This is a ten plus for Robert Newton who chews his way through the scenery as much as he acts it. It's a part that might have been created for him albeit its origins were in the novel by A.J. Cronin. Although there is decent support in the shape of Beatrice Varley, James Mason, Deborah Kerr and Emlyn Williams it's impossible to take your eyes off Newton who takes the movie by the scruff of the neck and shakes it until it cries Uncle. The melodrama boasts just about every cliché known to the silver screen but what it boils down to is the one about the tyrant who finally gets his come-uppance and after being indirectly responsible for three deaths brings about his own in spectacular style. Arguably Newton's finest hour.
Review of A.J. Cronin's Hatter's Castle
