Calling Paul Temple | |
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Directed by | Maclean Rogers |
Written by | Francis Durbridge (radio play) A.R. Rawlinson Kathleen Butler |
Produced by | Ernest G. Roy |
Starring | John Bentley Dinah Sheridan Margaretta Scott |
Distributed by | Butcher's Film Service (UK) Eagle-Lion (West Germany) |
Release date |
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Running time | 92 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Calling Paul Temple is a 1948 British crime film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring John Bentley, Dinah Sheridan and Margaretta Scott. [1] It was the second in a series of four Paul Temple films distributed by Butcher's Film Service. [2] The first was Send for Paul Temple (1946), with Anthony Hulme as Paul Temple. John Bentley then took over the role in Calling Paul Temple, continuing for two further films: Paul Temple's Triumph (1950) and Paul Temple Returns (1952). [3] [4] It was produced by Ernest G. Roy at the Nettlefold Film Studios in Walton On Thames.
A woman is found dead on a train, and the name "Rex" has been written on the pull-down blind. It is the third in a mysterious string of "Rex" murders, all carried out on trains. And soon there's a fourth murder. All the victims are discovered to have been the wealthy patients of a doctor who specialises in nervous disorders. The detective novelist Paul Temple and his wife Steve are called in to help Scotland Yard's Sir Graham Forbes solve the case before the serial killer strikes again. While at a nightclub, they receive a message from singer Norma Rice concerning the murders. But before Sir Graham has the chance to speak to her she dies, falling down the stairs in the middle of her second number, What's Cooking in Cabaret?. [5] The suspects include the Egyptian therapist Dr Kohima, his mysterious secretary Mrs Trevelyan, and a salesman, Hugh Pryse of the Quick Boil Kettle Company (in the next carriage when one of the murders takes place). [6]
Calling Paul Temple was based on the Francis Durbridge radio serial Send for Paul Temple Again, broadcast in September 1945. [7] Writing credits for the film are Francis Durbridge, A.R. Rawlinson & Kathleen Butler. [3] Steve Race (with Sid Colin) wrote the two songs performed by Celia Lipton, and appeared himself as the bandleader in the nightclub section. [8] [9] The footage includes evocative shots of gothic Canterbury in the 1940s.
Dinah Sheridan was an English actress with a career spanning seven decades. She was best known for the films Genevieve (1953) and The Railway Children (1970); the long-running BBC comedy series Don't Wait Up (1983–1990); and for her distinguished theatre career in London's West End.
Francis Henry Durbridge was an English dramatist and author, best known for the creation of the character Paul Temple, the gentlemanly detective who appeared in 16 BBC multi-part radio serials from 1938 onward.
Margaretta Mary Winifred Scott was an English stage, screen and television actress whose career spanned over seventy years. She is best remembered for playing the eccentric widow Mrs. Pumphrey in the BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small (1978–1990).
Paul Temple is a fictional character created by English writer Francis Durbridge. Temple is a professional author of crime fiction and an amateur private detective. With his wife Louise, affectionately known as 'Steve' in reference to her journalistic pen name 'Steve Trent', he solves whodunnit crimes through subtle, humorously articulated deduction. Always the gentleman, the strongest expletive he employs is "by Timothy!".
The Honey Pot, also known as The Honeypot, is a 1967 American crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It stars Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Cliff Robertson, Capucine, Edie Adams, and Maggie Smith. The film was based on the play Mr. Fox of Venice by Frederick Knott, the novel The Evil of the Day by Thomas Sterling, and loosely on the 1606 play Volpone by Ben Jonson.
Francis Matthews was an English actor, best known for playing Paul Temple in the BBC television series of the same name and for voicing Captain Scarlet in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
Stephen Russell Race OBE was an English composer, pianist and radio and television presenter.
John Bentley was a British film actor. He had a successful career as a leading man from the 1940s to the late '50s and was a popular heart-throb who appeared in many British B-movies during that time. Later in his career, in the 1970s he appeared as Hugh Mortimer, Meg Richardson's ill-fated third husband in the English soap opera Crossroads. He also starred in the jungle adventure series African Patrol (1957) as Chief Inspector Paul Derek and made various other guest appearances in many popular TV series from the late 50s onwards.
The Tall Headlines is a 1952 British drama film directed by Terence Young and starring André Morell, Flora Robson, Michael Denison, Peter Burton, Sid James and Dennis Price. It was shot at Walton Studios outside London. In the United States the film was retitled The Frightened Bride. It was based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Audrey Erskine Lindop.
The Broken Horseshoe is a 1953 British "B" crime film directed by Martyn C. Webster and starring Robert Beatty, Elizabeth Sellars, Peter Coke, and Hugh Kelly. It was based on a BBC television series of the same title from the previous year. A surgeon is drawn into a murder case.
Thomas Foster "Jack" Raine was an English stage, television and film actor.
Hugh Pryse (1910–1955) was a British character actor. He was born on 11 November 1910 with the name John Hwfa Pryse, and was billed as Hwfa Pryse in the films Penn of Pennsylvania and "Pimpernel" Smith.
Send for Paul Temple is a 1946 British crime film directed by John Argyle and starring Anthony Hulme, Joy Shelton and Tamara Desni. Paul Temple is called in by Scotland Yard after a major diamond theft. It was the first of four film adaptations of the BBC's Paul Temple radio serials, with John Bentley taking over the lead role in future installments.
Michael Golden was an Irish stage, film and television actor, mainly active in England. His stage work encompassed Shakespearean roles at Stratford in 1947; and as police inspectors in the original West End productions of Agatha Christie's plays Verdict and The Unexpected Guest in 1958.
Paul Temple's Triumph is a 1950 British crime film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring John Bentley, Dinah Sheridan and Jack Livesey. It was the third in the series of four Paul Temple films made at Nettlefold Studios and was an adaptation of the Francis Durbridge radio serial News of Paul Temple (1939). Temple is on the trail of a gang of international criminals trying to steal atomic secrets.
Jack Edwards Livesey was a British film actor.
Paul Temple Returns is a 1952 British crime film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring John Bentley, Patricia Dainton and Peter Gawthorne. Known in the U.S. as Bombay Waterfront, it was the fourth and last in the series of Paul Temple films distributed by Butcher's Film Service: the others are Send for Paul Temple (1946), Calling Paul Temple, and Paul Temple's Triumph (1950). Aside from Bentley, the other actors were different from those in the earlier film series. It was released in the United States under the alternative title Bombay Waterfront.
No Trace is a 1950 British second feature crime film directed by John Gilling and starring Hugh Sinclair, Dinah Sheridan and John Laurie. A crime writer murders a blackmailer, and is then asked to help solve the case by the police.
Celia Lipton Farris, DStJ was a British actress, singer and philanthropist.
Dark Secret is a 1949 British crime film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Dinah Sheridan, Emrys Jones and Irene Handl. It was a remake of the 1933 film The Crime at Blossoms, also directed by Rogers.