Home at Seven

Ralph Richardson - David Preston
Margaret Leighton - Janet Preston
Jack Hawkins - Dr. Sparling
Campbell Singer - Inspector Hemingway
Michael Shepley - Major Watson
Margaret Withers - Mrs. Watson
Frederick Piper - Mr. Petherbridge
Meriel Forbes - Peggy Dobson
Gerald Case - Sergeant Evans
Diana Beaumont - Ellen
Johnnie Schofield - Joe Dobson

When the R.C. Sherriff penned Home at Seven was produced on the London stage in 1950 it proved to be a major West End successes. Ralph Richardson repeats his starring role and stepped behind the camera for the first and only time to direct this adaptation. The production is notable for three 'firsts'. It was the first independent venture of Maurice Cowan; Richardson's first attempt at direction; and the first picture under the Alexander Korda banner to be produced under the speed-up technique of less than three weeks shooting schedule after extensive rehearsals. Richardson directs the piece with a straightforward competence but the end result is stagey.

David Preston (Ralph Richardson), a timid middle-class bank clerk living in the London suburbs, loses twenty-four hours in his life, and during the time he was an amnesia victim, the funds of his social club are stolen and the steward is murdered. Preston is unable to account for his disappearance to either his wife (Margaret Leighton) or doctor (Jack Hawkins), and when the police start their inquiries he foolhardily gives a false alibi, but that is soon exposed and he is convinced of his own guilt.