David Farrar could look assured and make us doubt how well that assurance would hold. His work with Powell and Pressburger is the reason to seek him out; Hollywood’s simpler villains gave him too little to do.
Fi1m perspective
In Black Narcissus (1947), David Farrar makes Deborah Kerr’s self-control look harder to maintain. His Mr. Dean gives her Sister Clodagh something bodily and inconvenient to contend with, and neither actor needs explicit action to make the attraction clear. We felt the tension because Kerr shows how much effort her composure takes, while Farrar makes that effort seem precarious. He does not have to dominate these scenes to make himself felt. Powell and Pressburger get more from the attention between their actors than a broader display from either could have supplied.
That film brought stardom after low-budget British thrillers and supporting parts, including Lieutenant Jung in Went the Day Well? (1942). The deep baritone and physical assurance could establish authority quickly, but Farrar was more interesting when that authority had weaknesses. Powell and Pressburger followed Dean with Sammy Rice, the troubled bomb-disposal expert of The Small Back Room (1949). Their Gone to Earth (1950) cast him as Jack Reddin, a swaggering squire. The three roles let him be desirable, vulnerable or overbearing without abandoning his physical assurance.
His Hollywood work in the early 1950s left him less to explore. Villain roles such as The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) left fewer human complications for him to play. It is a disappointing narrowing of what the Powell and Pressburger films had allowed, though we would blame the parts before blaming the actor. He returned to Britain for smaller roles and finished his screen career with The 300 Spartans (1962).
We would begin with Black Narcissus, rather than ask those later villains to make his case. It also offers a useful qualification to praise of his imposing presence: Kerr’s equally persuasive restraint is essential to the effect. Watch how much his performance depends on what she is trying to suppress, and how much hers gains from having him there. Then try The Small Back Room, where the apparently capable man has difficulties of his own.
Biography
David Farrar was an English stage and film actor. Born in Forest Gate, London, he left school at 14 and worked briefly as a journalist before taking up acting. He made his stage debut in 1932 and his first film appearance in 1937.
Farrar appeared in numerous British films, including Went the Day Well? (1942) and several low-budget thrillers. He gained prominence with leading roles in three films by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger: Black Narcissus (1947), The Small Back Room (1949) and Gone to Earth (1950). He continued working in films such as The Battle of the River Plate (1956) and The 300 Spartans (1962) before retiring from acting in 1962. After the death of his wife Irene in 1976, he moved to South Africa.
