Quiller

Ron, never heard of that film before. I'll make a note of it.

Rob Compton

er...Rob, actually.:rolleyes: Trevor Howard playing his usual embittered ex service agent. Meets the rather delectable Jean Simmons.

The Clouded Yellow is a species of butterfly.

Good film, worth watching

rgds
Rob;)

Quiller

You see the key next to 'b'... Sorry, Ron, it won't happen again.

Steve Crook

Not many other people made films like Powell & Pressburger back then either :)

Steve

Quiller

Hmmmm, you've just flawed me there.

The only directors I can think that come close, or are on the same level, are Carol Reed (in the fifties, not the forties), and Fritz Lang (but he aint British). There must be some other British difectors that have the same level of artistry and style...

Steve Crook

When I said "not many" I meant "not many - worldwide"
Carol Reed in the fifties? Not in the same league.

Which film(s) were you thinking of? By Reed or Lang

Steve

Quiller

For Reed I'd say Fallen Angel, A Kid For Two Farthings. Those two are definitely in the same league as a P&P production. Especially the latter one. The use of colour.

For Lang, it would be Secret Beyond The Door, with Michael Redgrave in. Stark black and white, stylish exagerrated angles. Reminds me of a P&P film.

Steve Crook

But surely the use of colour (or even B&W) is only part of the joy of a P&P film. There is also the superbly well structured story, the challenging of accepted ideas (in film and in storytelling), the passion and emotion that you hardly ever find in any British film of the period, the artistry, and so much more.

Or am I a bit biased? :rolleyes:

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

Quiller

You're spot on. But other films and other directors - sometimes, very rarely - have that same magic as P&P.

The moments of emotion are what sets these films apart from the rest. P&P just had it on tap and were adept masters at manipulating an audience. Real filmmaking.

nellybly

The movie was based on a actual case. Here's the URL and some quotes from the Crime Library site: The Madeleine Smith Story
THE MADELEINE SMITH STORY ". . . the jury deliberated for only 30 minutes on July 9th and then reached a verdict of "not proven" (a unique verdict in Scotland that signifies that the accused was not found innocent, but the prosecution had not made a strong enough case to convict), and Madeleine went free that afternoon and returned to the Smith home. What actually happened on the night of March 23, 1857, will never be known.

"Letters about the crime were prevalent in newspapers at the time of the trial and for many months afterwards, and most contemporary British newspapers took a side regarding the verdict:

"The Glasgow Sentinel: '[Madeleine Smith was] as much the seducer as the seduced. And when once the veil of modesty was thrown aside, from the first a very frail and flimsy one, the woman of strong passion and libidinous tendencies at once reveals herself.... [Madeleine is] one of those abnormal spirits that now and then rise up in society to startle and appall us.....'

"The Glasgow Citizen: 'In her first efforts at retrieval [of her letters], she found herself not in the arms of a protector but in the coils of a reptile.' "

Re-reading about the case makes me want to get the movie so I can view it again. I lowered my cable down to basic from basic plus (from not much to watch to nothing to watch) so I don't get TCM anymore (come fall, I'm seriously thinking of going back up), so my possibility of watching on TV is nil (a local Los Angeles station used to show Ann Todd movies all the time).

One book said the "not proven" verdict amounted to "We know you did it and now we wish you would tell us how.";)

It was a wonderful treat
To hear the patter of horsey feet.

Thanks For The Buggyride recorded by Percival Mackey

julian_craster

NOOSE is very dark.....or perhaps it is just the print screened on UK tv !

Wee Sonny MacGregor

The Frightened City with Alfred Marks?

Sonny

DB7

Not mentioned in this thread but has anybody see The Scarf (1951)?

oldfilmy

House in the Woods (1957) with Roc and Gough

runs right around 60 min., and has noir-ish elements deep in the woods with Gough.

The 30's-late 50's mysteries and thrillers are tops!

too bad so many are hard to find here in the states...

AndrewLA

I don't think anyone's mentioned TOWN ON TRIAL. This probably isn't a noir by strict definitions -- like NIGHT AND THE CITY -- maybe more a murder mystery melodrama with a tough contemporary edge (for 1957). A true noir would probably get the Mills character more personally involved, with something at stake for himself in an irrational universe with all its twists and turns. Maybe the woman he falls in love with, Bates, would have been the murderer.

Still, it nudges into the noir world with a dark psychological view of small town life -- every person is effectively on trial before John Mills' relentless cop inquisitor. If social alienation and a villain who suffers from neurotic loss of self-control are part of noir, then TOWN ON TRIAL certainly has that sensibility. The dark night of the soul and all that. The camerawork and lighting, if I remember, are darker than you'd expect for most British crime films of the time.

You have a feeling throughout the movie that they're trying for a kind of American genre feel. This isn't a cosy mystery. It moves quickly, with lots of plot twists and turns. Mills gets to be tough and physical and have a romance. Even the casting of Charles Coburn and Barbara Bates also give it a semi-American quality.