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Stranger in Town (1957 film)

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Stranger in Town
U.S. lobby card
Directed byGeorge Pollock
Written byEdward Dryhurst
Norman Hudis
Based onThe Uninvited
1954 novel
by Frank Chittenden[1]
Produced byRobert S. Baker
Monty Berman
Sidney Roberts
StarringAlex Nicol
Anne Paige
Mary Laura Wood
CinematographyGeoffrey Faithfull
Edited byHenry Richardson
Music byStanley Black
Production
company
Distributed byEros Films (UK)
Astor Pictures Corporation (U.S.)
Release date
  • May 1957 (1957-05) (UK)
Running time
74 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Stranger in Town is a 1957 British second feature ('B')[2] crime film directed by George Pollock and starring Alex Nicol and Anne Paige.[3][4] The screenplay was by Edward Dryhurst and Norman Hudis, based on the 1954 novel The Uninivited by Frank Chittenden.

Plot

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An American composer, lodging in a quiet English village is found shot dead. A journalist, also from America probes the death on behalf of the pianist’s only relative in America. His trail leads to the local gossip who is later found gassed and debunks the official theory that it was suicide, finding that many people seem to have had reason to commit the crime, as he eventually discovers the truth.

Cast

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Production

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The film was made by Tempean Films at Alliance Film Studios.[4]

Reception

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The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "As a novel, this story may have made an efficient thriller, but it has been so clumsily adapted that the plot has become utterly incoherent; and neither direction nor editing help to clarify it. Only Alex Nicol, among the large cast, plays with integrity and conviction."[5]

Kine Weekly wrote: "The picture is a modest affair, but even so it contains quite a few thrills, shrewdly punctuated by apt comedy touches. Alex Nicol makes a manly Madison and Anne Paige, Colin Tapley, Bruce Beeby, Mona Washbourne and Charles Lloyd Pack have their moments in direct support. Its rural scenes are most refreshing and the person responsible for the pianoforte accompaniment works overtime to good effect."[6]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "'Clumsy and incoherent' or 'sharp and sound', according to which magazine you chose – this split the critics."[7]

References

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  1. ^ Goble, Alan (8 September 2011). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110951943 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-8445-7319-6.
  3. ^ "Stranger in Town". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  4. ^ a b "A Stranger in Town (1957)". BFI. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020.
  5. ^ "Stranger in Town". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 24 (276): 75. 1 January 1957 – via ProQuest.
  6. ^ "Stranger in Town". Kine Weekly. 481 (2594): 19. 2 May 1957 – via ProQuest.
  7. ^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 381. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
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