Jaques Tourneur (director)
Network On Air (studio)
Cert U (certificate)
83min (length)
23 February 2015 (released)
19 March 2015
Welsh actor Ray Milland made very few bummers and this pacey little suspense yarn is no exception.
Like a number of actors who had their heads screwed on correctly and wanted to make money in the film industry young Mr. Milland with is arguably matinee idol good looks went to Hollywood and became pretty damned successful. At the age of 46 his returned to dear Old Blighty to star in Circle Of Danger and did not lower his standards by doing so. Even at the outset the film has a considerable amount going for it: screenplay by the then popular crime novelist Philip McDonald, photography by Oswald Morris, produced by Hitchcock collaborator Joan Harrison and with Jacques Tourneur in the director seat.
After doing a spell of work on a dredging ship, Clay Douglas (Ray Milland) earns a little money and comes across the Atlantic to look into the strange circumstances surrounding the death of his younger brother during WW2. It would appear that after volunteering to join a British regiment his brother was shot in the head not by the enemy but as Douglas is informed the deadly bullet in question was a British one. Obviously our hero wants to get to the truth of the matter but it might not be what he expected… well, what did you expect?
After following a number of leads Douglas finds himself in what appears to be a rather tricky situation in the Scottish Highlands.
To the modern viewer, some of screenwriter McDonald’s rather antiquated dialogue (did they really speak like that back then) must seem rather bemusing at times: “The chap bought his packet off the coast of Normandy” (meaning: he got killed in action). And yours truly found that one out only by consulting an elderly English gentleman of the old school!
That aside, the film has – as already mentioned – a fair bit going for it: a good crew, a good story and some decent performances: Marius Goring (who can forget his conductor in A Matter Of Life And Death) is his usual waspish self as the apparently shady composer Sholto Lewis, and Patricia Roc is rather charming as hay-fever suffering love interest Elspeth Graham. Hugh Sinclair as the stiff upper lip gentleman Hamish McArran is perhaps a little on the dull side despite growing jealousy (“I wish Columbus would have stayed in America”), while Naunton Wayne as seedy little businessman Reggie Sinclair provides Milland’s character with the link he’s been looking for.
Robert Farnon’s witty score for Sholto Lewis’ ballet is cleverly utilized towards the film’s unexpected climax.
The film, featured here in a brand-new transfer, is part of The British Film Collection and the DVD offers the following Extras:
• Original theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• Instant play facility