Giving materials for repetition and Child Development in Montessori Education Introduction

Cast[edit]

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  Jack Warner as Sam Palmer
  
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  Robert Morley as Alexander Whitehead
  
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  George Relph as Syd Thompson
  
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  Adrianne Allen as Aunt Ethel
  
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  Ray Jackson as Reggie Palmer
  
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  Brenda Bruce as Cora the barmaid
  
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  Stanley Maxted as Senator
  
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  Joan Swinstead as Miss Fanshawe
  
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  John Glyn-Jones as Mr. Willis
  
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  Richard Wattis as the spectator explaining cricket to the American
  

The England cricketers Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Alec Bedser, Godfrey Evans, Jim Laker and Cyril Washbrook appear as themselves with John Arlott providing the match commentary.

Genesis[edit]

The writer Terence Rattigan was an excellent cricketer in his school days. He was opening batsman for the Harrow Eleven, often in partnership with Victor Rothschild, and in 1929 he represented Harrow at Lord's in the annual match against Eton College. He originally wrote The Final Test - his first play for television - in 1951, partly as a tribute to Sir Donald Bradman, who was out for a duck in his final test in 1948.^[4][5] That production was directed by Royston Morley and starred Patrick Barr as Sam Palmer.^[6]
As with almost all of Rattigan's plays, the theme of the relationship between father and son, and the tension between parental expectations and the son's driving force leading him in different directions, is explored.
The play was filmed in 1953, directed by Anthony Asquith.

Critical reception[edit]

In The Spectator, Virginia Graham wrote, "Often witty, always undeviatingly amiable, this is a delightful film, a simple friendly film full of national jokes which, as no other country could possibly share them, give one the comfortable relaxed feeling of being at home and liking it there";^[7] Sky Cinema wrote, "It's difficult to imagine that this little film packed London's huge Odeon, Leicester Square, in its day, but it did";^[8] Leonard Maltin called it a "Droll, minor comedy";^[9] The New York Times wrote, "Perhaps the cognoscenti will not call "The Final Test" cricket, but it definitely adds up to fun";^[10] and more recently, The Guardian called it "Britain's only significant cricket picture."^[11]
The film ran for six months in New York and became one of Harold Wilson's favorite movies.^[12]