karl Marx and male voice choirs. There's a fine performance from Rosamund John as the supportive wife, who would have made a superior politician. If the film ever takes a side, it's with the Suffragettes.