Finlay Currie’s deep voice and imposing size made him a persuasive authority figure. We value him most in Great Expectations, where those qualities make a child’s fear painfully easy to understand.
Fi1m perspective
In Great Expectations (1946), Finlay Currie’s Magwitch is a large, forbidding man facing a child, and the imbalance does much of the work. His deep voice gives the encounter a force that needs no elaborate explanation. We felt afraid for Pip, because Currie makes the boy’s helplessness before this escaped convict so immediate. David Lean keeps that vulnerability in view, giving Currie’s physical presence a precise dramatic use.
Character parts in British films brought Currie prominence during the 1940s; the move into Hollywood historical and biblical films followed in the 1950s. The sequence of roles is revealing: John Brown, Queen Victoria’s Highland attendant, in The Mudlark (1950), Saint Peter in Quo Vadis (1951), then Cedric in Ivanhoe (1952). These were different settings for an actor repeatedly asked to play strong-minded older men. A large frame, white hair and a rich voice were useful casting credentials. They also encouraged a certain predictability about what he would be asked to provide.
In William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959), Balthasar gives that familiar authority a religious purpose. Currie is persuasive casting as one of the Magi, with the gravity that the part needs. Our reservation is with the film’s solemn instruction, which requires more patience than its action. A convincing elder cannot, by himself, make every lesson compelling. The chariot race and the tension between Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd are the stronger reasons to give it a long evening.
Currie was seldom cast as an outright villain, however forbidding he looked. His presence did not have to mean wickedness, and it would be a mistake to reduce him to the severe elder who turns up to put everyone straight. Lean found the sharper use for him by putting a vulnerable boy opposite him. Start with Great Expectations; its adult romance is less convincing, but Currie belongs to the supporting cast that makes it worth returning to.
Biography
Finlay Currie (also credited as William Finlay Currie) was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television. Born in Edinburgh in 1878, he began his career on stage in 1898 and made his film debut in The Old Man (1931). He appeared in numerous British films before gaining wider recognition.
Currie received acclaim for his role as the convict Abel Magwitch in David Lean's Great Expectations (1946). He later appeared in Hollywood epics, including Quo Vadis (1951) as Saint Peter, Ivanhoe (1952) as Cedric, Around the World in 80 Days (1956), and Ben-Hur (1959) as Balthazar. Other notable credits include Treasure Island (1950) and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964).
He was married to actress Maude Courtney until her death in 1959. Currie continued acting into the 1960s, with later roles including in Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) and the television adaptation of Brigadoon (1966). He died in 1968.
