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poster of The Long Dark Hall
Rating: 6.4/10 by 9 users

The Long Dark Hall (1951)

A devoted family man tries to help a beautiful alcoholic showgirl with her life, and becomes the the only suspect when someone else murders her.

Directing:
  • Anthony Bushell
  • Reginald Beck
  • Adrian Pryce-Jones
  • Betty Forster
  • Peter Price
  • Pat Wallace
Writing:
  • Nunnally Johnson
  • Edgar Lustgarten
Stars:
Release Date: Tue, Feb 06, 1951

Rating: 6.4/10 by 9 users

Alternative Title:

Country:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Runtime: 01 hour 26 minutes
Budget: $0
Revenue: $0

Plot Keyword: falsely accused, devoted family man

Rex Harrison
Arthur Groome
Lilli Palmer
Mary Groome
Tania Heald
Sheila Groome
Henrietta Barry
Rosemary Groome
Dora Sevening
Mary's mother
Ronald Simpson
Mary's father
Raymond Huntley
Chief Inspector Sullivan
William Squire
Sergeant Cochcran
Denis O'Dea
Sir Charles Morton
Anthony Bushell
Clive Bedford
Patricia Cutts
Rose Mallory
Meriel Forbes
Marjorie Danns
Michael Medwin
Leslie Scott
Frank Tickle
Alfred Tripp
Lilli Molnar
Mrs Polaris
Jill Bennett
1st Murdered Girl
Anthony Shaw
Clerk of the Court
Tom Macaulay
Ironworks Manager
Ernest Blyth
Court Clerk (uncredited)

John Chard

Circumstantial evidence old boy. Juries won't have it. They don't like it and they don't trust it. When Arthur Groome (Rex Harrison) finds his girlfriend murdered at her Earls Court flat and becomes stricken with grief and fear and promptly runs from the scene of the crime. Questioned by the police about the crime, Arthur, a married man, in panic denies all knowledge of the girl. Soon, however, he finds himself charged with murder and inexorably drawn towards the gallows... Directed by Anthony Bushell and Reginald Beck, it is adapted to screenplay by Nunnally Johnson and William Fairchild from Edgar Lustgarten's novel. Harrison's real life wife at the time, Lilli Palmer, plays his loyal spouse here, while Benjamin Frankel scores the music and Wilkie Cooper is the cinematographer. Largely ignored and underseen these days, due in the main that some critics of the time noted it has uncomfortable parallels to the real life Harrison and Carole Landis suicide affair - plus Harrison himself quickly denounced the film as dreadful - it's actually a decent wrong man court case picture often filmed in gorgeous film noir styles. There is no mystery element here, for we know Arthur is innocent, and in fact we know who the killer is. We are given two murders in the first twenty minutes, each a year apart, the first is photographed on the outside in shadows, gaslights and upon a moist cobbled alleyway. The second, where the object of Arthur's lovelorn attention (Patricia Cutts) resides, is stifling in its cruel intensity. It's a sly story of obsession, circumstantial devilments, manipulation and somewhat oddly, loyalty. The suspense is ramped up as Arthur gets ever deeper in the mire during the court case (look how Cooper photographs the critical sequences in court), while his loving wife is being befriended by the real murderer (a wonderfully rat faced Anthony Dawson) who has his own distorted motives that he wants to bare out. Viewing it now the police work due to the writing comes off as being very shoddy, and the finale is just a bit too much leftfield to wholly satisfy. Yet this is a very tidy Brit-Noir styled suspenser that comes recommended to fans of leading man and noirsh visuals. 7/10


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