Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

John Cromwell

Writers:

Edison Marshall (novel) and
Philip Dunne (writer)

Release Date:

29 January 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

The Story of Benjamin Blake

Plot:

Cheated out of his estate by his sadistic uncle, young Benjamin Blake goes to the South Seas to make his fortune so he can return to claim his birthright.

Plot Keywords:

Uncle | Inheritance | Grandfather Grandson Relationship | Revenge | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Tyrone Power	...	Benjamin Blake
Gene Tierney	...	Eve
George Sanders	...	Sir Arthur Blake
Frances Farmer	...	Isabel Blake
Elsa Lanchester	...	Bristol Isabel
Kay Johnson	...	Helena Blake
John Carradine	...	Caleb Green
Harry Davenport	...	Amos Kidder
Dudley Digges	...	Bartholomew Pratt
Roddy McDowall	...	Young Benjamin Blake
Halliwell Hobbes	...	Purdy
Marten Lamont	...	Kenneth Hobart
Arthur Hohl	...	Captain Greenough
Pedro de Cordoba	...	Feenou
Heather Thatcher	...	Maggie Martin

Also Known As:

The Story of Benjamin Blake

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Busch Gardens - S. Grove Avenue, Pasadena, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Quotes:

Sir Arthur Blake: Have you ever fought with your fists, Ben?
Benjamin Blake: Yes.
Sir Arthur Blake: I don't mean vulgar scuffling in the stables. I mean the rules of the prize ring.
Benjamin Blake: No, sir.
Sir Arthur Blake: Take off your coat, and your education will begin.
[as Ben is removing his coat, Sir Arthur suddenly punches him to the ground]
Sir Arthur Blake: Your first lesson - Never be taken unawares!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Wonder Boys (2000)

Saturday afternoon at the movies

Piper Laurie said of Tyrone Power, "Tyrone Power was Saturday afternoon at the movies." "Son of Fury" surely must have been one of those films that young people flocked to see on a Saturday afternoon - an island adventure starring one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.

Power costars with a great cast that includes George Sanders, Frances Farmer, Gene Tierney, Roddy McDowell, and Elsa Lanchester. Tierney is impossibly beautiful, certainly every boy's dream girl - and on an island, no less, and not speaking English! Her final kiss with Power is socko.

The film has some excellent performances by the supporting cast, McDowell and Lanchester in particular. Lanchester's scene with Power is especially touching. Fifteen years later, they'd work together on his last film, Witness for the Prosecution. Lovely Farmer, whose story is now legend, doesn't have much to do, which is a shame. Sanders is always excellent. He and Power would fight on screen again in "Solomon and Sheba." Power collapsed while he and Sanders rehearsed a sword fight and died very shortly afterward.

Son of Fury, of course, is the type of film at which Power excelled, and there would be many more period pieces to come before his contract, interrupted by the war, finally expired. He said at the end of his life that he was proud of only four films. He should have been prouder of a lot more, because he fed a lot of dreams and was responsible for many happy Saturday afternoons for 22 years.