The Browning Version

A careful adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play - in effect a re-run of Goodbye Mr Chips seen through dark-tinted glasses - which draws what little venom the original had by adding an absurdly sentimental coda. Worth watching for Redgrave's powerfully detailed performance as the schoolmaster who has masked his feelings of inadequacy by turning into a petty tyrant over the years, and whose facade is disastrously breached by a small act of kindness from one of the boys. But the rest of the characters are strictly cardboard.