Watch Major Barbara For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Thanks for the memories!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Wendy Hiller plays the title character, a devout missionary in the Salvation Army always trying to help and do good. A very young Rex Harrison witnesses one of her conversion speeches on the street, and so entranced by her beauty and passion, he joins the troupe. Before long they're engaged, but the story's just started! Barbara's estranged father, Robert Morley, returns to the scene and tries to buy his way back into the family by donating a small fortune to the Salvation Army-Barbara won't have it! And while she's busy volunteering with her aide Deborah Kerr, an unrepentant and mean-spirited sinner, Robert Newton, repeatedly causes trouble for everyone.Wendy Hiller does a very good job as the tireless Major Barbara, and Robert Newton is always a very frightening bad guy, but Rex Harrison absolutely ruins this movie. His ego oozes off the screen, and his horrific mannerisms and flippant deliveries made me want to run out of the room screaming. I didn't think I could dislike him any more than I already had in My Fair Lady, but I was proved wrong.Even without the terrible excuse for a romantic lead, the story of Major Barbara is pretty boring. Deborah Kerr has a very small role, and Robert Newton's character is the best part of the movie. Rather than this through this 2-hour snore-fest, rent Separate Tables, Elmer Gantry, and 1948's Oliver Twist instead.Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, there's a scene where Robert Newton strikes Deborah Kerr and a little old lady, and while some kids might not understand what's going on, it might be upsetting to watch. So, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

This is from a play by George Bernard Shaw. Now I know that Shaw is like a god to some, but I didn't particularly like this film. I found it to be immensely talky and a bit dull. I know that makes me a peon, but I just thought everyone talked way too much and it all felt very stagy--too stagy for a movie. And, even the talents of Wendy Hiller, Rex Harrison (wow, did he talk and overact here) and Robert Morley aren't enough to make this one interesting.Major Barbara is the title given to the daughter of a rich industrialist. She's in the Salvation Army and loves the life--and talks about it so endlessly you want to slap her. Then, inexplicably, she loses her faith very quickly and in the end comes to embrace the life of a man who is an executive in a munitions factory. There's a bit that happens in between and frankly it lost me because of its style. I could tell it was all meant to be immensely clever--yet none of it seemed very real or interesting. Sorry, but I guess I am a lout for not loving this film.

Outstanding acting: every tiny facial tick or movement of arms adds to the character and displays their feelings and emotions. Interactions are perfectly timed and presented to create an impression of reality (of course we know this is not reality but a film, so the acting must be more than real to succeed) .Striking sets: Dour tones of black & white shade the early sets of down-and-out Limehouse. This is contrasted by gleaming whites and solid blacks of the futuristic mattes and rear projections of the later part of the film. Expectations are high and not disappointed with a crew including names like Vincent Korda, production design (The Third Man, The Thief of Bagdad, etc), John Bryan, art direction (Pygmalion, Great Expectations, etc), Jack Clayton assistant director (Room at the Top, The Pumpkin Eater, etc), Ronald Neame's cinematography (Blithe Spirit, One of Our Aircraft is Missing, etc) and even editing by David Lean.Brilliant lighting: the lighting of the faces and sets heightens the emotions and intellect. When Robert Newton's Bill Walker first enters the story he kicks over a fence and strides across a cluttered yard. His head and shoulders lined with a nimbus of light as if he is some lost angel recently cast out of heaven. Later, Barbara walks forlornly to the river's edge. She is shrouded in shadows, but light (apparently) reflected from the water moves across her face and eyes signaling what she may be contemplating.Sublime writing: each of the characters, no matter how small, is important to the story. Each speaks with voice that is true to the character and yet represents an aspect of the author's theme. Not one word is wasted.Only the happy socialist worker's March of Humanity to a Better Future ending mars the experience. But then, much of this is probably due to seeing the film with 21st century eyes and besides, to expect a film over which GBS had complete control of the story to end any other way would be like expecting no one to die in a Roger Corman film.

I happen to like this film. It is almost as good as "Pygmalion", the previous Shaw - Pascal collaboration, but that film had Leslie Howard in it as Higgins, and as co-director. Here, although Wendy Hiller is back, Howard is not involved and Rex Harrison is the romantic lead (and the philosophic lead is Robert Morley, as the man of wealth Andrew (or, as Shaw says, "St. Andrew") Undershaft). It has a grand cast supporting these three, including Mary Lohr, Deborah Kerr, Emlyn Wiliams, and Robert Newton (for once showing what a terrific actor he was when not drunk). The best parts are when Newton tries to be stoical and get knocked down to show he can take what he gives out to weaker types. He does get under the skin of Torin Thatcher (as a reformed boxing champ, named Todger Fairchild), only to have Thatcher humiliate him by forcing him to pray.Shaw the comic dramatist is always a treat. Shaw the self-created man with all the answers is another problem. "Major Barbara" is a look at how money is made by ways that are spiritually appalling (armaments and booze for example), but which guarantee jobs and hope to people who can't get them from the world of religion. One probably can agree with this point of view, but the constant pushing of Undershaft's point of view - nobody ever trounces him in an argument - is annoying. He seems omnipotent in this play (as Shaw, no doubt, wanted him to be). I once suggested that it would have been delightful if after one of his speeches he had actually had coughed blood (to show he was mortal). But Shaw never would have done that to St. Andrew.Yet he did do something within a decade after writing "Major Barbara" that was inconsistent. Shaw probably never willingly discussed it with anyone. Undershaft rules his armaments firm with a total control. He dictates to the government on policies he needs. The stockholders don't seem to exist. But in 1916 Shaw's optimism about dictatorial capitalists had faded. World War I shattered him a bit, and he wrote "Heartbreak House". In it is the character of "Boss Mangam", a powerful business tycoon like Undershaft, who proves to have feet of clay. It seems the great tycoon has to satisfy those stockholders or his empire is taken from him. The same, of course, has to be true of "St. Andrew" Undershaft as well. He probably is his largest shareholder, but he never says he is sole shareholder. Undershaft was quite content and pontifical in 1907 when he describes his religion of cannons and prosperity for all who listen to him. But that was peacetime. Somehow, in 1916, "St. Andrew" would probably have found it harder to be as glib about his doctrines as he had been.