I Believe in You | |
---|---|
Directed by | Basil Dearden Michael Relph |
Written by | Basil Dearden Nicholas Phipps Michael Relph Jack Whittingham |
Produced by | Michael Relph Basil Dearden |
Starring | Celia Johnson Cecil Parker Joan Collins |
Cinematography | Gordon Dines |
Edited by | Peter Tanner |
Music by | Ernest Irving |
Production company | |
Distributed by | General Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | £89,000 [1] |
I Believe in You is a 1952 British drama film directed by Michael Relph and Basil Dearden, starring Celia Johnson and Cecil Parker [2] and is based on the book Court Circular by Sewell Stokes. Inspired by the recently successful The Blue Lamp (1950), Relph and Dearden used a semi-documentary approach in telling the story of the lives of probation officers and their charges. [3]
Henry Phipps, a retired Colonial Serviceman, takes on the job of a probation officer, and finds it a challenge. Various characters' lives are examined as Phipps and his colleagues attempt to reform (amongst others), a hardened criminal and a juvenile delinquent.
Monthly Film Bulletin said "This film does for the probation officer what The Blue Lamp did for the policeman, and in much the same manner. The ingredients combine sentiment, comedy and some artificial melodrama in casily assimilated proportions, the manner is episodic, the technique has the smooth, journalistic proficiency that one expects from Basil Dearden – continually on the move, never penetrating far beneath the surface of a situation. Through the office pass eccentric old women (including that familiar figure, the elderly lunatic who thinks that the neighbours are poisoning her cat), drunks, delinquents, the reformable and the hard cases. The relationships between the main characters are stated rather than explored (Norma and Hooker, in particular, are types rather than individuals) but the script continually shifts attention away from the principals to the chorus." [4]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "good", writing: "Rather cosy view of its subject, but interesting and entertaining." [5]
Leslie Halliwell said: "Watchable and reasonable but not very compelling." [6]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Michael Relph and Basil Dearden ladle on the good intentions in this unusual drama about the probation service, only to spoil everything by emphasising the patronising conceit that the proletariat will always be ignorant neer-do-wells without the guiding influence of the kindly middle classes. Cecil Parker turns from a bumbling do-gooder into a hard-nosed champion of the underprivileged as he helps Harry Fowler and Joan Collins to stumble back on to the straight and narrow. Incapable of giving a bad performance, Celia Johnson is sidelined once Parker finds his feet." [7]
The New York Times wrote, "it shines with understanding and, except for a brash climactic moment, it is a warm and adult adventure, which pins deserving medals on unsung heroes without heroics." [8]
Allmovie wrote, "the semi-documentary approach established early in I Believe in You gives way to sentiment as the film winds down." [3]
TV Guide noted, "an engaging drama with surprisingly good performances from (Joan) Collins, (Harry) Fowler, and (Laurence) Harvey." [9]
Basil Dearden was an English film director.
Michael Leighton George Relph was an English film producer, art director, screenwriter and film director. He was the son of actor George Relph.
It's Great to Be Young is a 1956 British Technicolor musical comedy film about a school music teacher, starring Cecil Parker and John Mills.
The Good Die Young is a 1954 British crime film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Laurence Harvey, Gloria Grahame, Joan Collins, Stanley Baker, Richard Basehart and John Ireland. It was made by Remus Films from a screenplay based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Richard Macaulay. It tells the story of four men in London with no criminal past whose marriages and finances are collapsing and, meeting in a pub, are tempted to redeem their situations by a robbery.
Francis Martin Sewell Stokes was an English novelist, biographer, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and prison visitor. He collaborated on a number of occasions with his brother, Leslie Stokes, an actor and later in life a BBC radio producer, with whom he shared a flat for many years overlooking the British Museum.
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Spare a Copper is a 1940 British black-and-white musical comedy war film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring George Formby, Dorothy Hyson and Bernard Lee. It was produced by Associated Talking Pictures. It is also known as Call a Cop. The film features the songs, "I'm the Ukulele Man", "On the Beat", "I Wish I Was Back on the Farm" and "I'm Shy". Beryl Reid makes her film debut in an uncredited role, while Ronald Shiner appears similarly uncredited, in the role of the Piano Mover and Tuner.
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Dry Rot is a 1956 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey, and starring Ronald Shiner, Brian Rix, Peggy Mount, and Sid James. The screenplay is by John Chapman, adapted from his 1954 Whitehall farce of the same name.
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The Square Ring is a 1953 British tragi-comic drama, directed by Basil Dearden and made at Ealing Studios. It stars Jack Warner, Robert Beatty and Maxwell Reed. The film, based on a 1952 stage play by Ralph Peterson, centres on one night at a fairly seedy boxing venue and tells the disparate stories of the fighters and the women behind them.
Train of Events is a 1949 British portmanteau film made by Ealing Studios, directed by Sidney Cole, Charles Crichton and Basil Dearden and starring Jack Warner, Peter Finch and Valerie Hobson. The film premiered on 18 August 1949 at the Gaumont Haymarket in London. In the film, as a train is heading for a crash into a stalled petrol tanker at a level crossing, four different stories are told in flashback.
They Came to a City is a 1944 British black-and-white film directed by Basil Dearden and starring John Clements, Googie Withers, Raymond Huntley, Renee Gadd and A. E. Matthews. It was adapted from the 1943 play of the same title by J. B. Priestley, and is notable for including a cameo appearance by Priestley as himself.
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Life for Ruth is a 1962 British drama film produced by Michael Relph directed by Basil Dearden and starring Michael Craig, Patrick McGoohan and Janet Munro.
Three Men in a Boat is a 1956 British CinemaScope colour comedy film directed by Ken Annakin, starring Laurence Harvey, Jimmy Edwards, David Tomlinson and Shirley Eaton. It was written by Hubert Gregg and Vernon Harris based on the 1889 novel of the same name by Jerome K. Jerome.
Doctor at Large is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas starring Dirk Bogarde, Muriel Pavlow, Donald Sinden, James Robertson Justice and Shirley Eaton. It is the third of the seven films in the Doctor series, and is based on the 1955 novel of the same title by Richard Gordon.
Violent Playground is a black and white 1958 British film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Stanley Baker, Peter Cushing, and David McCallum. The film, which deals with the genre of juvenile delinquent, has an explicit social agenda. It owes much to U.S. films of a similar genre.
Davy is a 1958 British comedy-drama film directed by Michael Relph and starring Harry Secombe, Alexander Knox and Ron Randell. It was written by WIlliam Rose. It was the last comedy to be made by Ealing Studios and was the first British film in Technirama. Davy was intended to launch the solo career of Harry Secombe, who was already a popular British radio personality on The Goon Show, but it was only moderately successful.