Time Without Pity

Last updated

Time Without Pity
Time Without Pity FilmPoster.jpeg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Joseph Losey
Screenplay by Ben Barzman
Based on Someone Waiting
by Emlyn Williams
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Freddie Francis
Edited by Alan Osbiston
Music by Tristram Cary
Production
company
Harlequin Productions
Distributed by Eros Films
Astor Pictures (US)
Release date
March 1957
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£100,412 [1] or £108,875 [2]

Time Without Pity is a 1957 British film noir thriller film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Michael Redgrave, Ann Todd, Leo McKern, Paul Daneman, Peter Cushing, Alec McCowen and Renee Houston. [3] It is about a father trying to save his son from execution for murder.

Contents

The film was directed by Losey after he was blacklisted in the U.S. during the McCarthy era. It was his second film in Britain and his first under his own name, [4] and the second film for which British cinematographer Freddie Francis was credited in that craft (the British credit is simply for "photography").

The screenplay was written by fellow blacklisted writer Ben Barzman and adapted from the 1953 play Someone Waiting by Emlyn Williams.

Plot

David Graham, a recovering alcoholic, returns to England having only one day in which to save his son Alec from hanging for the murder of Alec's girlfriend, Jenny Cole. Graham has been a neglectful, absentee father who missed the entire trial while he was in a sanatorium in Canada. At first, Alec refuses to see Graham, and when they do meet, Alec is without any hope for reprieve and cannot show any affection for his father.

His sobriety in constant jeopardy, Graham believes that his son is innocent and begins a frantic last-minute effort to find the evidence that will save his son's life, if not redeem himself as a father. With the help of his son's steadfast solicitor, Graham desperately, and often ineffectively, investigates the circumstances surrounding the girl's murder, visiting first her furious sister and then the home of wealthy car magnate Robert Stanford, where the girlfriend was killed. Stanford and his family have provided the only real support that Alec has ever known.

Graham ricochets between potential allies, foes and new leads in order to learn who the real murderer could be, with suspects including Stanford's beautiful wife Honor, his even younger secretary Vickie Harker and his adopted son who's Alec's best friend, Brian, who allows Graham to see what his own misspent life looked like through his son's eyes.

With the Home Office on standby to receive any evidence proving Alec's innocence, Graham is forced to extreme measures to try to establish the real killer's guilt.

In a private room, Graham is permitted a final meeting with his son, with Honor there. Alec passionately kisses Honor, adding a new dimension. The conversation also alludes to Alec's relationship with Jenny. Honor leaves to allow father and son a final embrace, and more confessions are made.

Graham visits a pub with Stanford and gathers some more clues before getting very drunk.

Going to a theatre, he finds Stanford's alibi of spending the night with an actress was not actually true. He confronts Stanford at his race track where he is test-driving a Mercedes 300SL. Stanford explains that anyone can be bought and offers Graham shares in his company in exchange for silence. Still lacking evidence, he says that Stanford is threatening to kill him if he tells the truth. A struggle with a gun ensues and David deliberately has Stanford shoot him dead, saving Alec's life.

Cast

Production

Freddie Francis liked working with Losey "because he was very nervous, hadn't done a film for a long time and needed a lot of help. And I like it when people need help. " [5]

Critical reception

Monthly Film Bulletin said "Although it is rumoured that Joseph Losey has been employed on several British productions, Time Without Pity is the first feature film to credit his name since his arrival in this country six years ago. The style of the film is immediately recognisable – the exaggerated hysteria which characterised Losey's American work ( M and The Big Night). The key scenes are heightened to a pitch which the script will hardly sustain; the characters are continually occupied with feverish, cinematic "'business" (newspaper editors punctuating their conversation with dart-throwing, a drunken old woman in a crowded room full of alarum clocks). The handling of the interestingly varied cast is creditable: Michael Redgrave gives a sensitive and accomplished interpretation of the difficult role of the introspective alcoholic. Alec McCowen as the son and Leo McKern as the crazed motor-manufacturer both give stylish performances. In the version seen by the reviewer, there appear to have been considerable cuts in a climactic scene of violence." [6]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Stylishly acted, but over-directed drama. Very sombre." [7]

Derek Winnert called the film a "dark-hued, intense, intelligent and stylised 1957 British noir  .. imaginatively and cleverly made by Losey, who pushes both its artistic symbolism and its heart-felt anti-capital punishment message to the limit." [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo McKern</span> Australian actor (1920–2002)

Reginald "Leo" McKern, AO was an Australian actor who appeared in numerous British, Australian and American television programmes and films, and in more than 200 stage roles. His notable roles include Clang in Help! (1965), Thomas Cromwell in A Man for All Seasons (1966), Tom Ryan in Ryan's Daughter (1970), Paddy Button in The Blue Lagoon (1980), Dr. Grogan in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Father Imperius in Ladyhawke (1985), and the role that made him a household name as an actor, Horace Rumpole, whom he played in the British television series Rumpole of the Bailey. He also portrayed Carl Bugenhagen in the first and second instalments of The Omen series and Number Two in the TV series The Prisoner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Losey</span> American filmmaker and theatre director

Joseph Walton Losey III was an American theatre and film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Blacklisted by Hollywood in the 1950s, he moved to Europe where he made the remainder of his films, mostly in the United Kingdom. Among the most critically and commercially successful were the films with screenplays by Harold Pinter: The Servant (1963) and The Go-Between (1971).

<i>Oh! What a Lovely War</i> 1969 British musical film by Richard Attenborough

Oh! What a Lovely War is a 1969 British epic comedy historical musical war film directed by Richard Attenborough, with an ensemble cast, including Maggie Smith, Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, John Mills, Kenneth More, Laurence Olivier, Jack Hawkins, Corin Redgrave, Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Ian Holm, Paul Shelley, Malcolm McFee, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Nanette Newman, Edward Fox, Susannah York, John Clements, Phyllis Calvert and Maurice Roëves.

<i>X the Unknown</i> 1956 British film by Leslie Norman, Joseph Losey

X the Unknown is a 1956 British science fiction horror film directed by Leslie Norman and starring Dean Jagger and Edward Chapman. It was made by the Hammer Film Productions company and written by Jimmy Sangster. The film is significant in that "it firmly established Hammer's transition from B-movie thrillers to out-and-out horror/science fiction" and, with The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and Quatermass 2 (1957), completes "an important trilogy containing relevant allegorical threads revealing Cold War anxieties and a diminishing national identity resulting from Britain's decrease in status as a world power".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alec McCowen</span> English actor

Alexander Duncan McCowen, was an English actor. He was known for his work in numerous film and stage productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Flemyng</span> British actor

Benjamin Arthur Flemyng, known professionally as Robert Flemyng, was a British actor. The son of a doctor, and originally intended for a medical career, Flemyng learned his stagecraft in provincial repertory theatre. In 1935 he appeared in a leading role in the West End, and the following year had his first major success, in Terence Rattigan's comedy French Without Tears. Between then and the Second World War he appeared in London and New York in a succession of comedies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Daneman</span> English actor

Paul Frederick Daneman was an English film, television, and theatre actor. He was successful for more than 40 years on stage, film and television.

<i>A Man for All Seasons</i> (1966 film) 1966 film by Fred Zinnemann

A Man for All Seasons is a 1966 British historical drama film directed and produced by Fred Zinnemann, adapted by Robert Bolt from his play of the same name. It depicts the final years of Sir Thomas More, the 16th-century Lord Chancellor of England who refused both to sign a letter asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry VIII of England's marriage to Catherine of Aragon and to take an Oath of Supremacy declaring Henry Supreme Head of the Church of England.

<i>The Go-Between</i> (1971 film) 1971 British film directed by Joseph Losey

The Go-Between is a 1971 British historical drama film directed by Joseph Losey. Its screenplay by Harold Pinter is an adaptation of the 1953 novel The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley. The film stars Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave and Dominic Guard. It won the Palme d'Or at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.

<i>Eva</i> (1962 film) 1962 French film

Eva, released in the United Kingdom as Eve, is a 1962 Italian-French co-production drama film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, and Virna Lisi. Its screenplay is adapted from James Hadley Chase's 1945 novel Eve.

<i>Frightmare</i> (1974 film) 1974 British film by Pete Walker

Frightmare is a 1974 British horror slasher film directed and produced by Pete Walker, written by David McGillivray and starring Rupert Davies and Sheila Keith. The story focuses around Dorothy and Edmund Yates, who have recently been released from a mental asylum, and is one of Pete Walker's most notable films.

<i>King and Country</i> 1964 British film

King and Country is a 1964 British war film directed by Joseph Losey, shot in black and white, and starring Dirk Bogarde and Tom Courtenay. The film was adapted for the screen by British screenwriter Evan Jones based on the play Hamp by John Wilson and a 1955 novel by James Lansdale Hodson.

The 11th British Academy Film Awards, given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, were held on 6 March 1958, to honor the best national and foreign films of 1957.

<i>Assignment K</i> 1968 film by Val Guest

Assignment K is a 1968 British spy thriller film directed by Val Guest in Techniscope and starring Stephen Boyd, Camilla Sparv, Michael Redgrave, Leo McKern, Robert Hoffmann and Jeremy Kemp. The film was based on the 1964 novel Department K by Hartley Howard.

<i>The Hide</i> 2008 British film

The Hide is a 2008 film, the debut from director Marek Losey, who previously had an award-winning career as a director of advertisements. The film starred Alex Macqueen and Phil Campbell, based on the stage play The Sociable Plover by Tim Whitnall, who also wrote the screenplay. The film had the strapline "No Crime Stays Hidden Forever". Produced by Christopher Granier-Deferre and John Schwab.

Travelling North is a 1987 Australian film directed by Carl Schultz and starring Leo McKern, Julia Blake, Graham Kennedy and Henri Szeps. Based on an original 1979 play of the same name by David Williamson, it is one of Williamson's favourite movies based on his works. The act of "travelling north" as used in the title, in the context of the southern hemisphere in which the film and its original play are set, denotes transitioning from the colder, business-dominated southern regions of the Australian continent to the notionally more relaxed and warmer subtropical or tropical northern regions such as northern New South Wales and ultimately, far north Queensland.

<i>The Intimate Stranger</i> (1956 film) 1956 film by Joseph Losey

The Intimate Stranger is a 1956 British film noir drama film directed by Joseph Losey, and starring Richard Basehart, Mary Murphy, Constance Cummings and Roger Livesey. It was released in the U.S. as Finger of Guilt.

Michael Elliott, OBE was an English theatre and television director. He was a founding director of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

Reginald Beck was a British film editor with forty-nine credits from 1932 to 1985. He is noted primarily for films done with Laurence Olivier in the 1940s and with Joseph Losey in the 1960s and 1970s.

Monsignor Quixote is a 1985 British television film later broadcast in the United States in 1987 on the PBS anthology series Great Performances.

References

  1. Caute, David (1994). Joseph Losey. Oxford University Press. p. 126. ISBN   978-0-19-506410-0.
  2. Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 359
  3. "Time Without Pity". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  4. Gardner, Colin (2004). Joseph Losey. Manchester University Press. p. 15. ISBN   978-0-7190-6783-9.
  5. "Interview with Freddie Francis". British Entertainment History Project. 1993–1994.
  6. "Time Without Pity". Monthly Film Bulletin . 24 (276): 57. 1957 via ProQuest.
  7. Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 389. ISBN   0-7134-1874-5.
  8. "Time without Pity **** (1957, Michael Redgrave, Alec McCowen, Leo McKern, Ann Todd, Peter Cushing) – Classic Movie Review 5844 - Derek Winnert". www.derekwinnert.com. 2 August 2017.[ self-published source ]