WINDOM’S WAY [1957 / 2021] [Blu-ray] [UK Release] A Husband Who Fights His Faith in his People . . . A Wife Who Fights for her Husband’s Love!
Peter Finch delivers a BAFTA-nominated performance as a compassionate doctor caught up in escalating tensions between the native population and local police in this dramatic adaptation of James Ramsay Ullman's best-selling novel. Co-starring Mary Ure and directed by Ronald Neame, the multiple-award-nominated ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ is featured here with a brand-new High Definition remaster from original film elements in its original theatrical 1.66:1 aspect ratio.
Dr. Alec Windom [Peter Finch] cares for the local population in his remote practice in the Far East. When the exploited workers rebel against the colonial authorities the local police respond violently – and Dr. Alec Windom is caught in the middle.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1958 BAFTA Awards: Nominated: BAFTA Film Award for Best British Actor for Peter Finch. Nominated: BAFTA Film Award for ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ Best British Film. Nominated: BAFTA Film Award for Best British Screenplay for Jill Craigie. Nominated: BAFTA Film Award for ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ Best Film from any Source.
FILM FACT No.2: The film ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ is set during the Malayan Emergency. The film was based on a 1952 novel by James Ramsey Ullman, which was reportedly inspired by Dr. Gordon S. Seagrave, who was imprisoned for allegedly helping the Karen people. The novel was set in the fictitious island state of Papaan. James Ramsey Ullman says he wanted to tell the story how “in between man – call him the liberal – can get caught between the rollers of fanaticism or authoritarianism on either side; the case of a man trying to do his job and be a human being among other human beings and how hard this is in the twentieth century.” James Ramsey Ullman admitted the story of Dr. Gordon S. Seagrave “was somewhere in the back of my mind” when he wrote the book. The book was a Literary Guild choice and became a best seller in the USA. James Ramsey Ullman wrote a first draft of a play based on the book. Film rights to Windom's Way were bought by Carl Foreman, who wrote the script. He sold the rights to this and two other properties to Earl St John of Rank Film Productions, who in January 1955 announced it as part of its schedule for that year, but it would not be made for another two years. The script was rewritten and “Anglicized” by Anthony Perry. Anthony Perry's draft was considered too “political” and was rewritten by Jill Craigie to be softened. However, the resulting work was considerably more left-wing than Rank Film Productions other colonial war films of the time were ‘The Planter's Wife’ [1952] and ‘Simba’ [1955]. Ronald Neame had just left ‘The Seventh Sin’ [1957] during production and was contacted by his old producing partner John Bryan who suggested Ronald Neame direct the film ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ with Peter Finch. Peter Finch made the film immediately after returning from Australia where he made ‘Robbery Under Arms’ [1957]. Part of the location shoot for ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ took place in Corsica. The rest of the shoot was filmed at Pinewood Studios. Ronald Neame says Corsica was a “difficult location.” Uncredited theatrical movie debut of Burt Kwouk [Father Amyan's Aide].
Cast: Peter Finch, Mary Ure, Natasha Parry, Robert Flemyng, Michael Hordern, Grégoire Aslan, John Cairney, Marne Maitland, George Margo, Kurt Christian, Martin Benson (uncredited), Sanny Bin Hussan (uncredited), Burt Kwouk (uncredited), Olaf Pooley (uncredited) and John A. Tinn (uncredited)
Director: Ronald Neame
Producers: Earl St. John, John Bryan and John Hawkesworth
Screenplay: James Ramsey Ullman (novel), Jill Craigie (screenplay) and Anthony Perry (screenplay) (uncredited)
Composer: James Bernard (composed music) and Muir Mathieson (conductor)
Dress Designer: Margaret Furse
Cinematography: Christopher G. J. Challis, B.S.C., F.R.P.S. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Eastmancolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English: 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 108 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Rank Organisation / Network
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ [1957] On an island in the Far East, Dr. Alec Windom [Peter Finch] a British medico working in the remote Far Eastern island village of Selim. Feeling a strong bond with the natives, Dr. Alec Windom champions their cause during a tense period of romantic upheaval. Eventually, he is forced to quell a native uprising--and to try to convince the colonial government and the local plantation owners to extend a measure of independence and dignity to the long-suffering islanders. Mary Ure co-stars as Lee Windom who is Dr. Alec Windom's estranged wife, who comes to realize that her husband's “way” is the right one, while Natasha Parry plays a native nurse Anna Vidal who harbours an unrequited love for Dr. Alec Windom.
There are two main strands to the plot. One concerns the efforts of Peter Finch's character, Dr. Alec Windom, to mediate in the dispute between the local Malay rubber-tappers and their employers of the British company. The dispute has arisen out of the tappers' wishing to grow their own rice, something which the company, who regard rice as their own monopoly, object to in a very offhand and belligerent way by, especially by Patterson [Michael Horden] who causes the conflict in the first pkace that could have been avoided if they had followed the wisdom of Dr. Alec Windom's negotiation tactics whose instincts are to sympathise with the tappers, especially as the local company manager, Patterson refuses to entertain any idea of compromise and has no compunction about calling in the local police, whose methods of upholding law and order can be brutal, to deal with any unrest. Things become more complicated, however, when some of the workers defect to a local guerrilla group who are in revolt against the government. An additional complication arises from the fact that one of the guerrillas is the brother of Dr. Alec Windom's chief nurse.
The guerrillas are clearly based upon the Malayan communists who fought both the British colonial regime and then the independent Malayan government. The word "communist," however, is never used and they are simply referred to as "rebels" and possibly because the real Malayan communists were dominated by ethnic Chinese and attracted little support from ethnic Malays.
Jan Vidal [John Cairney] character is the initially reluctant leader of the insurgents and spot Burt Kwouk among them in his first screen part as Father Amyan's Aide, albeit uncredited, whose sister, played by the also whiter than white Natasha Parry, is secretly in love with Dr. Alec Windom. You can imagine how she ends up as the bullets start to fly, who was underrepresented in cinema, even in the immigrant-heavy Britain of the fifties, and the blonde, pale Mary Ure was back in Dr. Alec Windom's life anyway, so there was no question of a divorce on the cards. This makes the project sound very conservative, but in its way, it was fairly progressive, despite the caveats, acknowledging that the introduction of white overseers was not going to provide a solution to some entrenched ill-feeling and internal matters. Actual Asian actors Gregoire Aslan as Mayor Lollivar and Marne Maitland as Commissioner Belhedron had more to do than usual in their films and the need to understand why all this was happening was clearly fed into by some well attended storytelling. It may seem hopelessly out of date, but you may be surprised by what it had to say, and Peter Finch was excellent.
‘WINDOM’S WAY’ was made by the well-known director Ronald Neame, later to be responsible for films like ‘The Chalk Garden’ and ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.’ Here, Dr. Alec Windom is the main character that stars the wonderful actor Peter Finch who is the main lynch pin that tries to sort out the troubles, despite big oppositions from other trouble makers who are 100% against Dr. Alec Windom’s compromise.
The film, by contrast is the concentration is on Malayan politics, a subject of perhaps less import to a British audience today than it would have been in 1957 and on the relationship between Dr. Alec Windom and Lee. This does not hold any real surprises and we know they will end up back together and as a whole the film is well-made.
Peter Finch's combination of an impassioned nature and a stiff upper lip is put to good use here; he and luminous beauty Mary Ure do look like a mismatched couple in many respects. Their troubled and mismatched relationship is perhaps paralleled by the troubled and mismatched relationship between the government, the rubber business, and the people in that part of the world.
Much of the film was shot in Pinewood Studios, with location filming done on Corsica; look in the background and you can see the hills are arid and practically barren, even if there are palm trees and verdant undergrowth placed in the foreground. Arguably this isn't an action film, it isn't a drama, and it isn't a political sounding board. However it does contain elements of all three. Today it perhaps serves best as a period piece; a snapshot of how goings on in the colonies were portrayed at the time.
This is an intelligent film about an innocent, perhaps naïve because of man and village community caught up on the edge of national turmoil, and it avoids both obvious political cliché and easy answers. Into its widening canvas, from individual to village to province to ultimate future of a nation, it also weaves a tentative attempt at reconciliation between the eponymous English doctor and his ambitious ex-social butterfly of a wife: both have an alternative romance mutely on offer, although nothing is ever explicitly stated, and the broken marriage is on shaky ground at best. But best of all is the composed film score by James Bernard that really enhances the flavour of the film and especially in relation to the Far East.
BONUS: Before the film starts, you get the BRITISH BOARD OF FILM CENSORS informing us that This is to Certify that ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ has been passed for GENERAL RELEASE because it has been given a U rating.
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Blu-ray Image Quality – Rank Organisation and Network presents us the film ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ with a wonderful 1080p colour image. ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ has been newly transferred in High Definition from a combination of 35mm interpositive and 35mm internegative in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Although some basic image restoration work was carried out, the picture still displays some faults, including colour fluctuations, dirt, scratches, film movement, light drops and missing frames amongst other issues, but despite this it is still a joy to view this wonderful film. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Rank Organisation and Network brings us the film ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ with one standard 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio experience. The audio is nicely rounded and also gives us a good dynamic range and is also very clear, well-modulated sound with no distortion or age-related surface noise, pops, or crackles. The dialogue of the cast is really good and you hear every word and where gun fire and other noises are clear and precise. The composed film score by James Bernard really enhances the audio experience of the music related to the Far East.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Two Original Theatrical Trailers: In the period between the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s of going to a British cinema, you would get what is called a “double feature” and was a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, or sometimes they would show just one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown. So just before the film ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ starts, we get to view two Original Theatrical Trailers that would have been shown before the main film presentation, and they inform us:
FOR YOUR FUTURE ENTERTAINMENT informing us ALL NEXT WEEK the following two Original Theatrical Trailers will be show and they are:
THE POWER AND THE DRAMA OF A THRILLING BOOK. . . THE RUGGED GRANDEUR OF AN EXCITING COUNTRY! A FINE ROLE FOR BRITAIN’S TOP STAR . . . IN THE HIGH ADVENTURE OF A GREAT FILM! ‘CAMBELL’S KINGDOM’ [1957] [1080i] 1.66:1]. By Hammond Innes. Starring Dirk Bogarde, Barbara Murray, James Robertson Justice, Michael Craig and also starring Stanley Baker. Directed by Ralph Thomas and Produced by Betty E. Box. This is A British Film and Released by Rank Film Distributors Ltd.
AND
STOP AND LOOK! A Man Has Just Been Murdered! MOTIVE . . . GREED! THE PRIZE . . . CONTABAND! in the film ‘CONTRABAND SPAIN’ [1955] [480i] [1.37:1]. Starring Richard Greene, Anouk and Michael Denison. Produced by Ernest Gartside. Directed by Lawrence Huntington. Released by Associate British-Pathé Ltd. Combined running time for both trailers was 5:18.
Theatrical Trailer [1957] [1080p] [1.66:1 [2:57] This is the dramatic Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘WINDOM’S WAY.’
Special Feature: Image Gallery [1957] [1080p] [1.78:1] [3:12] Here we get to view 65 images of International Cinema Posters, International Cinema Lobby Cards, Rank Organisation Cinema Posters, Rank Organisation Advertising Accessories, Pictorial Show magazine cover and Black-and-White Promotional Photographs.
PLUS: FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Limited edition 20 page booklet with an article written by Neil Sinyard entitled A DOCTOR’S DILEMMA – RONALD NEAME’S ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ [1957]. We also get colour photographs from the film. Rank Organisation ADVERTISING SALES MATERIAL [Black-and-White]. Rank Organisation Press Adverts [Black-and-White]. Rank Organisation Campaign Adverts [Black-and-White]. EXPLOITATION – Article comments about the film. Editorial. The Story. Editorial Blocks – A Great Romantic Team In A Contemporary Drama. PICTURE STRIP SERIALISATION. ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ CROSSWORD. ADVERTISING ACCESSORIES.
BONUS: Reversible printed Blu-ray cover featuring original artwork, International cinema posters and colour scenes from the film ‘WINDOM’S WAY.’
Finally, ‘WINDOM’S WAY’ is a neglected gem of a film stars a charismatic Peter Finch at the height of his heart-throb powers and he plays Dr. Alec Windom, a doctor full of confident dedication, toiling away in a remote Malayan village and helping the locals resist a rebellious takeover. It's a very powerful, tightly directed film with some stunning supporting performances from the likes of Mary Ure and Michael Hordern. What could have been a cliché-ridden outing and a one-man demonstration of star ego, emerges as a simply great British film. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
