The Intruder | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Guy Hamilton |
Written by | John Hunter Robin Maugham Anthony Squire |
Produced by | Ivan Foxwell |
Starring | Jack Hawkins George Cole Dennis Price Michael Medwin |
Cinematography | Edward Scaife |
Music by | Francis Chagrin |
Distributed by | British Lion Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 84 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | £161,488 (UK) [1] |
The Intruder is a 1953 British drama film directed by Guy Hamilton and starring Jack Hawkins, George Cole, Dennis Price and Michael Medwin. [2] The film is based on the 1949 novel by Robin Maugham called The Line on Ginger.
Post-war London is the backdrop including Belgravia, Covent Garden market, Loughborough Junction and Dulwich Hospital.
A contemporary critic commented that the film treated the subject "with intelligence, taste, and a feeling for the medium"; he also wrote "Medwin... gives a brilliant study of a good fellow gone wrong". [3]
Ex-Colonel, now stockbroker, Wolf Merton (Hawkins) returns home one evening to find it being burgled by an armed intruder. Merton recognises the culprit, Ginger Edwards (Medwin), as a former soldier who had fought courageously under his command in a tank regiment during the Second World War. Merton briefly questions Edwards on how he got into a life of crime, but, suspecting Merton has called the police, the burglar makes his escape. Merton sets out to discover why one of his best men became involved in crime after he was de-mobbed. The story unfolds in a sequence of flash-back episodes of events during the war and how they affected, or contrasted with, how each of the main characters fared when they returned to civilian life. [4]
The soundtrack was composed by Francis Chagrin, conducted by Muir Mathieson. [4] He later adapted the music for concert use as the Four Orchestral Episodes. [5]
In 2020 Network Distributing Limited produced and released the film on Blu-ray. [6]
George Edward Cole, OBE was an English actor whose career spanned 75 years. He was best known for playing Arthur Daley in the long-running ITV comedy-drama show Minder and Flash Harry in the early St Trinian's films.
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John Edward Hawkins, CBE was an English actor who worked on stage and in film from the 1930s until the 1970s. One of the most popular British film stars of the 1950s, he was known for his portrayal of military men. He starred in Lawrence of Arabia, Ben Hur, and The League of Gentlemen.
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Street Corner is a 1953 British drama film. It was written by Muriel and Sydney Box and directed by Muriel. It was marketed as Both Sides of the Law in the United States. While not quite a documentary, the film depicts the daily routine of women in the police force from three different angles. It was conceived as a female version of the 1950 film The Blue Lamp.
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Fortune Is a Woman is a 1957 black and white British-American film noir crime film directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring Jack Hawkins and Arlene Dahl. Its plot concerns an attempted insurance fraud that goes badly wrong. In the United States, it was released as She Played With Fire. The film is based on Winston Graham's novel Fortune Is a Woman (1953).
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A Case for PC 49 is a 1951 British mystery film directed by Francis Searle and starring Brian Reece, Joy Shelton and Christine Norden. It was made by Hammer Films at Bray Studios. The film was based on a popular radio series, which already been adapted into the 1949 production The Adventures of PC 49. It was released as a second feature.
Dennis Price (1915–1973) was an English actor. He made his professional debut at the Queen's Theatre in September 1937 alongside John Gielgud in Richard II. He appeared in several films produced by Ealing Studios and the Boulting brothers. Between 1965 and 1967, he appeared in the BBC television series The World of Wooster, where his performance as Jeeves was described in The Times as "an outstanding success". He also appeared in The Invisible Man , in the 1958 episode, 'Behind the Mask'.