The Gaunt Stranger – 1938 | 73 mins | Thriller | B&W

Plot Synopsis

The first film to be produced by Michael Balcon at Ealing was the Walter Forde directed The Gaunt Stranger, Forde had made various films for Balcon at Shepherds Bush, including the notable Rome Express. In this mystery, a Scotland Yard investigator and a police doctor unite to find “The Ringer” a mysterious killer and master of disguise before he can kill a lawyer who just received notice of his impending demise via a lovely bouquet with a note informing him that he has 48 hours to live.

During their hurried investigation, the pair learn that the attorney’s secretary had recently killed herself and that The Ringer blames the lawyer for the death. Time flies, and the lawyer does indeed die. It is only then that the investigators learn the killer’s true identity. It had been made twice before as The Ringer, the title of the Edgar Wallace story on which it was based, first as a silent version directed by Arthur Maude in 1927, and then as a talkie three years later, produced by Balcon and directed by Forde at Islington. (There was even a fourth, directed by Guy Hamilton in 1952.) It is one of those crime stories where virtually the entire cast is suspect until the real killer is unmasked. An unpretentious competent film, it was released as a programmer;, that is to say, the lesser film in a double bill but not quite a B picture.

Extract© George Perry: Forever Ealing.