The Scapegoat (1959) (original) (raw)
Synopsis
He took another man's name... lived another man's life... loved another man's woman!
An Englishman in France unwittingly is placed into the identity, and steps into the vacated life, of a look-alike French nobleman.
Cast
Popular reviews
Two important things:
1. I have been thinking about those tweets that have been going around of young women (late teens, early twenties) expressing infatuation or lust for an...unconventional celebrity. Thirst for like Jimmy Fallon, Dr. Phil, Tarantino, weird choices. They're funny tweets to laugh at and all, but I do feel a kinship with those girls. I say this because Alec Guinness? He hot.
2. This is a very British thriller. Crazy shit happens to the main character and he's just like, "Huh. Anyways-" and just moves on, to the point where there aren't really any thrills to be had here, just a guy in a very strange situation navigating it with grace. Good for him.
“I think you’d better assume that I know nothing.”
The one previous time I watched The Scapegoat, I found it rather stodgy and predictable in its ironic unpredictability. This time, perhaps I was just in the mood, but I enjoyed it more.
By chance, Jacques de Gue (Alec Guinness), a dissolute French nobleman (redundant?) discovers that he and John Barratt (also Guinness), an English professor of French, are identical. Jacques tricks John into impersonating him for reasons we correctly suspect will shade toward the nasty. After first denying he is the Frenchman, John settles somewhat comfortably into his new role. While relationships with his supposed wife (Irene Worth), sister (Pamela Brown), and ma (Bette Davis) are less than ideal, he…
Bedridden Bette, a bit sassy when she’s on screen, but that was too little. Easily the worst era of her career, just unbelievably average over and over, poor thing she was so desperate for a decent role at this point.
Splendid work in a dual role by Alec Guinness goes a long way toward making this mild thriller entertaining enough to be worth watching. The picture's principal drawback is a perennial one in movies, the hoary one of two unrelated people being so completely identical in face, figure, and voice that no one can initially tell them apart, further outraging plausibility by having them meet one another accidentally just when one or both really needs an identical twin. Daphne DuMaurier's novel surely dealt with this more compellingly by being able to free the reader from the necessity of gazing at two absolutely perfectly matching faces being played by the same actor. The problem is as old as the Greeks, but…
As an excuse for a delightful double Alec Guinness performance, this has a lot going for it, but the mechanics of De Maurier thriller are often in his way and the troubled production history do help make it creakier.
Oh dear, I wish the dynamics in this on-screen explication of Du Maurier's novel weren't utterly uneven in relation to timing. Right at the moment when a lonely French teacher finally begins to get involved in the measured life of his new family, some chaos and haste begins and a lightning denouement occurs. Too much. But still, the film is so good. It's awe-inspiring to watch, especially the development of renewed relationship between "father" and daughter. This talented child is in need of parental love & definitely deserves the best one of the two Alecs we have here.
Ps. Both Alecs (the sinner and the redeemer) are absolutely charming in their own ways, as two opposite sides of a human nature.
Alec Guinness Double Bill #2
Concluded my double feature with this odd little thriller with Guinness, who was no stranger to playing multiple characters in the same film, take on a dual role as both a dejected English school teacher and a conniving French count in this Daphne du Maurier adaptation.
It's a terrific mistaken identity premise that initially keeps you guessing as to whether or not it's a psychological fantasy, but unfortunately soon reveals itself to be extremely nonsensical with a predictable trajectory, never quite delivering on its promise of entertainment or suspense. There's some nifty special effects work that allows Guinness to be in the same frame as both characters, which is quite amusing and his performance is…
Another Robert Hamer film, this one made when he was in terminal decline. Indeed, it waa said he was so pissed during the shoot that his star Alec Guinness often had to step in to direct, pre-empting the situation on his final film, School for Scoundrels, a year later, which saw Hal E. Chester and Cyril Frankel go uncredited as directors when Hamer was sacked for drinking.
An adaptation of a novel by Daphne du Maurier, it's tempting to wonder if Hamer saw anything personal in this tale of doppelgangers. A closeted homosexual at a time when being so was illegal, reeling from a failed marriage to actress Joan Holt (sister of Hamer's frequent editor, Seth Holt) and drowning his…
"Perhaps a man has to be empty before he can be used.
Used for what?
God only knows."
Yeah, okay I'd probably try to switch lives with someone else if my family was that fucking insufferable!
Also, a remake of this would be really fun with Edward Norton in the lead role...if God & everyone weren't prone to overdoing these types of stories in modern times.
in my exploration of old british cinema ive found a lot of movies that i feel had been criminally overlooked and unfairly forgotten... this is not one of those movies 💜
A film that bases itself on Alec Guinness playing two strangers that look alike, this follows one of them (the British one) as they are dragged into the life of the French one. As this follows the British one's perspective and keeps him in the dark, largely, I do enjoy some elements of that mystery, trying to figure out the situation as it's not particularly clear at first.
However, I don't think that this does as good of a job of really capturing him growing into this situation as a character. This goes very quickly from protestations to something more like acceptance, and it's at a pace that I really find offputting. If anything, I think the film rushes itself,…
Starts out feeling like a real classic, with Alec Guinness playing two identical strangers. As it shakes up and the confused one just starts living the other guys life for 45 minutes the entertainment comes to a screeching halt. Very cool special effects, wish the script was a little tighter.