Esther Waters (film)

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Esther Waters
Directed byIan Dalrymple
Peter Proud
Written byMichael Gordon
William Rose
Gerard Tyrrell (Additional dialogue)
Based onEsther Waters by George Moore
Produced byIan Dalrymple
Peter Proud
StarringKathleen Ryan
Dirk Bogarde
CinematographyC.M. Pennington-Richards
H.E. Fowle
Edited byBrereton Porter
Music byGordon Jacob (as Dr. Gordon Jacob)
Production
companies
Independent Producers
Wessex Film Productions
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors (UK)
Release date
22 September 1948 (London)
Running time
108 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£338,551[1]
Box office£47,700 (by Dec 1949) or £32,900[1]

Esther Waters is a 1948 British drama film directed by Ian Dalrymple and Peter Proud and starring Kathleen Ryan, Dirk Bogarde (first credited film appearance), and Cyril Cusack.[2] It is an adaptation of the 1894 novel Esther Waters by George Moore.[3]

Plot[edit]

The film is set in London in 1875.

Esther (Kathleen Ryan) goes into domestic service as a maid, only to be seduced by sweet-talking footman William (Dirk Bogarde). When he abandons her, she must deal with not only pregnancy but also her mother's death. She struggles to survive with only herself for comfort and strength.

She is forced to put her child into care in order to keep her job.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

The movie was Dirk Bogarde's first film as a leading man, when he replaced Stewart Granger, who dropped out.[4][5]

Critical reception[edit]

The Radio Times wrote:

"George Moore's source novel was strongly influenced by the naturalism of Emile Zola, but there is little of the earthiness of the original in this tawdry adaptation, which rapidly plunges between the two stools of heritage production and sensationalist melodrama. Dirk Bogarde is suitably scurrilous as a rascally footman, but the action slows fatally when he is off screen, with Kathleen Ryan in the title role facing all her trials (single motherhood, the workhouse and Bogarde's drinking) with sulkiness rather than dignity and determination. The horse-racing scenes are efficiently presented, but Ian Dalrymple and Peter Proud direct with heavy hands"[6]

TV Guide called the film "A well-done but melancholy costume drama from the book by the Irish playwright and critic George Moore, a cofounder of the theatre group that led to the famous Abbey Theatre."[7]

Box Office[edit]

Producer's receipts were £33,600 in the UK and it cost the producers £700 overseas.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 354. Income is in terms of producer's share of receipts.
  2. ^ "Esther Waters". BFI. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  3. ^ "Episode 1, Esther Waters, Classic Serial - BBC Radio 4".
  4. ^ Nathaniel Thompson, "Esther Waters", Turner Classic Movies accessed 27 November 2012
  5. ^ "Esther Waters 1948 - Britmovie - Home of British Films". Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  6. ^ "Esther Waters - Film from RadioTimes".
  7. ^ "Esther Waters".

External links[edit]


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