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The Long Dark Hall

The Long Dark Hall

  • Status: Released
  • 06-02-1951
  • Runtime: 86 min
  • Score: 6.4
  • Vote count: 9

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.

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

Anthony Dawson

The Man

Brenda De Banzie

Mrs Rogers

Ballard Berkeley

Supt. Maxey

Raymond Huntley

Chief Inspector Sullivan

William Squire

Sergeant Cochcran

Denis O'Dea

Sir Charles Morton

Anthony Bushell

Clive Bedford

Henry B. Longhurst

Judge

Patricia Cutts

Rose Mallory

Meriel Forbes

Marjorie Danns

Douglas Jefferies

Dr Conway

Michael Medwin

Leslie Scott

Colin Gordon

Pound

Lionel Murton

Jefferson

Eric Pohlmann

Mr Polaris

Jenny Laird

Mrs Sims

Frank Tickle

Alfred Tripp

Lilli Molnar

Mrs Polaris

Jill Bennett

1st Murdered Girl

Fletcher Lightfoot

Jury Foreman

Anthony Shaw

Clerk of the Court

Tom Macaulay

Ironworks Manager

Richard Littledale

Mr. Sims

Tony Quinn

Joe

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