The Triumph of the Rat

Graham Cutts: The Triumph of the Rat (1926) with Ivor Novello and Isabel Jeans. Photo from: Back to the Past Web.

THE TRIUMPH OF THE RAT (Gainsborough Pictures / Piccadilly Pictures, GB 1926)
    Dir: Graham Cutts; prod: Michael Balcon, Carlyle Blackwell; sc: Graham Cutts, Reginald Fogwell, based on characters from the original play The Rat by Ivor Novello & Constance Collier; titles: Roland Pertwee; ph: Hal Young; asst. ph: Freddie Young; des: Basil Evans; cast: Ivor Novello, Isabel Jeans, Nina Vanna, Marie Ault, Lewis Mannering, Adeline Hayden Coffin, Julie Suedo, Charles Dormer, Gabriel Rosca; trade show: 9.1926; 35 mm, 7430 ft, 99’ (20 fps), BFI / National Film and Television Archive.
    Didascalie in inglese / English intertitles.
    Grand piano: Gabriel Thibaudeau.
    15 minutes from the beginning viewed at Teatro Zancanaro, Sacile, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), 14 Oct 2004

Bryony Dixon (GCM): "The Triumph of the Rat is the ironically titled sequel to The Rat (1925), in which Ivor Novello played an underworld Apache jewel thief who falls for a beautiful courtesan, Zelie de Chaumet (Isabel Jeans), but ultimately leaves her to be with the waif (Mae Marsh) who has been living under his protection and who remains loyal to him through thick and thin. In this sequel, “The Rat”, now minus the waif, has attained the heights of Parisian society, groomed to perfection by Zelie, but no longer with her. He is bored, however, and is goaded into a bet by his former lover that he cannot make a woman fall in love with him within a month. Cue the delicately lovely Nina Vanna, and the plot is set for The Rat to lose his heart, and ultimately even his position with the human dregs of the White Coffin nightclub, where he has formerly reigned supreme."

"The downward trajectory of the story might surprise some people ­ have the British adopted the Russian ending? It’s more complicated, perhaps. The central theme of the story is about a man’s divided soul. There is something of Novello’s persona in this “horror-haunted man”, as Michael Williams calls him (in his book Ivor Novello: Screen Idol, BFI Publishing, 2003), and the post-war subtext is ever present. There are lighter moments. As production values rose in line with the popularity of the series, Cutts was able to stage some spectacular set-pieces (a particularly good one, shot from above, sees thousands of balloons opening the masked-ball sequence), as well as exploit the fluid camera technique for which he was praised by producer Michael Balcon."

"“Graham Cutts has never produced anything so fine, and many successes are already to his credit, than The Triumph of the Rat. Ivor Novello’s down and out scenes are remarkable, his entire physique is a bitter revelation of debased despair…” (Edith Nepean, Picture Show, 13 November 1926, quoted in Michael Williams)." – Bryony Dixon (GCM)