"80,000 Suspects" was often a staple on late night TV in Australia - about an outbreak of smallpox and it's effects on the doctors who treated it and their wives. Richard Johnson and Claire Bloom had scored a success in "The Haunting" and were now given the parts of Dr. Steve Monks and Julie, his wife. Beautiful Claire Bloom had been in films since the late 1940s. She was touted as an "English Rose" and caught the attention of the Rank film group who signed her up at $25 a week. But she was not just a pretty face, she also had talent and soon caught the attention of Charlie Chaplin, who was looking for a new face for his film "Limelight". You would have thought she would have been on her way but the 1950s didn't fulfill her promise and it was only in the early 60s with "The Haunting", "The Chapman Report" and "80,000 Suspects" that her film career took an upswing.
Claire gave a beautiful and terribly British restrained performance and was one of the highlights of the film. I think though with tighter editing, especially with Yolande Donlan, it could have been a more memorable film. There was not much about her that seemed alluring or fascinating. Even though she was only featured at the beginning, her character, Ruth, was pivotal to the film and some of her scenes were a bit hard to believe.
The movie starts with a New Year's Eve staff party at a Bath hospital. Relations between Steve and Julie are strained - a while before he had had an affair with Ruth, neglected wife of driven, dedicated Dr. Preston. Julie doesn't know but soon has suspicions when she drives a drunken Ruth home. Steve, who pops into the hospital to pickup a camera, is asked to look at a patient who is showing all the symptoms of smallpox.
So begins a pretty good movie, showing how cool, calm and collected Britons are in a major crisis, with all the undercurrents and emotions kept in check under the surface. Julie, an ex nurse, is one of the first to volunteer. The initial patient is a mother whose son has returned from a posting in the Far East. As they discover where he has been in Bath - a pub, a cinema, a pantomime - they realise they may have an epidemic. Ray Barrett, an Australian actor we think a lot of over here, plays a young health inspector. The movie is particularly good at showing a city under siege, nervous neighbours, the Town Hall being set up as a vaccination centre. Things get complicated when Ruth flees to London and meets up with an old flame who later turns up as a smallpox victim. After that the cry is out "Find Ruth" and emotions and feelings bubble to the surface when Julie is struck down with the fever.
Again, it seemed to be a bit overlong. There was just too much self analysis and discussion in the disinfection room!!! Mervyn Johns (from the landmark movie "Dead of Night") was excellent as a health official who realised everything was slipping out of control. His key scene by the car when his emotions took over was memorable. Kay Walsh, a glamour girl from the 1940s turned up as a Matron.
Claire gave a beautiful and terribly British restrained performance and was one of the highlights of the film. I think though with tighter editing, especially with Yolande Donlan, it could have been a more memorable film. There was not much about her that seemed alluring or fascinating. Even though she was only featured at the beginning, her character, Ruth, was pivotal to the film and some of her scenes were a bit hard to believe.
The movie starts with a New Year's Eve staff party at a Bath hospital. Relations between Steve and Julie are strained - a while before he had had an affair with Ruth, neglected wife of driven, dedicated Dr. Preston. Julie doesn't know but soon has suspicions when she drives a drunken Ruth home. Steve, who pops into the hospital to pickup a camera, is asked to look at a patient who is showing all the symptoms of smallpox.
So begins a pretty good movie, showing how cool, calm and collected Britons are in a major crisis, with all the undercurrents and emotions kept in check under the surface. Julie, an ex nurse, is one of the first to volunteer. The initial patient is a mother whose son has returned from a posting in the Far East. As they discover where he has been in Bath - a pub, a cinema, a pantomime - they realise they may have an epidemic. Ray Barrett, an Australian actor we think a lot of over here, plays a young health inspector. The movie is particularly good at showing a city under siege, nervous neighbours, the Town Hall being set up as a vaccination centre. Things get complicated when Ruth flees to London and meets up with an old flame who later turns up as a smallpox victim. After that the cry is out "Find Ruth" and emotions and feelings bubble to the surface when Julie is struck down with the fever.
Again, it seemed to be a bit overlong. There was just too much self analysis and discussion in the disinfection room!!! Mervyn Johns (from the landmark movie "Dead of Night") was excellent as a health official who realised everything was slipping out of control. His key scene by the car when his emotions took over was memorable. Kay Walsh, a glamour girl from the 1940s turned up as a Matron.