a moral out
by Douglas Messerli
Graham Greene and Basil Dean
(writers, based on a novel by John Galsworthy), Basil Dean 21 Days (aka 21 Days
Together) / 1940
Basil Dean’s 1940 film, 21 Days, is certainly not a great film,
and I’ve seen far better Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier performances.
Nonetheless this John Galsworthy fiction, rewritten
Keith, about to be made a judge, has little difficulty in advising that
Larry hide his accidental murder of Wanda’s former husband, and even advises
him to leave the country so that he, himself, will not become involved. When a
local bum is picked up, wearing Larry’s bloody gloves, and the poor man, Henry
Wallen (Esme Percy)—ironically a former minister of religion—is charged with
the crime, the future judge is perfectly willing to see the man hung.
Larry, however, truly the righteous one, is determined to admit his
crime before Wallen is tried in 21 days; but first he and Wanda, rather
callously, determine to marry and spend a few days together before the innocent
man goes to the gallows.
Much of the middle of the movie, while the two are supposedly enjoying
each other’s company, is simply boring. There’s nothing worse than watching a
guilty man trying to find pleasure for a few days before he is scheduled to
die.
One might suggest that Graham is using
the Wallen figure as a kind of Christ, who dies—himself feeling guilty for
having stolen a ring and money off the dead man—so that Larry and Wanda might
continue to live out what they hope will be a long life together. But, of
course, that doesn’t quite explain the selfish brother, more protective of his
career in law than in the law itself. Nor does it explain the quite detestable
behaviors of his cronies, who joke about their own snoring through cases and
past misjudgments.
In short, no one in this film, except
perhaps for the fallen minister of religion—whose career was destroyed by
drinking—is truly likeable. At least we sympathize, for a while, with the
loving couple at the center of the story; but even though Larry is willing to
admit his guilt, in the end, apparently he does not. He has found and accepted
an “out.”
Opening in wartime England, one might have imagined that the moral high
ground might be necessary, and that in a world where citizens were being killed
in nightly blitzes, that leaving a dead body in a small city lane would be
condemned, even if the film was principally shot in 1937. But perhaps for that
very reason, the writer and filmmaker felt that it worth saving their sinful
characters’ lives.
Los Angeles, January 8, 2016
Reprinted from World Cinema Review (January 2016).
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