The Ware Case *** (1938, Clive Brook, Jane Baxter, Barry K Barnes) – Classic Movie Review 11,042

Director Robert Stevenson’s 1938 British black and white thriller The Ware Case is a creaky but gripping third film version (after 1917 and 1928 silents) of George Pleydell Bancroft’s courtroom play about a womanising financier English noble, Sir Hubert Ware (Clive Brook), suspected of the charged with killing his brother-in-law in a garden pool at his country house for money.

The Ware Case is notable for memorable turns from its rich cast: Clive Brook as the beleaguered baronet, Peter Bull as his brother-in-law Eustace, Jane Baxter as Brook’s wife Lady Margaret, who falls for his defence lawyer Michael Adye (Barry K Barnes), Francis L Sullivan as the prosecuting attorney general, C V France as the judge and John Laurie as a spiteful witness.

Director Stevenson retains the smell of the greasepaint and the Edwardian feel (though it is meant to be contemporary), so it is a bit stagey and creaky, but it is a civilised, vintage pleasure for all that. And The Ware Case wears well all things considered.

It is the second of the 95 Ealing Studios films produced by Michael Balcon, following The Gaunt Stranger (1938).

Also in the cast are Frank Cellier, Edward Rigby, Peter Bull, Glen Alyn, Wallace Evennett, Alfred Goddard, Harold Goodwin, John Laurie, J R Lockwood, Elliot Mason, Peggy Novak, Wally Patch, Charles Paton, Dorothy Seacombe, Athene Seyler and Ernest Thesiger.

The scenario is by Roland Pertwee and Robert Stevenson.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,042

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