Mr. Denning Drives North | |
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Directed by | Anthony Kimmins |
Written by | Alec Coppel |
Based on | Mr. Denning Drives North by Alec Coppel |
Produced by | Anthony Kimmins Stephen Mitchell |
Starring | John Mills Phyllis Calvert Herbert Lom Eileen Moore |
Cinematography | John Wilcox |
Edited by | Gerald Turney-Smith |
Music by | Benjamin Frankel |
Production company | |
Distributed by | British Lion Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | £70,197 (UK) [1] |
Mr. Denning Drives North is a 1951 British mystery film directed by Anthony Kimmins and starring John Mills, Phyllis Calvert and Sam Wanamaker. [2] Alec Coppel wrote the script, adapted from his own 1950 novel of the same title. An aircraft manufacturer accidentally kills his daughter's boyfriend and tries to dispose of the body.
Wealthy aircraft manufacturer Tom Denning and his wife Kay have a daughter, Liz, who is having an affair with Mados, an international crook. Denning meets with Mados in an attempt to get him away from his daughter, but accidentally kills him with a punch when Mados falls and strikes his head. Instead of calling the police, Denning disposes of the body in a ditch. He tries to disguise the identity of the body by placing a large ornate ring on a finger. A gipsy finds the body and steals the ring. Later, torn with his guilt, Denning goes back to pick up the body only to find that it has disappeared.
Film rights were bought by Alexander Korda's London Films. [3] John Mills' casting was announced in May 1951. [4] It was Mills' first film in almost two years. [5]
At one stage Dane Clark and Pat Roc were reportedly going to support Mills. [6]
Sam Wanamaker had been living in England since 1949 and was offered the part after writing to his agent from holiday in France asking if any jobs were going. [7]
The film was made at Shepperton Studios.
Instead of credits appearing on screen at the beginning of the film, a narrator announces the film's title, and then reads out the list of actors' names.
The film performed poorly at the British box office. [1]
The New York Times wrote: "this little melodrama serves as still another reminder, from a country that jolly well knows how to exercise it, that restraint can work minor wonders [...] Persuasive and tingling, minus one false note [...] No doubt about it. The British have what it takes." [8]
Variety reviewed the film in 1951 calling it "unconvincing and involved" where the direction was "completely inadequate." [9] Two years later the magazine reviewed it more favorably calling it "tense and skillfully developed." [10]
The Washington Post thought the Rolls-Royce "made more sense than any of the alleged human characters [...] a bit pretentious." [11]
Leslie Halliwell said: "Initially suspenseful but finally disappointing melodrama which seems to lack a twist or two." [12]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Film walks tightrope between comedy and suspense with varying success." [13]
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.
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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.
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Piccadilly Incident is a 1946 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Coral Browne, Edward Rigby and Leslie Dwyer.
Your Witness is a 1950 British drama film directed by and starring Robert Montgomery, Leslie Banks, Felix Aylmer and Andrew Cruickshank. It was released in the U.S. as Eye Witness.
Tread Softly Stranger is a 1958 British crime drama directed by Gordon Parry and starring Diana Dors, George Baker and Terence Morgan. The film was shot in black-and-white in film noir style, and its setting in an industrial town in northern England mirrors the kitchen sink realism movement coming into vogue in English drama and film at the time. The screenplay was adapted from the stage play Blind Alley (1953) by Jack Popplewell.
The Gang's All Here is a 1939 British black-and-white comedy-mystery, directed by Thornton Freeland and starring Jack Buchanan and Googie Withers. It was produced by Associated British Picture Corporation and released in the U.S. in 1943 as The Amazing Mr. Forrest.
Child in the House is a 1956 British drama film directed by Cy Endfield and starring Phyllis Calvert, Eric Portman and Stanley Baker. It is based on the novel A Child in the House by Janet McNeill. A girl struggles to cope with her uncaring relatives.
Mr. Denning Drives North is a 1950 thriller novel by the British-Australian writer Alec Coppel. When successful and happily married aircraft manufacturer Tom Denning attempts to commit suicide by crashing a plane, detectives uncover a murder in his past background that has driven him insane with guilt.