Luck, Audacity, and Guinness

A young man of peculiar disposition climbs a wobbly ladder to success in 1952's The Card. Based on a 1911 novel, it stars Alec Guinness as the title character and it's one of the best Alec Guinness roles I've ever seen. The movie is endlessly amazing and watching him go to work, or deal with an unforeseen difficulty, is a continual pleasure.

After a brief introduction, we meet Denry (Guinness) at a shop window where he happens to spot a wealthy man drop his wallet. Instead of robbing him of it, he strides directly over to the man's place of business, returns the wallet, and asks for a job.

It's all above board and honest enough yet you can't help feeling that Denry somehow got something over on the man. Maybe it's his cat-who-ate-the-canary grin. Really, he's simply a man of remarkable luck who's able to see past social conventions to seize opportunities. After he gets himself invited to a countess' ball, and even has the audacity to ask the Countess for a dance, his boss later accuses him of wanting to dance with his betters. And with perfect innocence, Denry replies, "Well, yes, sir. Don't you?"

Glynis Johns plays Ruth Earp, a dance instructor whom Denry tries to trick into giving him free dance lessons. She, in return, tries to seduce him and just about bankrupts him when they go on holiday. By this point, he's become a rent collector and I was delighted by the simple, deadpan comedy of one scene where, during a storm, he, Ruth, and her friend, Nellie (Petula Clark), come across a closed off pier where men are struggling to save a boat that's run aground. They just want to be spectators--Denry bluffs his way in, pretending they're reporters, and hands his bag of collected rents (at this point he's a rent collector) to Ruth so he can go down among the fellows struggling to haul the vessel up from the waves, all the while grinning like the idiot we know he's not but still genuinely caught up in this silly adventure. Meanwhile, Ruth immediately starts spending the rents on chocolates for everyone. Of course. The set up is so obvious but also absolutely absurd--yet somehow credible. Guinness' performance is a big part of selling it.

The other most remarkable scene in the film is when Denry sees a repo wagon rolling out of control down a hill and takes it upon himself to try to stop it like an action hero. He manages to climb atop it but can't stop the thing from rolling into the canal. It's only then he hears a pathetic voice within and realises Ruth is inside, stranded upon her repossessed table.

Needless to say, Glynis Johns is wonderful in this movie, too.

The Card is available on The Criterion Channel.