The Spanish Gardener

The Spanish Gardener (1956)

Harrington Brande, a British diplomat who recently broke up with his wife, is stationed in a small coastal town in Spain with his son, Nicholas. Harrington is unreasonably possessive of Nicholas and becomes jealous when he begins to form a close friendship with Jose, their gentle gardener.

Date of release
1956-12-25
TMDB
6.3 / 10 (20)
Runtime
1h 37m
Genres
Drama
Director
Philip Leacock

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Spain and Pinewood Studios

The Spanish Gardener is a 1956 VistaVision and Technicolor film based on the 1950 eponymous novel by A. J. Cronin. The film, which stars Dirk Bogarde and Jon Whiteley, was directed by Philip Leacock.

Production

The novel was published in 1950 and has its origins in the friendship between AJ Cronin's son Andrew and an Italian American gardener. The novel contains discussion of whether the boy has a gay attachment to the gardener - these were toned down for the film.

The film was one of a number of movies Rank was making overseas at the time to combat the threat of television. It was announced in February 1956.

According to director Philip Leacock, Dirk Bogarde originally turned down the film. "I was so upset because we had become good friends during Appointment in London," said the director. "I suggested we get together and talk it through, and eventually it worked out all right.

The movie was shot at Pinewood and on location just north of Barcelona in Spain. The house featured was the house of a millionaire. Michael Hordern recalled "Dirk was a great draw and a star, yet his part didn’t really weight the film, so it was thought to be a bit of a disappointment to his fans. I found Philip Leacock a very sympathetic director, particularly with children... I was proud of that film.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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