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Green For Danger
RRP: £9.99
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A Great Movie
Review date: 2008-04-16 Rating: 10 out of 10
There's a fair amount of stress at a small hospital outside of London, what with the buzz-bombs overhead, the staff falling in and out of love with each other, not to mention the fact that the patients and the staff are starting to turn up dead . . .
And so we are launched into what remains one of the best mystery movies ever made, GREEN FOR DANGER (the title is a clue, incidentally), a murder puzzle set not amongst a group Agatha Christie-ish stick figures, but wearied, ragged, basically decent people pushed close to their limits by war-time conditions and their own messy emotional entanglements.
It's one of those buzz-bombs that sends the local postman Joseph Higgins (Moore Marriot) to the hospital; also an air-raid warden, his shelter gets bombed and he winds up in the operating room to get his broken leg fixed up. But he dies before the operation even starts, having apparently had a bad reaction to the anesthetic. But then the head operating-room nurse, Sister Bates (Judy Campbell) announces to the staff at large during a hospital dance that Higgins was, in fact, murdered, and she has proof. Shortly after that, she turns up dead as well, very obviously murdered with a scalpel . . .
Which leaves us to ponder which of her colleagues might be responsible. The anesthetist, Dr. Barnes (Trevor Howard), who had some trouble when another patient died under anesthetic several years ago? The surgeon Mr. Eden (Leo Genn), who seems to be working his way steadily through the affections of every woman on staff, particularly the last Sister Bates?, or maybe it was one of the nurses, Esther Sanson (Rosamund John), whose mother died when a buzz-bomb landed on her house, or Fredrika Lindley (Sally Gray), who's engaged to Dr. Barnes but pursued by Mr. Eden, or maybe even Jane Woods (Megs Jenkins), who has a few secrets of her own . . .
Left to sort this out is Inspector Cockrill (Alistair Sim), who has a perfectly wonderful time rattling everybody's cages, such a good time that he almost misses a few vital clues along the way. This was the film that made Sim, until then mostly a stage actor, into a major player in films, and you can see why; he mixes the eccentric humor of the character (never overplayed) with a sense of real intelligence--you can believe that he's smart enough to solve the case and flawed enough to fumble his take-down of the murderer as well. And the praise should hardly stop with Sim (who doesn't even appear in the film for almost 30 minutes); the rest of the cast is wonderful here; Rosamund John is touching at the emotionally-delicate Nurse Sanson, torn with guilt, Sally Gray as Nurse Lindley, who had discovered that she has Power Over Men and hasn't the slightest idea what to do with it, Trevor Howard as her decent but short-tempered fiancee, Leo Genn as the womanizing surgeon who isn't really as heartless as he seems, and Megs Jenkins, one of the great wise-craking best friend types in film history. One of the tributes to both the script and the actors is that you find yourself wondering what happened to these characters AFTER this story ended; murder solved, perhaps, but their tangled little dramas go on, one suspects.
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Reviews
A real whodunnit................................
Review date: 2008-03-29 Rating: 8 out of 10
Firstly, I saw the Criterian edition, which though acceptable, is not so refined as it might be and has no extras.
A hospital patient is murdered and suspicion falls of the two doctors and four nurses present in the operating theatre. Alistair Sim excels in the role of the Police Inspector, with George Woodbridge as his Sergeant. The youth of Meg Jenkins and Trevor Howard is refreshing. (She was 29, and he was 33).
All in all Mr Sim carries the film superbly and his eccentic behaviour is the only break from what might be a morose and second-rate film.
Given its age, it was enjoyable, but did drag at times.
SPOILER IN A REVIEW BELOW
Review date: 2007-09-23 Rating: 10 out of 10
Mr DeRiemer below offers a lengthy review which will ruin any chance of enjoying the ending by revealing the plot. I haven't seen the film so this is hardly a review but I might save others from this man's musings. I have asked Amazon to consider removing it.
Just great!
Review date: 2007-08-14 Rating: 10 out of 10
Green for Danger, is a super1947 Frank Launder/Sidney Gilliat murder film set in England at a small hospital during world war 2. A patient dies and only six people -- two doctors and four nurses -- could have done it.
Great story and really funny at times.
sim-ply marvellous!
Review date: 2007-08-02 Rating: 10 out of 10
Another tour-de-force from the wonderful Alistair Sim and an object lesson in comic timing and delivery of a terrific script from a master. I hesitate to call it his finest hour as he had so many! The plot is splendid and the supporting cast - a who's who of British 1940s cinema - is first rate. I do agree that the quality of the DVD could have been better though.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Sally Gray
Rosamund John
Leo Genn
Trevor Howard
Alastair Sim
Creators:
Alastair Sim (Primary Contributor)
Sally Gray (Primary Contributor)
Wilkie Cooper (Cinematographer)
Sidney Gilliat (Producer)
Sidney Gilliat (Writer)
Frank Launder (Producer)
Herbert Smith (Producer)
Christianna Brand (Writer)
Claude Guerney (Writer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Network
Manufacturer: Network
EAN: 5027626242947
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2006-04-17
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 90 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1948
Language: English (Original Language)