Recently I bought The Renown Crime collection Volume 7 and generously it offers 12 British crime films dating from an important period of film history, the double bill, and most of these films were supporting films to the main feature. They were not meant to be great, but some have survived remarkably well ( I reviewed ' Where Has Poor Mickey Gone ? ) from this boxset, and that film has its merits, but a few of them like ' Night Was Our Friend ' and ' The Secret Tunnel ' ( all made on a shoestring ) are well worth the fairly humble price of the collection. Sadly I see poor ratings for this faithfully adapted play by Michael Pertwee and contrary to what has been said about it, it is intelligently written, and very well acted. The director was Michael Anderson before he made films such as the first screen version of ' 1984 ' and he chose his actors well. The trio in the lead roles are the very fine Elizabeth Sellars, Michael Gough and Ronald Howard. Sellars has been acquitted for murder, but she still insists she is guilty. In flashback we see the unfolding events leading up to her arrest, and yes, it is filmed more or less in one room, and it is claustrophobic and effective that way. There is also a lot of dialogue, but then perhaps we have been too dumbed down by action films and simplistic dialogue to appreciate it. Marie Ney is in support and she too is excellent to watch, but I must single out Elizabeth Sellars who is in my opinion a great actor ( she played the role of the house master's wife in the original London production of ' Tea and Sympathy ) and how generally ignored she was by film directors. In this film she is superb and fully in control of her role. It is not a masterpiece, but it is a finely directed film and it is worth buying the Renown collection to see it. And I repeat the film quickie was important both to audiences and directors during a long period of the invaluable double bill.
Review of Night Was Our Friend
