dbdumonteil You do not change a winning team:Dirk Bogarde and the young Whiteley shone in Crichton's "hunted" a harrowing work you should absolutely see if you have not."The Spanish gardener" is perhaps not as successful artistically and after the trick of the watch ,the movie becomes a bit "too much" ,turning José into a martyr and dad as a monster of selfishness and hatred ,although it was watered down,compared to the novel (the scenes with the so-called shrink were omitted and José survives,to make the movie "suitable for all audiences")But "the Spanish gardener " is a very endearing work,very simple,and it's this simplicity ,this spontaneity ,we are so in need today;although Bogarde is made up to look "Spanish" -he who is British to the core-,his talent marvelously survives.The young boy is equally efficient and when we share their simple pleasures of life,we are overjoyed;the father is not really bad,but he poisons his child with affection and protection ("Nicco" has a medical exam every week it seems) and the kid stands no chance to open up :an "illiterate" (not true by the way ;the gardener speaks (no accent)and writes English,which is a bit implausible)crude working man teaches a diplomat's son the outside world ,they go fishing ,they meet children with whom the brat plays cards :not only his child is "stolen" but it is by an uneducated man ,not from the high society he is part of;the father's hate knows no bounds.This moving movie is suitable for the whole family;it shows that a simple man can see clearer than a well-respected one,that humble people are sometimes happier ,and moreover,they can help their fellow men in their pursuit of happiness ;José told us so :"he is not happy".like this ....try these......Charles Crichton "hunted"(1952) Luigi Comencini 'Incompreso'(1967) and 'Voltati Eugenio"(1979)

Elaheh Omidi Fard I watched this movie when I was a kid and it has left a very nice feeling inside me whenever I remember it.It is a very emotionally complicated movie with wonderful actors.I also very much like the acting of the boy and the gardener.The actor who plays the father is also very natural and delivers a believable and wonderful acting.The other remarkable point is the screenplay and the story which is very deep. sometimes it makes you feel satisfied and entertained sometimes it makes you cry.In all, It's a movie that you have to watch if you are a film lover.8 out of 10 is my vote.

stryker-5 A minor English diplomat is posted to Catalunya in the aftermath of his collapsed marriage. He takes his young boy with him, with visions of nurturing the father-son bond. Unfortunately, Brande is a 'stuffed shirt', a cold prig of a man who fails to comprehend his son's needs. He orders the gardens of the residence to be reduced to bland English regularity, instead of leaving them as a wild, overgrown delight for a child's imagination. Jose is jobless and penniless, but the local pelota champion is a prince among men - young, handsome, charismatic and kind. When Jose is taken on as the gardener, he begins to supplant Brande in Nico's affections. A decision was obviously taken, pre-production, to dispense with Spanish accents. There is some sense in this, because it can seriously detract from the film's purpose if the actors are constantly struggling to sustain funny voices, but it does produce an odd result. Dirk Bogarde is 'darkened up' for the part of Jose and looks great, but his smooth middle-class English delivery seems incongruous in the mouth of a Catalan labourer. When Nico visits Jose's home, every generation of the extended family speaks flawless English. That would be amazing in the year 2000: how likely was it in 1956? Brande (played beautifully by Michael Hordern as a spiritual cripple) embarks on a campaign of emotional blackmail towards Nico and a policy of bullying Jose. He is incapable of seeing that this approach is doomed to failure, or that the subtly obsequious Garcia (Cyril Cusack) is the Iago to his own Othello. The ungracious refusal of Jose's fish marks the first breach of trust between father and son, but character is fate, and Brande is set on a course from which he cannot extricate himself. The confrontation between Brande and Nico on the staircase is one of the best things in the film. Young Jon Whiteley, in the part of Nico, gives an outstanding performance. Bogarde plays the accusation scene with spot-on coolness, but would the theft of a watch, even at Franco's apogee, even if it involved a foreign diplomat, merit custody, handcuffs and an armed Civil Guard escort? Would someone accused of such a minor offence really prefer to take to the hills as a brigand? Brande's Lear-like volte face in the rain-sodden mill is an affecting scene, and though the whole thing is rather far-fetched, it works as an entertaining fable.

Antonio-37 Jon Whiteley stars as young Nicholas, a lonely and troubled English boy living on a Spanish estate with his cold father, played by Michael Hordern. Dad has money and power, but no time or attention for his son who is desperate for a male role model.Dirk Bogarde stars as the gardener, who starts out caring for the plants then begins to care for Nicholas too.This movie is based on the novel by the famous English physician, A. J. Cronin. How Green Was My Valley, with Roddy McDowell is another of his famous novels made into a movie, which also tells a boy's life story.Nicholas becomes happy through the attention and caring of the gardener. But Dad is jealous of the influence of the hired help on his son. Yet the two have fun with simple things, like a fishing trip to the mountains.The dark part of the movie is the father's use of power and influence to cruelly sever the relationship between the two. The loss of his son's happiness means nothing, power means all.Contrast this movie to Captains Courageous, three movie versions available, by Rudyard Kipling. Here, a neglected boy finds love from a simple fish boat captain. This care and attention turns the boy into a proper man. Such is the power of love.