Film Review

"This is a true story," reads the opening credit of The Tichborne Claimant. And indeed it is. The Tichborne case was the Victorian equivalent of the trial of Martin Guerre. In 1866, a butcher from Wagga Wagga, Australia came to England purporting to be the long-lost aristocrat, Sir Roger Tichborne, who was believed to have drowned at sea in 1854. Despite looking nothing like the original, the claimant was accepted by Sir Roger's mother as her son. It was only with her death that the rest of the Tichborne family, considering the new arrival an imposter, initiated legal proceedings against him. There followed two of the longest trials in English legal history, during which many working-class people came to believe that the claimant was not only genuine but the victim of a conspiracy by the elite. In 1874, the claimant was sentenced to fourteen years in prison, but his cause went on to become one of the largest popular movements of the later Victorian era. It is surprising that it has taken until now for a major film to be made about it.

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Joe Fisher's screenplay takes some elaborate liberties with the historical record, but the script closely follows the standard work on the case, Douglas Woodruff's The Tichborne Claimant (1957), although it moves the main events forward a few years for no discernable reason. Its other main influence , however, is cinematic: Robert Hamer's Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). While not repeating the plot or equaling the wit of that film, The Tichborne Claimant attempts the same ironic gaze at Victoriana. In both, the callousness of the aristocracy suspends conventional morality among its hangers-on, generating figures who attempt to obtain titles and fortunes no matter what the cost. It is a nice touch that the new film was also made at Ealing Studios.

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