On the Night of the Fire – 1939 | 76 mins | Thriller | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Grim but thoroughly engaging black-and-white thriller featuring Ralph Richardson as a discontented barber who steals a small amount of cash and compounds what was a straightforward crime by refusing to confess.

Set on Tyneside, an impoverished barber, Will Kobling (Ralph Richardson), opportunistically steals £100 from a factory one evening which he hopes will fund a new start for him and his wife (Diana Wynyard) away from their dockside shop. Unbeknown to Will, his wife is heavily in debt to local draper Pilleger (Henry Oscar) and he must use £75 of the stolen money to pay off her arrears. When the police inform Pilleger that the money he banked was stolen, the miserly storekeeper claims he is unaware of who spent the money in his shop. Subsequently, Pillgeger hatches a blackmail scheme, promising to maintain his silence and cover up Kobling’s indiscretions in exchange for £3 per week.

Kobling is furious, and on the night of a serious fire seizes the opportunity to confront Pilleger whilst the townsfolk and police are distracted by the blaze. A fight ensues between the unscrupulous draper and the irate barber resulting in Pilleger’s accidental death. The police suspect Kobling is the murderer and begin putting huge psychological pressure on him to confess, but the barber sends his wife to her sister’s and remains tight-lipped. The only witness to the crime was local crazy woman Lizzie (Mary Clare), and when she reveals her secret the townsfolk they shun Kobling and begin protesting for justice – but the police still lack enough evidence for a conviction. With Kobling already reaching breaking point, the death of his wife in a car collision causes him to have second thoughts.