A Matter of Murder

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A Matter of Murder
"The Strangers Came A Matter of Murder" (1949 films).jpg
Directed by John Gilling
Written byJohn Gilling
Produced bySam Lee
Roger Proudlock
Starring Maureen Riscoe
John Barry
Charles Clapham
Ivan Craig
CinematographyS.D. Onions
Music by George Melachrino
Production
company
Distributed byGrand National Pictures
Release date
  • December 1949 (1949-12)
Running time
59 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

A Matter of Murder is a 1949 British second feature ('B') [1] crime film directed and written by John Gilling and starring Maureen Riscoe, John Barry, Charles Clapham, Ian Fleming and John Le Mesurier. [2] [3]

Contents

Plot

Mild-mannered bank clerk Geoffrey Dent is persuaded by his nagging, gold-digging girlfriend, Laura, to embezzle money. When an attempt is made on Laura's life, Geoffrey runs away with the cash to avoid being blamed. With the killer and a detective hot on his heels, Geoffrey hides out in a Cheltenham boarding house, where he becomes the murderer's next intended victim.

Cast

Production

The film was made by Vandyke Productions at Viking Studios, and on location at a former girls' school in Kensington dressed as a boarding house, and Paddington Station. [1]

Reception

Kine Weekly wrote: "Stilted acting and dialogue remove the edge from many intended thrills. Very moderate quota offering." [4]

Picturegoer wrote: "Characters are drawn from stock, with a provincial boarding house setting, and the drama as a whole is most ingenuous. Maureen Riscoe is quite good as the heroine, but the rest of the cast hardly comes up to scratch." [5]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Tatty programme-filler." [6]

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References

  1. 1 2 Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 122. ISBN   978-1-8445-7319-6.
  2. ↑ "A Matter of Murder". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  3. ↑ "A Matter of Murder (1950)". Archived from the original on 21 December 2016.
  4. ↑ "A Matter of Murder" . Kine Weekly . 394 (2223): 24. 8 December 1949 – via ProQuest.
  5. ↑ "A Matter of Murder" . Picturegoer . 19: 17. 9 April 1950 – via ProQuest.
  6. ↑ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 229. ISBN   0-7134-1874-5.
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