THE BESPOKE OVERCOAT

UK, 1956, 36 minutes, Black and White.
David Kossoff, Alfie Bass.
Directed by Jack Clayton.

The Bespoke Overcoat is a beautiful short film written by Wolf Mankiewicz and directed by Jack Clayton who went on to make other excellent films: Room at the Top, The Innocents, The Pumpkin Eater, Our Mother's House and The Great Gatsby. Very Jewish, poignant, amusing and with a valuable moral, the film is worth seeing. David Kossoff is good, but the underrated Alfie Bass is quite excellent. Recommended.

1. What is the charm of this short story, its simplicity, humanity, its Jewish touch?

2. Did you like Morrie - as a tailor, his attitude to Fender, his attitude to the cost, his drinking, the fact that he lived closely to Fender? Was he genuinely concerned about Fender?

3. What was the moral of Fender's visit to him?

4. Did you like Fender, why? His whimsy about the nature of the afterlife, his attitudes towards Morrie and being a ghost, his attitudes towards those he left behind?

5. How much was made of Fender's social situation ? poor and underprivileged, his years of service, his cold, his yearning for a coat and saving for it, his being sacked?

6. How moving was the scene of his lonely death ? who was responsible?

7. What was the significance of the coat for the film ? how did it draw all the strands together? ? Morrie and his pride in his work, his generosity, Fender's pride and yearning, as a condemnation of the employers.

8. What was the purpose of this moral fable?

9. Comment on the quality of the black and white photography and the use of the close-up faces and profiles of Morrie and Fender.