I have not seen HIGH TREASON - it has not been shown on American television in recent years if ever. Therefore I will not review the film's acting or directing. I will though talk about the background a little bit.
Are any of the readers of these reviews fans of 1) British Aviation History; or 2) British Fascist leaders of the Great War period? Probably (unless you are in these two groups) you will not have heard of Mr. Noel Pemberton-Billing. Who he? Who he indeed. An early fan of aviation, he was the publisher of the first aviation magazine in Great Britain, and an early pusher for British military aviation. He was also a racist and a hater of foreigners (mostly Germans and Jews), and a hater of...what he would term "sexual deviants". Yet, he was an above-average man in intelligence when he put his inventive skills to work in aviation and other fields. He was also deeply into politics.
During the Great War Pemberton-Billing was a persistent critic of the ineptitude of the British war effort from 1914-1918. In particular it burned him that the Germans managed to have the advantage in the skies over Western Europe, and even (via their zeppelin campaigns) over England. He got elected to Parliament, and became even more outspoken in his contempt for the government (to be fair, many of his specific critiques on military preparedness and aviation development were on target - but his other bugaboos kept getting in the way). In 1918 he was one of several right wingers who got upset due to a production that reached the West End. Oscar Wilde had been ruined in 1895 in his two trials. Wilde died in obscurity in Paris in 1900. But his drama, "Salome" was going to be produced on the West End in 1918. The star was the international dancing sensation Maude Allan.
Pemberton-Billing and other right wingers (including Wilde's old boyfriend, now anti-Gay activist Lord Alfred Douglas) saw this production of "Salome" as part of the German plot to undermine the morale of England and that huge numbers of upper crust aristocrats and politicians and writers and social figures were all gay or lesbians who were being blackmailed by the Germans into losing the war. Pemberton-Billing wrote articles attacking Ms Allan. These resulted in one of the weirdest libel actions in history, as Ms Allan was forced to sue Pemberton-Billing and his friends for slandering her. She did, but the public was treated to a farce of a trial, with the defendants accusing everyone under the sun of being perverted. In the end Ms Allan was humiliated in court (her brother had been hanged for murder in San Francisco in 1898, and this was brought out) and the jury found for the defendants!
This was the highpoint of Fascist politics in Britain in that period - but Prime Minister Lloyd George accumulated information against Pemberton-Billing and his friends which was slowly disseminated to the public (that Pemberton-Billing, the hater of foreigners, had a foreign born mistress was one of these). In the end he was defeated for reelection.
But he remained a constant critic, and being wealthy had ways of getting his views across. HIGH TREASON was his pet project in the 1920s. Originally a somewhat successful stage play, he turned it into this movie. It's most novel elements today are his views of 1950 aviation - some of which are quite interesting (and again show him at his most useful - as a creative engineer and inventor). But his plot had to do with stopping the machinations of international (read Jewish) arm manufacturers who were trying to begin a new World War. His saintly peace advocate ends up committing a great act of violence seen by the whole country that lands that advocate on trial for "HIGH TREASON". The issue is whether such actions really are treasonable if they are meant to save lives.
Having just done a review of SEVEN DAYS TO NOON, the actions of Professor Willingdon there mirror what the protagonist is forced to do here. However the authors of that screenplay did not blacken the character of whole races in the course to telling their story or making their point. Pemberton-Billing never cared if he trod on toes - he felt he should say what he felt.
To be fair again, in that period similar theories abounded all over. In the U.S. Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota became famous in the 1930s with his "Merchants of Death" committee investigation, blaming banks and munition manufacturers for pulling the U.S. into World War I. And (as mentioned in an earlier review) when the original novel by Graham Greene for THIS GUN FOR HIRE was written, the real villain was not Raven the killer for hire, but the Jewish munitions manufacturer Sir Marcus (who wants another European War for profit reasons).
HIGH TREASON was not a great film success - the public did not know what to make of it. Pemberton-Billing did not make any further films, but did resume his aviation work, and actually was useful in preparing England in facing the Nazis in World War II.
Are any of the readers of these reviews fans of 1) British Aviation History; or 2) British Fascist leaders of the Great War period? Probably (unless you are in these two groups) you will not have heard of Mr. Noel Pemberton-Billing. Who he? Who he indeed. An early fan of aviation, he was the publisher of the first aviation magazine in Great Britain, and an early pusher for British military aviation. He was also a racist and a hater of foreigners (mostly Germans and Jews), and a hater of...what he would term "sexual deviants". Yet, he was an above-average man in intelligence when he put his inventive skills to work in aviation and other fields. He was also deeply into politics.
During the Great War Pemberton-Billing was a persistent critic of the ineptitude of the British war effort from 1914-1918. In particular it burned him that the Germans managed to have the advantage in the skies over Western Europe, and even (via their zeppelin campaigns) over England. He got elected to Parliament, and became even more outspoken in his contempt for the government (to be fair, many of his specific critiques on military preparedness and aviation development were on target - but his other bugaboos kept getting in the way). In 1918 he was one of several right wingers who got upset due to a production that reached the West End. Oscar Wilde had been ruined in 1895 in his two trials. Wilde died in obscurity in Paris in 1900. But his drama, "Salome" was going to be produced on the West End in 1918. The star was the international dancing sensation Maude Allan.
Pemberton-Billing and other right wingers (including Wilde's old boyfriend, now anti-Gay activist Lord Alfred Douglas) saw this production of "Salome" as part of the German plot to undermine the morale of England and that huge numbers of upper crust aristocrats and politicians and writers and social figures were all gay or lesbians who were being blackmailed by the Germans into losing the war. Pemberton-Billing wrote articles attacking Ms Allan. These resulted in one of the weirdest libel actions in history, as Ms Allan was forced to sue Pemberton-Billing and his friends for slandering her. She did, but the public was treated to a farce of a trial, with the defendants accusing everyone under the sun of being perverted. In the end Ms Allan was humiliated in court (her brother had been hanged for murder in San Francisco in 1898, and this was brought out) and the jury found for the defendants!
This was the highpoint of Fascist politics in Britain in that period - but Prime Minister Lloyd George accumulated information against Pemberton-Billing and his friends which was slowly disseminated to the public (that Pemberton-Billing, the hater of foreigners, had a foreign born mistress was one of these). In the end he was defeated for reelection.
But he remained a constant critic, and being wealthy had ways of getting his views across. HIGH TREASON was his pet project in the 1920s. Originally a somewhat successful stage play, he turned it into this movie. It's most novel elements today are his views of 1950 aviation - some of which are quite interesting (and again show him at his most useful - as a creative engineer and inventor). But his plot had to do with stopping the machinations of international (read Jewish) arm manufacturers who were trying to begin a new World War. His saintly peace advocate ends up committing a great act of violence seen by the whole country that lands that advocate on trial for "HIGH TREASON". The issue is whether such actions really are treasonable if they are meant to save lives.
Having just done a review of SEVEN DAYS TO NOON, the actions of Professor Willingdon there mirror what the protagonist is forced to do here. However the authors of that screenplay did not blacken the character of whole races in the course to telling their story or making their point. Pemberton-Billing never cared if he trod on toes - he felt he should say what he felt.
To be fair again, in that period similar theories abounded all over. In the U.S. Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota became famous in the 1930s with his "Merchants of Death" committee investigation, blaming banks and munition manufacturers for pulling the U.S. into World War I. And (as mentioned in an earlier review) when the original novel by Graham Greene for THIS GUN FOR HIRE was written, the real villain was not Raven the killer for hire, but the Jewish munitions manufacturer Sir Marcus (who wants another European War for profit reasons).
HIGH TREASON was not a great film success - the public did not know what to make of it. Pemberton-Billing did not make any further films, but did resume his aviation work, and actually was useful in preparing England in facing the Nazis in World War II.
