Grand National Night – 1953 | 80 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Dorothy and Campbell Christie’s hit stageplay and radio serial with a racing background about a stable owner who accidentally kills his drunken wife is adapted for the screen in this competent b-movie. This is little-known writer/director Bob McNaught’s solitary writing credit and the result is a serviceable murder thriller typical of the second features produced at Nettlefold Studios. Michael Hordern, as a dogged Scotland Yard inspector, gives a particularly good performance.

Northern horse trainer Gerald Coates (Nigel Patrick) accidentally kills his cruel and philandering socialite wife, Babs (Moira Lister), on Grand National night following a heated marital row. Coates panics and foolishly puts his drunken wife’s corpse back in her car and disposes of it near Liverpool then catches a late train home. Scotland Yard’s resolute Insp. Ayling (Michael Hordern) leads the police enquiry and pursues a game of cat-and-mouse in trying to convict Coates in a murder charge. Friends attempt to help cover-up the crime but the wily detective teases out Coates with mischievous ingenuity.