# The Winslow Boy (1948 film)
**The Winslow Boy** is a 1948 British black-and-white legal drama directed by Anthony Asquith, adapted from Terence Rattigan's 1946 stage play about an Edwardian family's campaign to clear their son's name after he is expelled from the Royal Naval College for allegedly stealing a postal order. It stars [Robert Donat](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-donat) as the barrister Sir Robert Morton, Cedric Hardwicke as Arthur Winslow, and [Margaret Leighton](https://www.edgepedia.org/margaret-leighton) as Catherine Winslow.[1](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-winslow-boy-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zmji1mtk) • [2](https://www.silversirens.co.uk/productions/winslow-boy-1948/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / producer | Anthony Asquith; produced by Anatole de Grunwald[1](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-winslow-boy-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zmji1mtk) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/winslow_boy) |
| Source | Terence Rattigan's 1946 play, itself inspired by the 1908 Archer-Shee case[4](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/11281/the-winslow-boy) • [5](https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/the-winslow-boy) |
| Principal cast | Robert Donat (Sir Robert Morton), Cedric Hardwicke (Arthur Winslow), Margaret Leighton (Catherine Winslow), Basil Radford (Desmond Curry), Neil North (Ronnie Winslow)[1](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-winslow-boy-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zmji1mtk) |
| Classification | BBFC cinema certificate issued 19 August 1948; distributor British Lion Film Corp Ltd; 115 min 37 s (approx. 116 minutes)[1](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-winslow-boy-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zmji1mtk) |
| Crew | Photography Freddie Young; music William Alwyn; editing Gerald Turney-Smith[6](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/1828) • [7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/winslow-boy-1948) |
| Recognition | Nominated for the Grand International Award at the 1948 Venice Film Festival and for a BAFTA UM Award in 1949[8](https://www.lecinemaparadiso.co.uk/review/the-winslow-boy) |
| Box office | £216,000 earned in the UK as of 30 June 1949, of which £159,034 went to the producer[8](https://www.lecinemaparadiso.co.uk/review/the-winslow-boy) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
In Edwardian England, 13-year-old naval cadet Ronnie Winslow (Neil North) is expelled from the naval academy at Osborne for stealing a five-shilling postal order.[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040970/plotsummary/) His father Arthur ([Cedric Hardwicke](https://www.edgepedia.org/cedric-hardwicke)), refusing to accept the Admiralty's internal finding of guilt, demands a fresh inquiry and takes the case to the House of Commons to seek permission to sue the Crown.[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040970/plotsummary/) With his suffragette daughter Catherine (Margaret Leighton), he secures the barrister and MP Sir Robert Morton (Robert Donat), who subjects Ronnie to a practice cross-examination in the family's drawing room before taking the case forward.[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040970/plotsummary/) • [10](https://oldvictheatre-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/File/1499.pdf)
The campaign becomes a national cause célèbre, and the cost is heavy: Arthur's health and finances are destroyed, and Catherine's engagement to John Watherstone (Frank Lawton) is broken off.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/winslow_boy) • [10](https://oldvictheatre-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/File/1499.pdf) At trial the case against Ronnie collapses and the government drops the charges, declaring him innocent.[10](https://oldvictheatre-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/File/1499.pdf)
## The play and its real-life source
Rattigan wrote the play in six and a half weeks at the suggestion, initially declined, of his producer at the RAF film unit, Anatole de Grunwald, who had asked him for a film proposal about British justice.[11](https://www.sonyclassics.com/winslowboy/theproduction/theplay.html) It opened at the West End's Lyric Theatre in 1946 and ran for over a year, with 476 performances in London and 218 in New York, winning Rattigan the first of his two Ellen Terry Awards for Best New Play and, in New York, the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.[11](https://www.sonyclassics.com/winslowboy/theproduction/theplay.html)
The film draws on the Archer-Shee case, in which George Archer-Shee, a naval cadet at Osborne, was dismissed from his post in October 1908 after being accused of stealing a five-shilling postal order belonging to another boy and cashing it.[5](https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/the-winslow-boy) The boy's father hired [Edward Carson](https://www.edgepedia.org/edward-carson), who invoked the long-established petition of right (a legal procedure allowing subjects to sue the British Crown) procedure against the Crown so that a jury could hear the case; on the hearing's fourth day, the Solicitor General, Sir Rufus Isaacs, dropped the Crown's case and acknowledged the boy was innocent.[5](https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/the-winslow-boy) Rattigan warned that his play took considerable license with the characters and situations of the real case.[12](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-02-09-ca-51-story.html)
## Production and style
The film was made by London Film Productions and De Grunwald Productions for British Lion, with a screenplay credited to Rattigan, de Grunwald, and Asquith on the [Venice Biennale](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-biennale) archive card.[6](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/1828) • [2](https://www.silversirens.co.uk/productions/winslow-boy-1948/) Freddie Young's monochrome photography drew specific praise from the Guardian's Philip French, who called the film possibly the best screen version of Rattigan's most enduring play and preferred it to [David Mamet](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-mamet)'s 1999 remake.[13](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jun/07/the-winslow-boy-anthony-asquith)
A distinguishing choice is that the film shows the actual trial on screen. In the play and in Mamet's 1999 remake the trial occurs offstage, with the audience told rather than shown what happened; the 1948 film dramatizes the courtroom directly.[8](https://www.lecinemaparadiso.co.uk/review/the-winslow-boy) The film is set in 1912–13, just before the First World War, whereas the real case took place in 1908.[8](https://www.lecinemaparadiso.co.uk/review/the-winslow-boy)
The film's railway scenes have drawn separate attention: the opening shot shows ex-LNER Holden F6 Class 2-4-2T No. 7228 arriving at Highams Park on the [Chingford](https://www.edgepedia.org/chingford) branch, followed by a departure scene at London Liverpool Street combining a studio-bound set with real shots of the station. The locomotive, built in 1911, was allocated to Stratford at the time of filming, an anachronism for a story set decades earlier.[14](https://railwaymoviedatabase.com/the-winslow-boy/)
## Release and reception
The film was classified by the BBFC on 19 August 1948 and opened in the UK on 24 September 1948, reaching the United States on 6 June 1950.[1](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-winslow-boy-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zmji1mtk) • [15](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-winslow-boy-1948/releases/) It was one of the most popular films at the British box office in 1948.[8](https://www.lecinemaparadiso.co.uk/review/the-winslow-boy) At the 1948 [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival) it was nominated for the Grand International Award, and it received a BAFTA UM Award nomination in 1949.[8](https://www.lecinemaparadiso.co.uk/review/the-winslow-boy)
Later assessments have remained favorable. The Monthly Film Bulletin called it "very well written and perfectly acted," and a 2024 review in [The Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-times) highlighted Robert Donat's performance as Sir Robert Morton.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/winslow_boy) A scholarly study of the play's three screen adaptations describes the 1948 film as targeting a middlebrow, post-war audience, in contrast to the 1977 BBC television production and Mamet's 1999 heritage-style remake.[16](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0013838X.2019.1642682) The film has remained available on home video and streaming, with BBFC-classified releases in 1992, 1995, 2000, and 2009.[1](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-winslow-boy-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zmji1mtk)
## References
1. [The Winslow Boy, BBFC](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-winslow-boy-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zmji1mtk)
2. [The Winslow Boy (1948), Silversirens](https://www.silversirens.co.uk/productions/winslow-boy-1948/)
3. [The Winslow Boy, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/winslow_boy)
4. [The Winslow Boy, Concord Theatricals](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/11281/the-winslow-boy)
5. [David Wurtzel, "The Winslow Boy," Counsel Magazine (2013)](https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/the-winslow-boy)
6. [Scheda film, ASAC La Biennale](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/1828)
7. [The Winslow Boy 1948, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/winslow-boy-1948)
8. [The Winslow Boy Blu-ray review, Le Cinema Paradiso](https://www.lecinemaparadiso.co.uk/review/the-winslow-boy)
9. [The Winslow Boy (1948) Plot, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040970/plotsummary/)
10. [The Winslow Boy synopsis, Old Vic teaching resources](https://oldvictheatre-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/File/1499.pdf)
11. [The Play, Sony Pictures Classics](https://www.sonyclassics.com/winslowboy/theproduction/theplay.html)
12. [TV Reviews: "Winslow Boy," Los Angeles Times (1990)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-02-09-ca-51-story.html)
13. [Philip French, "Philip French's classic DVD: The Winslow Boy," The Guardian (2009)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jun/07/the-winslow-boy-anthony-asquith)
14. [The Winslow Boy, British Railway Movie Database](https://railwaymoviedatabase.com/the-winslow-boy/)
15. [The Winslow Boy (1948) releases, Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-winslow-boy-1948/releases/)
16. ["Let Right Be Done": Historical Distinctiveness in Three Screen Adaptations of Terence Rattigan's The Winslow Boy, English Studies](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0013838X.2019.1642682)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Films based on stage plays*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license