Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill (1948)

Psychological Drama. - Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill review by Steve

Slender and well organised drama set in a modest English boarding school on the picturesque cliffs of Cornwall. It is superficially a conflict between teaching methods. But it is more meaningfully a confrontation between two ways of being, and a head to head between the excellent leads.

A heavily made up Marius Goring is Mr. Perrin, an old fashioned, conservative head of mathematics, who still lives with his mother. David Farrar is Mr. Traill, the virile, progressive newcomer who hurries the traditions of the established master. The younger teacher is more charismatic and easygoing, but there is sympathy for the older man too.

This is partly because Perrin is mentally abused by the manipulative headmaster (Raymond Huntley). And because he is rather pitifully unaware of his own homosexuality. When Traill gets engaged to the pretty school nurse (Greta Gynt) who Perrin fancifully presumes admires himself, the older man switches from petty provocation to psychopathic malevolence.

It's easy to read a political subtext. The undisciplined boys and masters are in constant conflict. The headmaster is a social Darwinist who perpetuates and exploits this division. Effectively a fascist. Perrin is unfit to survive, so is swept away by history. Huntley plays the villain with antiseptic viciousness. It's an eloquent, compact film most memorable for the two stars.