The year is 1880. On the outskirts of the small Scottish town of Levensford there stands a strange building--half cottage, half castle, compete with thick walls and embrasures. The townsfolk nickname the fortress "Hatter's Castle," for James Brodie (Robert Newton), the man who built it, is brutal. His wife (Beatrice Varley), who has long been ailing, and his daughter, Mary (Deborah Kerr), are in awe of him. His son, Angus (Anthony Bateman), aged 15, alone dear to his heart, suffers under his love as the others suffer under his sternness.

Brodie spends his evenings with Nancy (Enid Stamp-Taylor), the barmaid of the Winton Arms. When Nancy's former lover, Dennis (Emlyn Williams), appears on the scene, she persuades Brodie to sack his faithful shop assistant, Perry, and give Dennis the job.

Dennis, whom Brodie believes to be Nancy's step-brother, robs him secretly, then aids Brodie's rivals, the Mungo Hat Co., in acquiring the shop next door. Meanwhile, Dennis schemes to marry Mary in order to gain a rich dowry.

Dr. Renwick (James Mason), called in to assist the ailing Mrs. Brodie, loves Mary sincerely. Brodie forbids him the house. Mary, who has been taken advantage of by the unscrupulous and manipulative Dennis, sadly rejects the young doctor's proposal of marriage.

Tragedy after tragedy ensues, all the direct results of Brodie's arrogance and selfish cruelty.

This film, based on the novel by A. J. Cronin, reunites Robert Newton with two cast members from 1941's Major Barbara. Once again, Newton's character is abusive toward the gentle Deborah Kerr, whom, in one of the most memorable scenes of the film, he thrashes and then throws out of the house into a raging storm. He also gets "revenge" on actor Emlyn Williams, who not only earns it in this film, but, in two earlier appearances (as Caligula in the never-completed epic I, Claudius and as Harry in Jamaica Inn) took great pleasure in making Newton's character the victim of his own cruelty. (Robert Newton's villains also seem to have a "thing" for the name Nancy; Nancy was also the name of Bill Sykes's abused girlfriend in 1948's Oliver Twist.)

The filmmakers recreated with great authenticity a real-life incident for an integral scene in the film: In 1879, hundreds of lives were lost when the two-mile-long Tay Bridge collapsed in a terrific storm that hurled a Glasgow-bound train hundreds of feet into the swirling waters below.

Click here for my review.