Head-to-Head: Trevor Howard v.s. Richard Burton, 'Brief Encounter' 1945/1974

Trevor Howard and Richard Burton both played Dr Alec Harvey in 'Brief Encounter', in David Lean's 1945 version and Alan Bridges' 1974 version, respectively

 

I can think of no better starting point for my head-to-head match-ups than this thoroughly one-sided affair. Before moving on into the waters of adaptations/interpretations of the same characters and stories with equal merit, it seems only fitting to firstly examine how, and why, some 'remakes' of classic characterizations can go so, so very wrong...

Nowadays David Lean is more known for his large-scale epics 'The Bridge on the River Kwai', 'Lawrence of Arabia', and 'Dr. Zhivago'; and indeed, these a great films, wonderfully directed with Lean's all-encompassing flair, and featuring some unforgettable performances. Unfortunately, their claims to cinematic posterity has had the unintended effect of unfortunately overshadowing some of the smaller-scale, but no less sterling work done in the fringes of these epics. To name but a few--his faithful yet incredibly individualistic adaptations of Dickens' 'Great Expectations' and 'Oliver Twist'; the enjoyable comedy 'Hobson's Choice' which shows an entirely different side to his abilities, without eschewing his usual cinematic verve; and hidden gems 'The Sound Barrier' and 'The Passionate Friends' which provide fine showcases for the great Ralph Richardson and Claude Rains, to name but a few.

Among them all, however, 'Brief Encounter' (1945) is the one that holds a very special place in my heart; and is, without question, one of my favourite films of all time. Based on Noël Coward's one-act play 'Still-Life' (and adapted by the famed playwright himself), it depicts your typical 1940's British suburban housewife, Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson), whose highly conventional life is thrown into a flux when, by a chance 'brief encounter' she meets Dr Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard). Lean had worked with Coward and Johnson previously on 'In Which We Serve' (1942), which was an effective enough WWII propaganda piece, if a little overbearing in the notes it hits, perhaps, and led by a strangely muted lead performance from Coward himself. In this tale of repressed romance and respectability, however, each of the trio found themselves completely in their element. The flashback structure, the lighting, the employment of closeups and lighting to bring out adaptational intimacy and grandeur...all coalesce into a most incredible cinematic experience, Lean's unique vision merging with treading over the well-worn territory of forbidden love Coward's dialogic blend of wit and world-weariness. As for Johnson...I'll get onto her later, but I can say without hesitation that her impeccably moving work is my #1 female leading performance of all-time.

'Brief Encounter' (1974) is most certainly NOT one of my favourite films of all-time. To put it bluntly, it's a remarkably unremarkable film of its sort. A melodrama that plays its notes too quietly to the point of blandness. I guess it avoids the pitfalls of over the top, hammy acting that sometimes comes with films of these sorts; but on the other hand, everything becomes dreadfully dull, one of those films which raises a resounding 'why', and little more to say beyond that. Whereas the 1945 version found within repression and reserve a slowly brimming surge of emotions, Sophia Loren is simply not up to task with conveying any sort of transition from the initial quietude, and is INCREDIBLY miscast as Anna (not Laura here) Jesson...but more about that later. Suffice to say, where sparks flew in David Lean's masterpiece, this version keeps everything much too muted for its own good.

                                   

'Muted', I think, is a good way to start off describing Richard Burton's performance--and by muted I don't mean it in a good, quiet, Robert Duvall in 'Tender Mercies' sort of way. He's so incredibly quiet in how he plays Dr Alec Harvey, that it seems like he's almost phoning it in.In 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' he actually initially uses a similarly quiet approach to his performance in 'Brief Encounter' to character creation, but there it actually made sense for the meek professor character of George. His method of underplaying there worked effectively with his well-earned outbursts over the course of the film, although I felt he could have brought a bit more to the savage intellect of the attacks on Martha (Elizabeth Taylor), which original Edward Albee choice James Mason could've probably done splendidly (think a more dispassionate, more calculating Humbert Humbert). But I digress. He's good there, and in that this approach of his works for the lack of passion and life to his character.

'Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf' shows that it's entirely possible for Burton give a performance that's both understated and has resonance with the viewer, but Burton's approach in 'Brief Encounter' is flawed from the outset.  I have to confess, I've never really felt Burton's reputation as one of the all-time British acting greats to be entirely deserved. He had a rather good run of films in the 1960's, including two very well-deserved Oscar nominations which I will mention next; but most of the time I find him either overshadowed (in 'Becket' by his drinking buddy Peter O'Toole, in 'My Cousin Rachel' by Olivia de Havilland--granted he has the less flashy role in both) or unnecessarily hammy (his rather amateurish take on Henry VIII in 'Anne of the Thousand Days', his hilariously overblown failure at holding together a Biblical epic in 'The Robe'). His take on the 'Angry Young Man' in 1958's 'Look Back in Anger' was well-received, but I don't think he ever reaches the heights of say, Tom Courtenay in 'The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner', or Albert Finney in 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'. More importantly, towards the end of his career he committed the cardinal sin of taking roles in bad films (not a sin in itself) and really, really phoning it in for a large number of them (though he had a decent enough swansong in '1984'). He was a very good actor, but in my view, not one of the greats.

The problem with his take on Dr Alec Harvey is this very strength of the aforementioned two performances. When he first comes into Anna Jesson's life--to help pick out a piece of grit in her eye--Burton is so nonchalant about it all that it doesn't really make sense how this 'brief encounter' would resonate with Anna at all. His entrance is just so lifeless in the way Burton almost mumbles his lines, that I would argue he makes even less of an impression than, say, the lady serving Anna her tea, or her husband Graham (Jack Hedley). The fact that Burton's Alec Harvey is so much more charmless and forgettable than the supposed dullard of a husband immediately puts a nail in the coffin for Burton's performance. You can't develop a character into an object of desire, no matter how gradually the progression will take, if you can't bring any sense of passion and charm to your initial appearance. Burton could be charming, as he showed in 'Taming of the Shrew' (where he was surprisingly quite a hoot as Petruchio), so it's confusing why he didn't instill some of that here. He's not horrible like he was in, say, 'The Robe', or 'Exorcist II' (shudder), but he's just...dull.

Trevor Howard, on the other hand, from his very first (chronological) appearance, opts for a very different approach. He really emphasises the 'doctor' side of Alec with the compassion he shows when tending to the grit in Laura's eye. Howard, throughout his career, was perhaps most well-known for playing gruff characters, embodied most through perhaps his most famous role in the Graham Greene-cum-Carol Reed noir masterpiece 'The Third Man' (1949); the world-weary, haunted authority figure of Major Calloway is a great example of how Howard could turn what was, in essence, an expositionary role (and an authoritarian figure, no less) into a fascinating, witty, and at times deeply affecting portrait of a man just trying to enforce what's right and just. Underrated throughout most of his career, Howard always gave his everything in every role, from his grandstanding lead turn as a moral degenerate in 'Outcast of the Islands' (1951) to a small but very effective cameo in 'Ghandi' (1982) as a judge with more than meets the eye. He was somewhat limited in many of his roles where he played the 'straight man' but nevertheless gave effective performances in the likes of 'Green for Danger' and 'I See a Dark Stranger', where he facilitates the more showy work of Alistair Sim and Deborah Kerr; he does a similar thing here with Celia Johnson, adding even more layers to her terrific performance with his masterfully crafted work.

                                           

Dr Harvey's kindness is simple work by Howard, but the tenderness he shows in Alec Harvey from the outset should not be overlooked--he easily could have come across as overbearing or even somewhat creepy/caddish with the enthusiasm he has towards helping Laura, but Howard is way, way too good an actor to let this happen. His warm presence immediately sparks a great dynamic between himself and Celia Johnson as they are just so well-suited immediately from the very start, unlike Burton and Loren who looked decidedly uncomfortable in the presence of one another from start to end. Another thing Howard does so well, that is also so often overshadowed by the complexities of Celia Johnson's brimming love for Dr Harvey, is the essential gentility and easygoing manner with which Howard approaches his role.

It's interesting to note that both he and Burton were more known for playing the brusque, blunt sorts more than the charming romantic leads, but whereas Burton seemed to really struggle in trying to set up any sort of chemistry (admittedly difficult with the stiff, unnatural Loren), Howard simply flourishes. I appreciate that perhaps Burton's intent all along was to present Dr Harvey as a cold presence from the beginning, shy and reticent; but as I said, it just doesn't work for me. Beyond his first appearance, when he re-encounters Loren, Burton's manner of blunt, gruff direct questioning and muttering over her life is ever so slightly unsettling (surely not the intent?). Howard, on the other hand, has perhaps the benefit of a (much, much, much) better screenplay which doesn't ladle him with dull declarations that 'life is really dangerous business'. His first re-encounter with Celia Johnson is marvelous in how he seems to slowly seep not only into her life but through the whole film; when Laura states that she had no 'premonitions' because it all seemed so 'natural, so innocent', you both believe her as you see two lovely people so at ease with chatting away to one another. I particularly like his delivery of 'would you mind, very much, if I came to the pictures with you?' In the wrong hands this may have come across as an indecent, thoroughly inappropriate proposition; in Burton's hands he would have perhaps delivered with brevity, served with a coldness more fitting to the somber darkness of Alec Leamas; but in Howard's hands it is a beautifully balance of charm, hopefulness, and the hints of an understated, growing passion.

Back to the 'doctor' aspect of both characters. Burton's character, when asked about why he's a doctor, says he doesn't know. It's a strange direction to take a character who should be the driving force of the relationship, to make him so incredibly directionless in his profession; Burton's performance is so clenched and forced that really, the best medicine for one another would be for the two to take a breather from one another. He just feels like he's tiredly reciting out words of a doctor's handbook; and again, not all the blame can be placed onto Burton as clearly some of the writing is at fault here. I hate having to continuously undermine the attempts of the writers of the 1974 version to take a different tact in portraying Dr Alec Harvey, but suffice to say they put it on themselves through even daring to remake this! Anyway, making Alec into a stiff robotic bore of a doctor who looks anything but at home when talking about his profession (when he declares that there's 'nothing wrong with a little relaxation', one almost chuckles at the irony when listening to Burton roll off medical terms uncomfortably off his tongue) may well be a 'different' way of approaching the character, but it just doesn't jive with me. Alan Bridges seems to be going for a less romanticized view of the world here; but he seems to forget that while it's all good to infuse realism into melodrama, the script and actors must be up to task to making it seem natural. Suffice to say, Burton's wooden delivery of what is supposed to be his passion in life does him no favours.

In both films, it can be argued that neither Burton nor Howard are actually the 'lead' insofar as the female characters of Loren and Johnson have a much stronger perspective, and particularly in the case of Howard the male figures of the film are always viewed from a female perspective. In particular, the 1945 version employs Celia Johnson's mellifluous, perfectly enunciated delivery for a first person voice-over that does wonders for establishing the inner conflicts of her mind with the outer reserve she maintains. Which leaves, however, Howard with pretty much a 'supporting' role to Johnson's performance, but he never lets it seem that way. One sequence in the film where Howard does indeed dominate the screen is one of the few instances where the focus of the camera fixates solely upon him. David Lean and Robert Krasker's exceptional work on the use of close-ups throughout the film is simply exceptional, and in this scene Howard makes great use of a hint of his natural domineering screen presence as he implores Laura that it's time to stop being sensible, and to truly, passionately act upon their passions. Howard here is magnificent in showing how Laura has changed his life with each and every subtle gesture he makes. He asks whether he see her again with such longing and genuine conviction, that stands in stark opposition to Burton who murmurs 'next week' as an appointment no more important than a trip to the grocer's.

                 

Burton, though the film often strays away from him in terms of numerous (quite dull) subplots taking up a fair bit of time, actually has a scene to himself away from Loren, with his wife (Ann Fairbank), a dullard literary critic. I will say that in this scene Burton's stoic approach actually works for once in showing how his relationship with his wife has withered into nothingness; it's nothing incredible, but it works well enough in establishing the tired, passionless nature of the man. Only thing is, then, if the dynamic between he and Loren is so equally listless as that with his wife, then 'why', why the affair? The relationship suddenly seems to hinge too much upon Loren's exotic good looks and becomes almost artificially cold...not what you want from any sort of melodrama, good or bad.

                                                             

                                                             
Another crucial scene for both performances is the near-consummation of the affair by both parties. I know I'm being nitpicky here, but quite frankly Loren and Burton exude none of the passion exuded by Howard and Johnson in a far less 'sexual', yet infinitely more intimate scene. I won't even bother posting a picture of the highly uncomfortable-to-watch almost-sex scene in the 1974 version, but I will put in a screenshot of one of the most passionate moments in the 1945 version where, Laura and Alec, retreating into the latter's flat, finally lay bare their hidden desires...almost. Howard is an absolute charmer yet, as I stated before, most certainly not a cad; unlike Burton, when confronted with the errors of his ways, does little more than just stand around and act without much remorse, not even when Loren cries that she feels 'exposed, like a prostitute', Howard's more defensive stance when confronted by a colleague over his adultery does well to differentiate from the usual trope by imbuing a strong sense of guilt and conflicting morality to his performance; he still believes in love, but alas, also understands finally that it cannot be. His seeking of forgiveness from Johnson for 'causing you so much misery' always breaks my heart not by how heartfelt, and how genuine Howard's anguished, final overt declaration of love and care is played so delicately. His exit from the film is absolutely devastating for the viewer as the shattering inadequacy of Laura's existence becomes all the more prevalent by the loss of his kind nursery; while when Burton leaves, he just leaves, almost brushing off Loren, and neither party earns the conclusion the 1974 film wants us to experience; there is an emotional disconnect to the end of the affair, an awry end note to a film if I ever saw one.

                                   

I admit, it seems almost unfair to do a head-to-head encounter between one of (in my opinion) the greatest romances of all time with what was degraded by many critics as a disastrous re-hash of something that didn't need to be remade. But really, I do think comparing Burton's wholly uninspired work does so much to bring out exactly what's so brilliant about Howard's, a performance which has unfortunately been often neglected by critics and audiences for its part in making 'Brief Encounter' (1945) such a great film. Perhaps Robert Shaw, the original choice for the 1974 remake, may have brought more style and impact to the role--after all, he was by far the more versatile and exciting actor of the two, and was on a great roll in the late-60's to early 70's with scene-stealing supporting roles in 'A Man for All Seasons', 'The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3', 'The Sting' and of course 'Jaws', and a hugely underrated romantic lead turn in 'The Hireling'. However, I'm doubtful that even the talents of Shaw could have salvaged the train wreck of the 1974 version and its portrayal of Dr Alec Harvey. Therefore, the victor of this match-up is:

1. Trevor Howard (4.5/5 as a lead role, 5/5 as supporting)
2. Richard Burton (1.5/5)

Next up, 'Head-to-Head: Celia Johnson v.s. Sophia Loren, 'Brief Encounter' 1945/1974

Photo credits:
http://www.gonemovies.com/WWW/Drama/Drama/BriefAlec.asp
https://movieclassics.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/brief-encounter-1974/
https://gorillafilmmagazineblog.wordpress.com/tag/trevor-howard/