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Libel

Film still

Libel - 1959 | 100 mins | Drama | B&W

The Production Team

Director: Anthony Asquith.
Producer: Anatole de Grunwald.
Associate Producer: Pierre Rouve.
Script: Anatole de Grunwald and Karl Tunberg. (from a play by Edward Wooll)
Cinematography: Paul Krasker.
Editor: Frank Clarke.
Art Director: Paul Sheriff.
Sound: A.W. Watkins and Gerry Turner.
Music: Benjamin Frankel.

The Cast

Olivia de Havilland - Lady Margaret Loddon
Dirk Bogarde - Sir Mark Loddon/Number 15/Frank Welney
Paul Massie - Jeffrey Buckenham
Robert Morley - Sir Wilfred
Wilfrid Hyde-White - Hubert Foxley
Anthony Dawson - Gerald Loddon
Richard Wattis - The Judge

Plot Synopsis

Libel is an enthralling drama based on a play by Edward Wooll, the film offers a puzzle along with excitement, and some neat twists into the bargain. Sir Mark Lodden (Dirk Bogarde) is suspected by actor Jeffrey Buckenham (Paul Massie), who sees him in a television programme about his lovely home, as being an imposter. Paul and Dirk and a third man, who resembled Dirk in features but not in personality, had been in a prisoner-of-war camp together. An attempt to unmask the present Sir Mark leads to a libel action during which his wife (Olivia de Haviland) reveals that Dirk is not really her husband.
Excerpt© 'Puffin Asquith' by R.J. Minney.