the ware case

The Ware Case was to be a vehicle for Clive Brook (who had starred in Balcon`s first film, Woman to Woman, in 1922) and to be directed by Robert Stevenson, who had made films at Gaumont-British, including Tudor Rose. The Ware Case, a successful play by G.P. Bancroft, had also been filmed twice before in silent days, first in 1927 by Walter West, and again in 1928 with Stewart Rome. This time Clive Brook plays the unhappy baronet who is tried for the murder of his brother-in-law after the damning corpse is found floating in his garden pond, after his acquittal he is angered to find his lawyer has become romantically involved with his wife. An argument ensues, during which the financier confesses his guilt and then makes a fatal leap from a balcony. The point of the film was really that even the most dissolute of aristocrats, after having charmed his way out of a murder conviction, could do the right thing in the end. In spite of the technical gloss of the Old Bailey courtroom set (most of the story is told in flashback at the trial), The Ware Case is a stagey, melodramatic piece. But it was made on schedule within its budget, and was thus able to go into profit. Extract© George Perry: Forever Ealing, Charles Barr: Ealing Studios.