The Scapegoat (1959)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Vacationing in France, disenchanted British teacher John Barrett (Alec Guinness) meets nobleman Jacques De Gué (Guinness), who could be his twin. Fascinated, John accompanies Jacques to his hotel for drinks and passes out. The next morning, Jacques has vanished. His chauffeur mistakes John for him and takes him to the De Gué chateau. There, John is drawn into the lives of Jacques' bedridden mother, unbalanced wife and lovely mistress, unaware of the nobleman's nefarious plans for his double.
- Actors:
- Alec Guinness, Bette Davis, Nicole Maurey, Irene Worth, Pamela Brown, Annabel Bartlett, Geoffrey Keen, Noel Howlett, Peter Bull, Leslie French, Alan Webb, Maria Britneva, Eddie Byrne, Alexander Archdale, Peter Sallis
- Directors:
- Robert Hamer
- Writers:
- Daphne Du Maurier, Robert Hamer
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Thrillers
- Collections:
- 1949: That Ealing Feeling
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Reviews (1) of The Scapegoat
Twisty melodrama. - The Scapegoat review by Steve
Strange, eerie adaptation of a Daphne Du Maurier story which smooths out the novel's lumpy plot complications and instead offers a simple, haunting impression of a lonely, morally exhausted man trying to find a reason to go on. Though never admired by critics, it has the deep poetic melancholy which is typical of Robert Hamer's best films.
The doppelganger device is pure literary artifice. Alec Guinness plays a language professor from an English University on a driving holiday in France who meets his double, a decadent aristocrat. So Guinness has a dual role. Naturally, the bankrupt toff changes places with the academic to provide an alibi for the murder of his rich wife.
Only the fall guy has found solace in his new home and doesn't want to give it back. On a realistic level, this is all ridiculous. But as the story of a fanciful, enervated sentimentalist who imagines an unlikely, but romantic end to himself, this becomes a poignant fantasy. Thanks in large part to Guinness wistful performance.
The locations around the town and country estate of Le Mans add much to the atmosphere, and there are sensitive, subdued performances from the cast. Bette Davis is a counterpoint in her wholehearted cameo as a frumpy, drug damaged matriarch. The big plot twist comes as no surprise, but this can still be enjoyed as a sad, ethereal daydream.