Line #29 Theatre/TheBrowningVersion


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tumblr_lmgmc5v1m41qd3ucoo1_1280_8.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Before [[Characters/HarryPotter Snape]] there was [[JerkassWoobie Crocker-Harris]]...]]
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4	-> "A single success can atone and more than atone for all the failures in the world."
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6	''The Browning Version'' is a one-act play by Creator/TerenceRattigan, originally written and performed in 1948.
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8	The play focuses on SternTeacher Andrew Crocker-Harris, who teaches classics at an English boarding school. He's being forced into retirement due to ill-health; his students hate him and his wife Millie has an open affair with science teacher Frank Hunter. Crocker-Harris is snapped out of his funk by Taplow, a young student who likes and pities the teacher.
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10	Despite its brief length, ''The Browning Version'' is often considered Rattigan's best work (along with ''Film/TheDeepBlueSea'' and ''Film/TheWinslowBoy''). It serves as a {{Deconstruction}} of the inspirational teacher genre: Crocker-Harris is neither that nor a SadistTeacher, but portrayed sympathetically as a man who lost his way and never achieved his potential.
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12	There have been numerous film and television adaptations of the play. The most famous is a 1951 production, directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Creator/MichaelRedgrave as Crocker-Harris. Redgrave won the Best Actor Award at Cannes Film Festival, and his performance continues to be regarded as an acting tour de force. A 1985 BBC television production starring Creator/IanHolm and Creator/JudiDench was also well-received. A 1994 remake, directed by Mike Figgis and starring Creator/AlbertFinney, Greta Scacchi, and Creator/MatthewModine, received mixed reviews; many critics disliked the SettingUpdate and alterations to the play, although Finney's performance was generally praised.
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14	----
15	!!The play and its film adaptations contain examples of:
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17	* AdaptationExpansion: Both the 1951 and 1994 films add a lot, dramatizing scenes only alluded to in the play (like Crocker-Harris humiliating Taplow in front of his class) or creating them entirely (Crocker-Harris's valedictory address).
18	* AmbiguousEnding: The play and the '85 BBC adaptation end with Crocker-Harris and Millie sitting down to dinner, their relationship unresolved. The two feature films make it clear that Millie's leaving Crocker-Harris.
19	* BittersweetEnding: In both feature film adaptations, Crocker-Harris has to leave without a pension and his future career has little prospect of academic or social distinction. But he has managed to break away from his wife, earned his students' respect with his frank acknowledgement of his failings, potentially found a new friend in Frank Hunter, and can now look forward to the completion of the book he started long ago.
20	* BoardingSchool: The setting. Heavily played up in the 1994 film, with more emphasis on Taplow's school life.
21	* BrutalHonesty: Millie practices this throughout. Later, Frank rounds it on her, with devastating effect.
22	* CoolTeacher: Frank and Fletcher (who leaves school to play cricket) both qualify.
23	* DeadpanSnarker: Frank. Crocker-Harris, surprisingly enough, has his moments later in the play.
24	* DefrostingIceQueen: Andrew Crocker-Harris in course of his last day at work. It arguably starts with Taplow's attempt to inject life into his translation of ''Agamemnon'', which moves Crocker-Harris to bring up his own youthful and passionate translation of the play. From then on, Crocker-Harris begins to think more and more of [[ICouldaBeenAContender what he could have been]], and what he has become.
25	* DontYouDarePityMe: Crocker-Harris says as much to Frank.
26	* EmbarrassingNickname: Crocker-Harris is known alternately as "the Crock" or "Himmler of the Lower Fifth." He doesn't mind the former, but the latter sets him off.
27	* EndOfAnAge: Both film versions emphasize that Crocker-Harris's teaching style and Classics generally are out of place in the modern day.
28	* FauxAffablyEvil: The Headmaster oozes charm and good cheer when telling Andrew he won't get a pension or badgering him into speaking first at the farewell ceremony.
29	* HopeSpot: When Crocker-Harris receives Taplow's gift. Only for Millie to ruin it. However, the film adaptations end on the more genuinely hopeful note: see BittersweetEnding above.
30	* ICouldaBeenAContender: Probably what gives the play its tragic core. Crocker-Harris was the most brilliant Classics Master to have ever taught at the school, but he let all of that slip after choosing the wrong profession and entering into a disastrous marriage.
31	* ItsAllMyFault: Both film versions end with Crocker-Harris apologizing to the student body for his failures. Think of it as a self-administered TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.
32	* JerkassHasAPoint: Millie's not wrong when she asks Andrew why he won't stand up for himself against the Headmaster or other teachers.
33	* KidsAreCruel: Mostly it's Crocker-Harris's fault, but to call him "Himmler of the Lower Fifth" is "unfeeling" at the very least, to use Crocker-Harris's words.
34	* ManlyTears: The pivotal scene in the story is Taplow's gifting of Robert Browning's version of ''Agamemnon'' to Crocker-Harris with the Greek inscription "God looks graciously upon a gentle master". It moves Crocker-Harris to tears because it is the first act of kindness he has received after a series of snubs and disappointments.
35	* TheNewGuy: Gilbert.
36	* NotSoStoic: Crocker-Harris loses his StiffUpperLip and breaks down crying when Taplow gifts him a copy of the ''Theatre/{{Agamemnon}}''.
37	* ReassignedToAntarctica: Crocker-Harris' upcoming job is implied to be a little bit of this.
38	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Millie's fond of dishing them out to Andrew, but Frank gives her the nastiest one of all.
39	* SadistTeacher: How Crocker-Harris is viewed InUniverse. The truth's more complex.
40	* SettingUpdate: The '94 version updates the play to the modern day, {{Lampshading}} the anachronistic language and character actions.
41	* SympatheticAdulterer: Played with regarding Millie. She certainly has an understandable reason for growing apart from Andrew, but she's so blunt and mean it's hard to like her. The '94 film makes her more sympathetic to her husband's plight and willing to part with him on friendly terms.
42	* TitleDrop: The title refers to Creator/RobertBrowning's translation of Creator/{{Aeschylus}}'s ''Theatre/{{Agamemnon}}''. Taplow finds a copy and gives it to Crocker-Harris.
43	* YoungerThanTheyLook: Crocker-Harris is meant to be only 43, but his physical and mental sickness have made him age prematurely.
44	** Also true for Creator/MichaelRedgrave in the 1951 version; Redgrave was also only 43, but had his [[DyeingForYourArt hair bleached and shaved the crown of his head]] to create a bald patch so that he looked closer to 60.
45	** {{Averted}} with the 1994 version, as Creator/AlbertFinney was in his mid-fifties during filming.

Context Theatre / TheBrowningVersion