Feet of Clay (1960 film)

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Feet of Clay
Feet of Clay film Opening titles (1960).webp
Opening titles
Directed byFrank Marshall
Written byMark Grantham
Produced by Edward J. Danziger
Harry Lee Danziger
Starring Vincent Ball
Wendy Williams
Cinematography James Wilson
Edited by Desmond Saunders
Music by Bill Le Sage
Release date
  • 1960 (1960)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Feet of Clay is a 1960 British crime film directed by Frank Marshall and starring Vincent Ball, Wendy Williams and Hilda Fenemore. [1] [2] It was written by Mark Grantham and produced by The Danzigers.

Contents

Plot

When Probation Officer Angela Richmond is found murdered, young probationer Jimmy Fuller is convicted. Solicitor David Kyle suspects that Fuller is covering up for Diana White, another resident of the hostel run by Richmond. He discovers that Richmond was using the hostel as a front for drug smuggling and had forced the residents to cooperate. He finds that Fuller is innocent of the murder and thet Richmond had in fact been killed by the hostel's new proprietres Mrs. Clarke.

Cast

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Drearily predictable mystery film, made with undisguised poverty of means and invention poverty." [3]

Kine Weekly wrote: "The picture doesn't take long to unfold, but lack of tension makes it seem interminable. Vincent Ball is wasted as David, Wendy Williams has little to do as Fay, Hilda Fennemore is forced to show her hand as Mrs. Clarke, and Robert Cawdron blatently wears his villainy on his 'pan' as Saunders. The rest are given even less breaks. Its opening scenes take place in the hostel and from thence on the 'twist' ending is as predicable as quarter day." [4]

The film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane describe Feet of Clay as "oddly compelling", "set in a world of prison, drab night streets and stuffy private hotels". At the ending, "once the final flurry of fisticuffs is over, the young lovers embrace, but the acrid atmosphere of the film still hovers over their union". [5]

References

  1. ↑ "Feet of Clay". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  2. ↑ "BFI | Film & TV Database | Feet Of clay (1960)". ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
  3. ↑ "Feet of Clay". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 28 (324): 23. 1 January 1961. ProQuest   1305828065.
  4. ↑ "Feet of Clay". Kine Weekly . 523 (2778): 22. 29 December 1960. ProQuest   3127059892.
  5. ↑ Steve Chibnall & Brian McFarlane, The British 'B' Film, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009, p. 95.
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