André Morell makes authority seem unforced, and his sardonic humour keeps respectable men interesting. We value his dependable supporting work, but his Doctor Watson is a better introduction than another officer in uniform.
Fi1m perspective
André Morell’s cultured voice makes authority sound ordinary. He is at ease playing men who expect to be heard, though a sardonic note can make their respectability less reassuring. We rate that combination: it gives the familiar officer or patrician something more to do than look important. His post-war film and television work repeatedly put it to use.
In David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), he plays Colonel Green, a supporting officer in a film dominated by Alec Guinness’s Colonel Nicholson. We would not pretend Morell is the reason to choose it; Guinness’s quietly alarming performance and Lean’s patient suspense earn that recommendation. Morell supplies the dependable authority that makes him a natural fit for military parts. The film’s detours are less compelling, but its central performance warrants the long evening.
William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959) uses him as Sextus. We recommend it for the chariot race and the tension between Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd, with a warning about the solemn instruction between the action. Here again, Morell is a dependable presence rather than the principal attraction. These roles also expose the risk of his particular usefulness: when an actor makes authority look so easy, we can stop noticing the acting. Neither film is where we would send someone who wanted to see what else he could do.
Alongside those officers came Professor Bernard Quatermass in the television serial Quatermass and the Pit (1958–59). Then there is Doctor Watson opposite Peter Cushing’s Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959). Morell wanted “to make Watson a real person and not just a butt for Holmes”. We warmed to his Watson because he treats Holmes’s companion as a sensible colleague, rather than someone kept around to provide the wrong answer.
Later came Lord Wendover in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975), another small part suited to his patrician manner. It is tempting to follow the largest titles through a career like this, but that would mean missing the television and the horror films. For a better look at Morell himself, start with The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Biography
André Morell (20 August 1909 – 28 November 1978) was an English actor. He appeared frequently in theatre, film and on television from the 1930s to the 1970s. His film roles include Colonel Green in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Sextus in Ben-Hur (1959).
Morell is also known for playing Professor Bernard Quatermass in the BBC serial Quatermass and the Pit (1958–59) and Doctor Watson in the Hammer film The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959). He appeared in several Hammer horror films during the 1960s and in the ITV drama series The Caesars (1968). He began his professional stage career in 1934, with a West End debut in 1936.
He was married to the actress Joan Greenwood from 1960 until his death.
