Cloudburst (1951 film)

Last updated

Cloudburst
Cloudburst poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Francis Searle
Written by Leo Marks (play)
Francis Searle
Produced by Anthony Hinds
Alexander Paal
Starring Robert Preston
Cinematography Walter J. Harvey
Edited byJohn Ferris
Music by Frank Spencer
Production
company
Distributed by Exclusive Films (UK)
United Artists (USA)
Release date
  • July 1951 (1951-7)
Running time
83 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Cloudburst is a 1951 British second feature ('B') [1] crime drama film directed by Francis Searle, starring Robert Preston, Elizabeth Sellars, Harold Lang, Colin Tapley and Sheila Burrell. It was written by Searle and Leo Marks based on the play of the same name by Marks, a wartime cryptographer for the Special Operations Executive. It was produced by Hammer Films.

Contents

Plot

John Graham, a World War II veteran, and former operative for the SOE, seeks revenge on the driver and passenger of a hit-and-run automobile that struck and killed his wife.

Cast

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Violent and implausible thriller." [2]

Kine Weekly wrote: "Bizarre, yet holding 'death on the road' romantic melodrama. ... First-rate British attraction." [3]

Leslie Halliwell wrote "Watchable potboiler." [4]

In British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference, Harper and Porter wrote: "Cloudburst is the first Hammer B-feature aimed at the Americans, and it is also the first one in which class issues have been rendered invisible. Class origins are an irrelevance in the film's world of passionate individualism. ... The film, directed by Hammer regular Francis Searle, is stylishly substantial, with a marvellous roundness and symmetry. Cloudburst jettisons conventional morality, and proceeds to a satisfying closure." [5]

References

  1. ↑ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 152. ISBN   978-1-8445-7319-6.
  2. ↑ "Cloudburst" . The Monthly Film Bulletin . 18 (204): 296. 1 January 1951 – via ProQuest.
  3. ↑ "Cloudburst" . Kine Weekly . 431 (2382): 26. 19 February 1953 – via ProQuest.
  4. ↑ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 208. ISBN   0586088946.
  5. ↑ Harper, Sue; Porter, Vincent (2003). British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference . Oxford University Press. p.  141. ISBN   019815934X.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.