Tall Headlines – 1952 | 100 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

British melodrama adapted from the novel by Audrey Erskine Lindop and directed by Terence Young. Downbeat study of a suburban family living in the shadow of the recent execution of the eldest son for murder.

When their eldest son is hanged for the murder of a young girl, George and Mary Rackham (Andre Morell and Flora Robson) try to erase the memory – and the unwanted attention of the neighbours – by moving away from their home and changing the family name to Blake. But their children, Philip (Michael Dennison) and Frankie (Jane Hylton), struggle to adapt to normal family life without their executed brother.

Frankie has difficulties reigniting her romance songwriter Maurice Fletcher (Dennis Price), and when car mechanic Philip falls in love with a blonde temptress, Doris (Mai Zetterling), he begins to imagine that his dead brother has returned and fears for his own sanity. Rejected by his sister for falling in love with a girl who is identical to the cheap hussy who led their brother Ronnie astray, Philip begins to fear that the murderous instinct that possessed Ronnie, is also within his veins. Philip marries Doris, but the news of his brothers past comes as a great shock.