Dear Murderer | |
---|---|
Directed by | Arthur Crabtree |
Written by | Muriel Box Sydney Box Peter Rogers |
Based on | play by St. John Legh Clowes |
Produced by | Betty Box executive Sydney Box |
Starring | Eric Portman Greta Gynt |
Cinematography | Stephen Dade |
Edited by | Gordon Hales |
Music by | Benjamin Frankel |
Production company | |
Distributed by | General Film Distributors (UK) Universal (US) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £125,000 [1] |
Box office | £139,000 (by July 1953) [2] |
Dear Murderer is a 1947 British film noir crime, drama, thriller, directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures, and starring Eric Portman and Greta Gynt.
The film has come to be regarded as one of the best movies made under the supervision of Sydney Box at Gainsborough. [2]
Lee and Vivien Warren are trapped in a nightmare marriage. Vivien is despising, devious and habitually unfaithful while Lee is pathologically jealous. On his return from a lengthy business trip to New York, suspicious after his wife failed to write to him or call, Lee finds several cards addressed to Vivien signed "Love Always" and determines to kill her latest lover, Richard Fenton. He confronts Fenton, who admits to his affair with Vivien, and persuades him to end the relationship by writing her a farewell letter. He then kills Fenton, and stages the scene to look like a suicide, believing he has committed the perfect crime as the letter which Fenton had just written at his dictation has all the appearance of a suicide note.
His scheme goes awry when he discovers immediately after the fact that Vivien and Fenton had in fact broken up some time before, and Fenton had been humouring him by writing the note. He is guilt-stricken at having killed Fenton needlessly, and realises that any suggestion of suicide on Fenton's part in despair over Vivien will now seem absurd to the police. When he discovers that Vivien now has a new beau, Jimmy Martin, he takes the opportunity to frame Martin for the crime, reasoning that this will serve the dual purpose of shifting suspicion away from himself while at the same time getting Vivien's current lover out of the way. While he arranges matters so that all the evidence points to Martin, the policeman in charge of the case, Inspector Pembury, has his doubts about the case but is unable to catch Lee out.
Vivien begs her husband to intercede on Martin's behalf, promising to remain faithful in the future if he can devise a way to save Martin from the gallows without incriminating himself. Lee changes his testimony to the police to say that Fenton had died of suicide but that he had later manipulated the crime scene to look like he was murdered by Martin. Vivien convinces Lee to write a letter unbeknownst to him is intended to act as a suicide note. She gives him a drink containing an overdose of his regular medications. While Lee is dying, Vivien confesses to lying to him and that she only loved Martin. She attempts to reunite with Martin who wants nothing to do with her. Vivien returns dejectedly back to her apartment and, despite initially feigning distress at her husband's death, is arrested by Pembury for Lee's murder. Her lover Jimmy Martin's ring is given back to her stating 'til death do us part'. The film ends with her laughing cruelly, symbolising her downfall into madness.
The film was based on a play by St. John Legh Clowes. It debuted in a small theatre in London that had specialised in Grand Guignol plays and was so popular it was transferred to the West End in 1946, where it was a hit. [3] [4] Director Sam Woods wanted to buy the film rights. [5] Film rights were purchased by Sydney Box. [6]
There were plans to produce the play on Broadway starring Francis Lederer but this did not happen. [7]
It was one of the first films made at Gainsborough Pictures after Sydney Box took over as head of production. The adaptation was very faithful to the script. [8]
Filming took place in late 1946. [9] It was produced by Sydney's sister Betty. [10]
The film was shot at Islington Studios. [11]
The cast included two young actors whom Box was trying to build into stars, Maxwell Reed and Hazel Court. [12] Both were from his acting company, The Company of Youth. [13]
The film was well received for its tautness and ingenuity, with one reviewer noting: "Dear Murderer is a shrewd, semi-psychological thriller with Eric Portman, a well-known menace...being sinister to the height of his bent. The plot is good and chilling." [14] It also received positive notices on its release in the U.S.: "Another masterful picture from overseas, a carefully plotted dramatic thriller which revolves very neatly about the commission of the perfect crime." [15]
The movie was given a Royal Command Performance in Oslo, Norway. [16] (Star Greta Gynt was Norwegian.)
The movie featured in a trial. Arthur Colyer was arrested for attempted murder of his wife. His wife was accused of passing off the plot for Dear Murderer as evidence, although she denied it. [17]
The play was adapted for British TV in 1949 and 1957, and for German TV in 1972.
Dan O'Herlihy performed the role on stage in Los Angeles in 1955. [18]
Dennistoun Franklyn John Rose Price was an English actor. He played Louis Mazzini in the Ealing Studios film Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and the omnicompetent valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G. Wodehouse's stories.
Margaret Mary Day Lockwood, CBE, was a British actress. One of Britain's most popular film stars of the 1930s and 1940s, her film appearances included The Lady Vanishes (1938), Night Train to Munich (1940), The Man in Grey (1943), and The Wicked Lady (1945). She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress for the 1955 film Cast a Dark Shadow. She also starred in the television series Justice (1971–74).
Maxwell Reed was a Northern Irish actor who became a matinee idol in British films during the 1940s and 1950s.
Frank Sydney Box was a British film producer and screenwriter, and brother of British film producer Betty Box. In 1940, he founded the documentary film company Verity Films with Jay Lewis.
Phyllis Hannah Murray-Hill, known professionally as Phyllis Calvert, was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s such as The Man in Grey (1943) and was one of the most popular movie stars in Britain in the 1940s. She continued her acting career for another 50 years.
Betty Evelyn Box was a prolific British film producer, usually credited as Betty E. Box.
Eric Harold Portman was an English stage and film actor. He is probably best remembered for his roles in three films for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger during the 1940s.
Easy Money is a 1948 British satirical film directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Greta Gynt, Dennis Price and Jack Warner. It was written by Muriel and Sydney Box, based on the 1948 play of the same title by Arnold Ridley. It was released by Gainsborough Pictures.
Arthur Crabtree was a British cinematographer and film director. He directed films with comedians such as Will Hay, the Crazy Gang and Arthur Askey and several of the Gainsborough Melodramas.
Christopher Columbus is a 1949 British biographical film starring Fredric March as Christopher Columbus and Florence Eldridge as Queen Isabella. It is loosely based on the 1941 novel Columbus by Rafael Sabatini with much of the screenplay rewritten by Sydney and Muriel Box.
Greta Gynt was a Norwegian dancer and actress. She is remembered for her starring roles in the British classic films The Dark Eyes of London, Mr. Emmanuel, Take My Life, Dear Murderer and The Ringer.
Jassy is a 1947 British colour film historical melodrama directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Margaret Lockwood, Patricia Roc and Dennis Price. It was written by Dorothy Christie, Campbell Christie and Geoffrey Kerr based on the 1944 novel by Norah Lofts. Set in the early 19th century, it is a Gainsborough melodrama, the only one to be made in Technicolor, and was the last "official" Gainsborough melodrama.
The Brothers is a 1947 British film melodrama directed by David MacDonald and starring Patricia Roc, Will Fyffe and Maxwell Reed. It was adapted from the novel of the same title by L. A. G. Strong.
When the Bough Breaks is a 1947 film directed by Lawrence Huntington and starring Patricia Roc and Rosamund John. It is an adaptation of an original storyline by Herbert Victor on adoption and the competing ties of one child's birth and foster family.
The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures between 1943 and 1947 that conformed to a melodramatic style. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films that had similar themes that were usually developed by the same film crew and frequently recurring actors who played similar characters in each. They were mostly based on popular books by female novelists and they encompassed costume dramas, such as The Man in Grey (1943) and The Wicked Lady (1945), and modern-dress dramas, such as Love Story (1944) and They Were Sisters (1945). The popularity of the films with audiences peaked mid-1940s when cinema audiences consisted primarily of women. The influence of the films led to other British producers releasing similarly themed works, such as The Seventh Veil (1945), Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945), Hungry Hill (1947), The White Unicorn (1947), Idol of Paris (1948), and The Reluctant Widow (1950) and often with the talent that made Gainsborough melodramas successful.
The Bad Lord Byron is a 1949 British historical drama film about the life of Lord Byron. It was directed by David MacDonald and starred Dennis Price as Byron with Mai Zetterling, Linden Travers and Joan Greenwood.
The Calendar is a black and white 1948 British drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Greta Gynt, John McCallum, Raymond Lovell and Leslie Dwyer. It is based on the 1929 play The Calendar and subsequent novel by Edgar Wallace. A previous version had been released in 1931.
My Brother's Keeper is a 1948 British crime film in the form of a convicts-on-the-run chase thriller, directed by Alfred Roome for Gainsborough Pictures. It was the first of only two films directed by Roome during a long career as a film editor. The film stars Jack Warner and George Cole and was produced by Sydney Box.
Daybreak is a 1948 drama by Riverside Studios – classified by some as 'British Noir' – directed by Compton Bennett and starring Eric Portman, Ann Todd and Maxwell Reed. It is based on a play by Monckton Hoffe.
The Blind Goddess is a 1948 British courtroom drama film directed by Harold French and starring Eric Portman, Anne Crawford and Hugh Williams. The screenplay concerns a secretary who sets out to expose his boss, Lord Brasted, for embezzlement. It was based on a popular 1947 play of the same title by noted barrister Patrick Hastings.