Dead Men Tell No Tales (1938 film)

Dead Men Tell No Tales
Directed by	David MacDonald
Written by	Stafford Dickens Doreen Montgomery Walter Summers Emlyn Williams
Based on	The Norwich Victims by Francis Beeding
Produced by	John Corfield
Starring	Emlyn Williams Sara Seegar Hugh Williams
Cinematography	Bryan Langley
Edited by	James Corbett
Music by	W.L. Trytel
Production company	British National Films
Distributed by	Associated British Film Distributors
Release date	1938 (1938)
Running time	70 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Dead Men Tell No Tales is a 1938 British thriller film directed by David MacDonald and starring Emlyn Williams, Sara Seegar and Hugh Williams. ^[1] It is based on the 1935 novel The Norwich Victims by Francis Beeding. ^[2] The film was made at Welwyn Studios. ^{[3] [ full citation needed ]}

Plot

An English schoolteacher wins a French lottery, but on her way to Paris she is murdered and an imposter attempts to claim her prize.

Cast

• Emlyn Williams as Dr. Headlam
• Sara Seegar as Marjorie
• Hugh Williams as Detective Inspector Martin
• Marius Goring as Greening
• Lesley Brook as Elizabeth Orme
• Christine Silver as Miss Haslett
• Clive Morton as Frank Fielding
• Ann Wilton as Bridget
• Jack Vyvian as Crump
• Marjorie Dale as The Singer
• Hal Gordon as Sergeant

Reception

The film received strong reviews and ran for two weeks at a West End theatre, which wsa rare for low budget movies. ^[4] The Evening Standard wrote the film had "a hair raising start, but pace slackens." ^[5]

Kinematograph Weekly reported the film did well at the British box office in May 1938 a date that "confounded the critics". ^[6]

The movie received strong reviews in the US. ^[7]

References

1. "BFI | Film & TV Database | DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES (1938)". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 16 April 2009. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
2. Goble p.32
3. Wood p.94
4. "Flying Scotsman has a good year". Kinematograph Weekly. 12 January 1939. p. 121.
5. "Murder most foul". Evening Standard. 12 March 1938. p. 9.
6. Billings, R.H. (12 January 1939). "Films which won the box office stakes last year". Kinematograph Weekly. p. 61.
7. "US lauds Dead Men Tell No Tales". Kinematograph Weekly. 8 June 1939. p. 27.

Bibliography

• Goble, Alan. The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film . Walter de Gruyter, 2011. ISBN   9783110951943
• Shafer, Stephen C. British popular films, 1929-1939: the cinema of reassurance. Routledge, 1997.

External links

• Dead Men Tell No Tales at IMDb