Watch The Card For Free

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

I had several opportunities to watch this over the years but I could never work up much of a sweat for 'period' pieces, especially period pieces set in the Midlands and points north, to put it another way things like Hobon's Choice, Hindle Wakes, Love On The Dole and their ilk were anathema to me, and in the interests of fair play even something more 'southern' like The History of Mr. Polly also lacked appeal. Finally I spotted a DVD of The Card with a bonus in the shape of a TV play written for Guiness by John Mortimer so I shelled out two quid and found The Card to be a pleasant diversion with competent performances and a left-handed charm going for it. It would seem that better late than never hits the spot.

Film goers who got to know Alec Guinness through the series of comedies he starred in for J. Arthur Rank will recognize the high performance standard he had attained by the early 1950's. His ascent seems swift but Guinness did not really get his start until after World War II, and he was already 38 when The Promoter/The Card was made. This film is a fairly lightweight comedy. Guinness' character, "Denry" Machin, is an imaginative young fellow who has a talent for seeing and seizing the main chance. He gets an important boost from a friendship with the Countess of Chell (Valerie Hobson), is nearly netted by the gold-digging Ruth Earp (Glynis Johns) and eventually finds his true love Nellie Cotterill (Petula Clark). I don't really consider this summary to contain any spoilers because most of the plot developments are visible a mile away. Much of the fun, in addition to that supplied directly by Guinness, comes from an assortment of near-Dickensian characters he encounters with aplomb on his way from poverty to riches.

Alec Guinness' reputation as a serious actor tends to overshadow the subtle but deftly comic early work he was involved in, even when the films themselves (especially his handful of Ealing classics) are highly-regarded. This was another fine (and reasonably popular) vehicle for him in which he plays a go-getter(!) who uses his wits – and the helping hand lent him by Fate – to rise the ranks in British society from a washer-woman's son to, ultimately, Mayor of his town. In this respect, the film reminded me of two similar efforts i.e. NOTHING BUT THE BEST (1964) and THE RISE AND RISE OF MICHAEL RIMMER (1970) – which I owned but had not yet checked out (and which I then promptly opted to include in my ongoing Christmas schedule); of course, thematically, it is not unlike Ealing's own KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949; in which Guinness had memorably played eight murder victims)...but the approach here is altogether more genteel and nostalgic (even if there are a few undeniable belly-laughs along the way), thus lacking the pointed satirical barbs which distinguished the earlier (and later) films. Anyway, the star delivers an entirely disarming performance and the film – augmented by its charming period setting – proves a most delightful concoction. He is abetted besides by three splendid leading ladies in Glynis Johns (surprisingly playing haughty), Valerie Hobson (obviously aristocratic, her feathers apparently not even unruffled by a pratfall!) and Petula Clark (not yet the chart-topping singer and, tackling the role of a commoner, is naturally Guinness' eventual choice of partner). Foremost among the supporting cast, then, is Edward Chapman – later a stooge in many a Norman Wisdom comedy – as Guinness' disgruntled former employer, but several other familiar faces crop up throughout (Peter Copley, Michael Hordern, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Frank Pettingell, etc). For the record, this was the first of four appearances by the star in films directed by Neame (apart from two the latter had produced for David Lean); of these, the only one I have yet to watch is another comedy, THE HORSE'S MOUTH (1958), which I might as well get to now rather than later...

With a tagline "He's the cheekiest man in town!" The Card (Alec Guinness, Glynis Johns) will teach you a few tricks about how to make it in business from scratch.While you watch Denry (Alec Guinness) stride through his blueprint for fortune, don't miss the smart tactics of Ruth (Glynis Johns). No wonder he chose to marry the soft Nellie; Ruth was sharp competition (but how did he resist those amorous blue eyes and pouting appeals?). She urged him to stand for mayor when Nellie was happy with pennies. It's a satisfying ending, but Denry would have been a bigger cracker with Ruth.Writers and entrepreneurs: view it with notebook and pen. It's a 9-star must.