The Scapegoat (1959) on Netflix
NR19591h 32mCrimeMysteryThriller
John Barratt, a teacher of French on holiday in France, meets his double, the nobleman Jacques De Gué. De Gué's chauffeur drives him to the chateau, where no one believes him.
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- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.8/102,807 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
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Plot summary
John Barratt teaches French at a university in Britain and is on holiday in France when he meets Jacques De Gué, a nobleman who could be his double. The two drink together, and Barratt wakes in De Gué's hotel room to find his clothes gone and De Gué nowhere. Gaston, De Gué's chauffeur, arrives to collect his master and refuses to accept that Barratt is anyone else. A doctor reached by telephone calls the Englishman a schizophrenic. At the chateau no one accepts his story. The family he is taken to belong to includes Françoise, his wife, Blanche, his sister, Marie-Noel, his daughter, and the Countess, his mother. Barratt goes along with the arrangement and finds the household needs him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Scapegoat (1959)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Turner Classic Movies' Robert Osborne says Alec Guinness handled the directing chores on the film himself whenever director Hamer was drunk.
- Cary Grant was the original choice for the dual role of Barratt / De Gué, but Daphne du Maurier insisted on Alec Guinness because he reminded her of her father, the actor Gerald du Maurier.
- Michael Balcon, head of Ealing, produced The Scapegoat outside his studio's deal with MGM at Daphne du Maurier's request. The film was cut after a sneak preview for American audiences, and Balcon thought releasing the original version in the UK "too complicated a business."
- Daphne du Maurier came to regret insisting on Alec Guinness, blaming him for the film's box-office failure, on a production she had partly financed herself.
