Death Goes to School

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Death Goes to School
Death Goes to School film poster (1953).png
Film poster
Directed byStephen Clarkson
Written byMaisie Sharman
Stephen Clarkson
Based onnovel Death in Seven Hours by Stratford Davis
Produced by Victor Hanbury
Starring
Cinematography Eric Cross
Edited byPeter Seabourne
Music by De Wolfe
Production
company
Distributed by Eros Films (UK)
Release date
  • May 1953 (1953-05)(UK)
Running time
64 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
Language English

Death Goes to School (also known as One is Guilty) is a 1953 British second feature ('B') [1] mystery film directed by Stephen Clarkson and starring Barbara Murray, Gordon Jackson and Pamela Alan. [2] [3] It was written by Maisie Sharman and Stephen Clarkson based on the 1952 novel Death in Seven Hours by Stratford Davis. It was made at Merton Park Studios.

Contents

Plot

Police investigate the death of a tyrannical teacher at a girls school, where any number of people might have killed the dead woman.

Cast

Reception

Kinematograph Weekly said: "Unhurried but reasonably well acted, it holds the interest even if it fails to chill the spine". [4]

Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "As a thriller this is poor, the successive interviewing of the suspects one by one inducing positive tedium. The film, however, has one bright aspect: the amusing caricature of girls' school life it provides." [5]

Picturegoer wrote: "Barbara Murray gives an intelligent and credible characterization as one of the suspects. And the cast as a whole is efficient, but too verbose." [6]

Picture Show wrote: "'The school backgrounds are authentic, and the petty niggling and feuds of the mistresses seem very real also. It is well told, with tension and humour intermingling. Well acted and neatly directed." [7]

In British Sound Films David Quinlan described the film as: "Verbose, monotonous whodunnit" [8]

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References

  1. ↑ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 184. ISBN   978-1-8445-7319-6.
  2. ↑ "Death Goes to School". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  3. ↑ "Death Goes to School (1953) - Stephen Clarkson | Cast and Crew". AllMovie.
  4. ↑ "Death Goes to School". Kinematograph Weekly . 433 (2391): 7. 23 April 1953.
  5. ↑ "Death Goes to School". Monthly Film Bulletin . 20 (228): 89. 1 January 1935.
  6. ↑ "Death Goes to School" . Picturegoer . 26: 16. 3 August 1953 – via ProQuest.
  7. ↑ "Death Goes to School" . Picture Show . 61 (1580): 10. 11 July 1953 – via ProQuest.
  8. ↑ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 299. ISBN   0-7134-1874-5.


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