Dark Secret (film)

Dark Secret
Australian theatrical release poster
Directed by	Maclean Rogers
Screenplay by	Moie Charles A.R. Rawlinson
Based on	play The Crime at Blossoms by Mordaunt Shairp
Produced by	Ernest G. Roy
Starring	Dinah Sheridan Emrys Jones Irene Handl
Cinematography	Walter J. Harvey
Edited by	Ted Richards
Music by	George Melachrino
Production company	Nettlefold Films
Distributed by	Butcher's Film Service
Release date	October 1949 (1949-10)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Dark Secret is a 1949 British second feature ('B') ^[1] crime film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Dinah Sheridan, Emrys Jones and Irene Handl. ^[2] The screenplay was Moie Charles and A.R. Rawlinson. It was a remake of the 1933 film The Crime at Blossoms , also directed by Rogers. ^[3]

Plot

Ex-pilot Chris and his wife Valerie move into an attractive country cottage, only to become obsessed with the murdered woman who used to live there.

Cast

• Dinah Sheridan as Valerie Merryman
• Emrys Jones as Chris Merryman
• Irene Handl as 'Woody' Woodman
• Hugh Pryse as a very late visitor
• Barbara Couper as Mrs. Barrington
• Percy Marmont as vicar
• Geoffrey Sumner as Jack Farrell
• Mackenzie Ward as artist
• Charles Hawtrey as Arthur Figson
• John Salew as Mr. Barrington
• George Merritt as Mr. Lumley
• Stanley Vilven as Mr. Woodman
• Grace Arnold as housewife
• Esme Beringer as elderly lady
• Edgar Driver as George, barman
• Molly Hamley-Clifford as fat woman
• Laurence Naismith as Mr. Grossmith
• Terry Randall as daughter
• Johnnie Schofield as motor coachman

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A wholly inadequate mystery melodrama." ^[4]

Kine Weekly wrote: Dinah Sheridan is refreshingly feminine, but, delightful as she is personally, she is unable to carry the uneven supporting cast or gloss over the fabulous mumbo-jumbo. ... The picture, which superimposes machine-made macabre on to time-honoured rural comedy, claims to be based on fact, but it is peopled with such stagey characters and burdened with such indifferent dialogue that, in spite of its valid fundamentals, it is much less funny and creepy than the wildest 'who-dunnit.' It could and should have been at least a quarter of an hour shorter." ^[5]

Picture Show wrote: "This mixture of merriment and the macabre does not altogether come off, and is on the slow-moving side. ... Dinah Sheridan gives an attractive performance as the wife, Emrys Jones makes a cheerfully matter-of-fact husband, and Irene Handl weighs in with the comedy as the charwoman who delights in curdling the blood of the sightseers." ^[6]

References

1. Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 65. ISBN   978-1-8445-7319-6.
2. "Dark Secret". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 25 May 2025.
3. Goble, Alan (8 September 2011). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN   9783110951943 – via Google Books.
4. "Dark Secret". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 16 (181): 180. 1 January 1949. ProQuest   1305810596.
5. "Dark Secret". Kine Weekly . 391 (2213): 12. 29 September 1949. ProQuest   2687778856.
6. "Dark Secret". Picture Show . 54 (1401): 10. 4 February 1950. ProQuest   1879629964.

External links

• Dark Secret at IMDb