Circle of Danger | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jacques Tourneur |
Screenplay by | Philip Macdonald |
Produced by | Joan Harrison David E. Rose John R. Sloan |
Starring | Ray Milland Patricia Roc |
Cinematography | Oswald Morris Gilbert Taylor |
Edited by | Alan Osbiston |
Music by | Robert Farnon |
Production company | Coronado Productions (England) Limited |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures (UK) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | $700,000 [1] |
Circle of Danger is a 1951 British thriller film directed by Jacques Tourneur which stars Ray Milland, Patricia Roc, Marius Goring, Hugh Sinclair and Naunton Wayne. [2] An American travels to England to discover the truth behind his brother's death during the Second World War. [3] The screenplay was by Philip MacDonald.
In The New York Times its anonymous reviewer wrote: "British restraint in acting and dialogue is almost painfully evident throughout the proceedings". Although Milland's acting is praised for its "naturalness, a quality which, it might be added, may be due in part to the unadorned and often expert dialogue turned out by Philip MacDonald", the film despite a decent British supporting cast, "is still an unexciting and largely placid adventure". [4] Dennis Schwartz wrote of the film in 2013: "Though routine, the highly skilled Tourneur does his best to keep it lively, watchable and enjoyable." [5]
Ray Milland was a Welsh-American actor and film director. He is often remembered for his portrayal of an alcoholic writer in Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend (1945), which won him Best Actor at Cannes, a Golden Globe Award, and ultimately an Academy Award—the first such accolades for any Welsh actor.
Naunton Wayne, was a Welsh character actor, born in Pontypridd, Glamorgan, Wales. He was educated at Clifton College. His name was changed by deed poll in 1933.
The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.
General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.
Duncan William Ferguson Lamont was a British actor. Born in Lisbon, Portugal, and brought up in Scotland, he had a long and successful career in film and television, appearing in a variety of high-profile productions.
Jacques Tourneur was a French-American filmmaker, active during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known as an auteur of stylish and atmospheric genre films, many of them for RKO Pictures, including the horror films Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, and The Leopard Man, and the classic film noir Out of the Past. He is also known for directing Night of the Demon, which was released by Columbia Pictures.
Philip MacDonald was a British-born writer of fiction and screenplays, best known for thrillers.
David John Stollery III is a former American child actor and, as an adult, an industrial designer. He appeared in numerous Disney movies and television programs in the 1950s. He is best known for his teenage role as the loner Marty in the Spin and Marty television serials on the Mickey Mouse Club TV series in the mid-1950s.
Rhubarb is a 1951 film adapted from the 1946 novel Rhubarb by humorist H. Allen Smith. Directed by Arthur Lubin, the screwball noir comedy stars the cat Orangey along with Jan Sterling and Ray Milland. Cinematography was by Lionel Lindon. The supporting cast features William Frawley and Gene Lockhart.
Hugh Sinclair was a British actor. He trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and had a career spanning forty years in theatre, film and television. He worked in Britain and America with some of the 20th Century’s most highly regarded actors and directors, including George Cukor, Carol Reed, Ray Milland and Elizabeth Bergner. His most significant work was done in the theatre and he headed the cast of two landmark plays in London, Noel Coward’s Private Lives in 1945 and the original London production of TS Eliot’s The Cocktail Party in 1950. However notable films include Escape Me Never, A Girl Must Live, The Rocking Horse Winner and Circle of Danger. He excelled in light comedy and was known for his comic timing, often playing handsome, debonair characters. He had a distinctive vocal delivery that blended warmth, irony and humour and this became his trademark as an actor.
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Screen Directors Playhouse is an American radio and television anthology series which brought leading Hollywood actors to the NBC microphones beginning in 1949. The radio program broadcast adaptations of films, with original directors of the films sometimes involved in the productions, although their participation was usually limited to introducing the radio adaptations and taking a brief "curtain call" with the cast and host at the end of the program. During the 1955–56 season, the series was seen on television, focusing on original teleplays and several adaptations of famous short stories.
Kitty is a 1945 film, a costume drama set in London during the 1780s, directed by Mitchell Leisen, based on the novel of the same name by Rosamond Marshall. The screenplay is by Karl Tunberg. It stars Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, Constance Collier, Patric Knowles, Reginald Owen, and Cecil Kellaway as the English painter Thomas Gainsborough.
Patricia Roc was an English film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945), though she only made one film in Hollywood, Canyon Passage (1946). She also appeared in Millions Like Us (1943), Jassy (1945), The Brothers (1947) and When the Bough Breaks (1947).
Orders Is Orders is a 1933 British comedy film starring Charlotte Greenwood, James Gleason and Cyril Maude about an American film crew who move into a British army barracks to start making a film, much to the commander's horror. Much of the film concerns the interaction between the American crew and the British officers. It is based upon the 1932 play Orders Are Orders by Ian Hay and Anthony Armstrong. It was shot at the Lime Grove Studios in London with sets designed by the art director Alfred Junge.
Highly Dangerous is a 1950 British spy film starring Margaret Lockwood and Dane Clark. It was directed by Roy Ward Baker, based on a screenplay and novel The Dark Frontier written by Eric Ambler.
Untamed is a 1940 American Technicolor adventure film directed by George Archainbaud and starring Ray Milland, Patricia Morison and Akim Tamiroff. It is based on the 1926 Sinclair Lewis novel Mantrap.
Menace is a 1934 American mystery film directed by Ralph Murphy and starring Gertrude Michael, Paul Cavanagh and Henrietta Crosman. The emerging star Ray Milland billed fifth. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on the 1933 novel Menace by British writer Philip MacDonald. Mitchell Leisen was originally intended to direct the film before being replaced by Murphy. A review in the New York Times considered "it ranks several notches higher than the average murder film".
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