Wed 9 Nov 2016
A British Film Noir Movie Review: THE OCTOBER MAN (1947).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[5] Comments
THE OCTOBER MAN. General Films, UK, 1947. Eagle Lion, US, 1948. John Mills, Joan Greenwood, Edward Chapman, Kay Walsh, Joyce Carey, Catherine Lacey, Frederick Piper. Producer-Screenwriter: Eric Ambler. Director: Roy Ward Baker.
This modestly budgeted but sharply produced British thriller from the late 40s shows, I think, what a good directer and an excellent cast can do with a so-so story, which is to say, one that keeps the viewer watching with considerable interest, if not out-and-out edge of the seat suspense, from beginning to end.
John Mills plays a man haunted by a bus accident in which he survived, albeit with a serious head injury, while the little girl who was accompanying him was killed. Trying to put his life as a chemist (not a British pharmacist) back together, he finds a place to live in a middle class boarding house, in which the residents essentially live together, knowing each other’s secrets, or they think the do, and when they don’t, they make up their own.
When a young girl in the room next door whom Mills briefly befriended is murdered, the gossipers go hard to work, and the police, learning quickly of his previous head injury, even more quickly believe they have their man. Luckily Mills has found a girl friend (Joan Green wood) who still believes in him, even when it appears that all hope is lost.
Photographed stylishly in stark shades of black and white, this is a movie that may have been made quite independently of the noir movement in the US, but all the ingredients are there. A solid piece of film-making.
November 9th, 2016 at 4:24 pm
Even in a domestic situation Ambler always has an eye for the bewildered hero in above his head and confronted with less than sympathetic authorities. This one benefits from the fine cast, and for me any movie where I get to hear Joan Greenwood’s whiskey soaked voice is a good one.
Try to imagine a three-way conversation between Joan, Talulah Bankhead, and Elizabeth Ashley? Shivers.
November 9th, 2016 at 4:25 pm
Ms. Greenwood’s voice was not “whiskey-soaked,” David; more like rustling silk panties.
November 10th, 2016 at 12:18 pm
This was early in Ms. Greenwood’s career, and while her voice may have changed over the years, I’m inclined to go along more with Dan’s characterization of it than David’s.
November 10th, 2016 at 12:22 pm
I confess to not knowing the significance of the title.
Here’s what the NY Times (Bosley Crowther) had to say about the movie, and I’m quoting:
“Indeed, it is funny about this picture: the story is virtually a clichè, the murderer is very soon obvious and there is little or no suspense. By all the rules of melodrama, it misses by several miles. Yet because it is played so nicely and so sincerely, it is interesting to watch.”
November 10th, 2016 at 11:37 pm
Dan, I defer to the superior metaphor.