We've seen it done a hundred times - twins switching identities - but somehow, having Alec Guinness as the twins makes The Scapegoat a cut above the other switch films. Guinness, of course, played multiple roles with great success in the fantastic Kind Hearts and Coronets, so twins for him must have seemed a cinch. In Kind Hearts, he had the benefit of a variety of disguises and voices. In this film, he had to create two completely different characters who look exactly alike. Of course he does so magnificently.
This isn't the most successful DuMaurier adaptation - that honor has to go to Rebecca, in my book, but The Scapegoat has a strong cast - Guinness, Bette Davis, Irene Worth, Pamela Brown, and the lovely Nicole Maurey. The atmosphere of this black and white film is somewhat depressing, given the gargantuan, ugly home the family resides in - but it is certainly the right mood for what Guinness inherits when his double disappears. Bette Davis is good, if on the grand guignol side. Guinness does so much with just a gesture, her histrionics seem out of place. All in all, it's a good film - it's very hard to go wrong when Alec Guinness is involved.
This isn't the most successful DuMaurier adaptation - that honor has to go to Rebecca, in my book, but The Scapegoat has a strong cast - Guinness, Bette Davis, Irene Worth, Pamela Brown, and the lovely Nicole Maurey. The atmosphere of this black and white film is somewhat depressing, given the gargantuan, ugly home the family resides in - but it is certainly the right mood for what Guinness inherits when his double disappears. Bette Davis is good, if on the grand guignol side. Guinness does so much with just a gesture, her histrionics seem out of place. All in all, it's a good film - it's very hard to go wrong when Alec Guinness is involved.