The Scapegoat

The Scapegoat (1959)

He took another man's name... lived another man's life... loved another man's woman!

An Englishman in France unwittingly is placed into the identity, and steps into the vacated life, of a look-alike French nobleman.

Date of release
1959-08-06
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (41)
Runtime
1h 32m
Genres
Mystery, Crime, Thriller
Director
Robert Hamer

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $1.2M
  • Budget: $943K
  • Earned 1.3× its budget
  • Based on: The Scapegoat

The Scapegoat is a 1959 British mystery film directed by Robert Hamer and starring Alec Guinness, Nicole Maurey and Bette Davis. The screenplay was by Hamer and Gore Vidal based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier.

Production

According to Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, the original choice for Barratt / De Gué was Cary Grant, but Daphne du Maurier insisted on Guinness because he reminded her of her father, actor Gerald du Maurier.

Later though, she regretted her choice, blaming Guinness for the film's box-office failure, a production that du Maurier herself had partially financed.

Osborne also states that Guinness handled the directing chores when Hamer was drunk.

Michael Balcon was head of Ealing at the time, which had a deal with MGM. He says he produced the film outside of the MGM-Ealing arrangement at the request of Daphne du Maurier. The film was cut after it was sneak previewed to American audiences. Balcon considered releasing the original version in the UK "but it was too complicated a business."

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

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