oscar-35
I was able to see this 1937 film. It is on VHS from 'GoodTimes Home Video'. This film was from the Lewis Robinson's novel 'The General Goes too Far'. This film is a sensitive story of love, friendship and betrayal. Set in Ireland and moved to British East Africa. It is story of a man's forbidden love for a married beautiful woman of a army colleague. A British Army general officer weaves a yarn of tangled lies when he covers up a murder and continues to pursue a forbidden women. The film's final scenes on trial and suicide are most memorable with a watchable with James Mason acting his role very well. Lionel Atwill stars with Lucy Mannhiem. Directed by Thorald Dickinson.
bkoganbing
The High Command has the advantage that American made films concerning Africa do not, that being actual location shooting in Africa because the UK was occupying large chunks of it. The story itself did not deal with the jungle per se, but rather is a tedious soap opera involving some of the occupiers.The story really begins back during the Irish Rebellion in 1921 where during a fit of rage Lionel Atwill murders a man who stole his sweetheart from him and married her. The blame is easily put on the Sinn Fein rebels, but a certain army doctor keeps the ballistic evidence of the crime.Fast forward fifteen years later to West Africa and Atwill and the doctor are stationed together again. The doctor is murdered, but the blame falls not on Atwill, but another man, James Mason who was thought to be embezzling company funds.The High Command is static and talky with everybody going around in the best stiff upper lip tradition. We certainly can't let these Africans know that their occupiers morals are less than perfect.Some good photography of Nigeria and the Gold Coast (later Ghana) is wasted on a trite story with characters you really cease caring about halfway through.
John Seal
The High Command is a static and turgid mess that hints at great promise but never delivers the goods. Lionel Atwill stars as a British army officer who has a dirty secret: before being stationed in West Africa, he murdered a man in Ireland and blamed the death on the Irish Republican Army. Atwill is fine, but the rest of the cast is lacking--particularly a restrained James Mason, who looks uncomfortable underneath an assortment of false moustaches. Director Thorold Dickinson gives it the old college try, and his set-ups reflect the influence of Soviet social realism, the British documentary movement of the period, and even a hint of Hitchcock. Sadly, The High Command's talky story is completely uninvolving and Dickinson's visual flair is held in check as the film trudges to a mind-numbingly dull courtroom conclusion.
rsoonsa
Based upon a novel by Lewis Robinson, who assists with the script, HIGH COMMAND gives us a complex tale of blackmail, murder, and other delights, ranging over two continents and two generations, beginning in 1921 Ireland and concluding in West Africa (most of the film was shot in Nigeria and Gold Coast). General Sir John Sangye (Lionel Atwill), holder of the Victoria Cross and commander of a colonial garrison, in order to help protect his daughter Belinda (Kathleen Gibson) from unsavoury scandal, is forced into making several wrenching decisions, with Atwill giving the finest crafted performance of his career. In his first effort at directing a feature film, Thorold Dickinson displays the fluid work with a camera which marks his distinguished career, and has expertly taken a balance of drama and humour from the script while effectively leading his talented cast into strong performances, notably from Steven Geray, Leslie Perrins, James Mason and Lucie Mannheim. Dickinson, along with cinematographer Otto Heller, benefit from their background in silent cinema, and Ernest Irving's score is adroitly woven into the action, all of which assists in effectuating a masterwork.
AD
