''Meet Mr. Callaghan'' is a 1954 British

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by Charles Saunders and starring

Derrick De Marney Derrick Raoul Edouard Alfred De Marney (21 September 1906 – 18 February 1978) was an English stage and film actor and producer, of French and Irish ancestry. Actor The son of Violet Eileen Concanen and Arthur De Marney, and the grandson of ...

and

Adrienne Corri Adrienne Corri (born Adrienne Riccoboni; 13 November 1931 – 13 March 2016) was a Scottish actress. Early life She was born Adrienne Riccoboni in Glasgow in November 1931, the daughter of an English mother (Olive Smethurst) and an Italian fa ...

. The screenplay was by Brock Williams, based on the 1952 play of the same name, adapted for the stage by

Gerald Verner Gerald Verner (1897–1980) was a writer of thrillers, writing more than 120 novels translated into over 35 languages. Many of these were adapted into radio serials, stage plays and films. Biography Verner was born John Robert Stuart Pringle i ...

from

Peter Cheyney Reginald Evelyn Peter Southouse-Cheyney (22 February 1896 – 26 June 1951) was a British crime fiction writer who flourished between 1936 and 1951. Cheyney is perhaps best known for his short stories and novels about agent/detective Lemmy C ...

's 1938 novel '' The Urgent Hangman''. Co-producer and star De Marney had directed the stage version at the

Garrick Theatre The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, named after the stage actor David Garrick. It opened in 1889 with ''The Profligate'', a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and another Pinero play, ...

in 1952, which starred his brother Terence as private eye

Slim Callaghan Slim Callaghan is a fictional London-based private detective created by the writer Peter Cheyney. Like another of Cheyney's characters, the FBI agent Lemmy Caution, he was constructed as a British response to the more hardboiled detectives of Ameri ...

. Derrick played this role in the film.

Plot

Down at heel

private detective A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI; also known as a private detective, an inquiry agent or informally a private eye) is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigat ...

Slim Callaghan is hired by young socialite Cynthis Meraulton to investigate other family members after her rich stepfather changes his will in her favour. She suspects he will be killed and the new will destroyed. When her stepfather is subsequently murdered, suspicion falls on Cynthis.

Cast

as Slim Callaghan * Harriette Johns as Cynthis Meraulton *

as Mayola *

Delphi Lawrence Delphi Lawrence (23 March 1932 – 11 April 2002) was an English actress. She was educated at Halidon House School in Slough, Berkshire, whilst living in Colnbrook. Born to Barbara Yvonne ( Enever) and Louis Holzman, who married in 1930, sh ...

as Effie *

Trevor Reid Trevor Reid (25 January 190816 April 1965) was an English actor. He was born in Liverpool, the son of David Reid and Grace Adelaide (née Thomas) at 25 Cheltenham Avenue near to Sefton Park. After leaving school he worked for four years at the L ...

as Inspector Gringall *

Belinda Lee Belinda Lee (15 June 193512 March 1961) was an English actress. A profile for the British Film Institute's Screenonline website asserts: "of all the Rank Organisation's starlets, Belinda Lee stands out as the most notorious, yet paradoxically ...

as Jenny Appleby * Larry Burns as Darky * Peter Neil as William Meraulton *

John Longden John Longden (11 November 1900 – 26 May 1971) was a British film actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1926 and 1964, including six films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Biography Longden was born in the West Indies, the son of ...

as Jeremy Meraulton * Roger Williams as Bellamy Meraulton * Frank Henderson as Paul Meraulton *

Frank Sieman Frank, FRANK, or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a Germanic people in late Roman times * Franks, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusa ...

as Sergeant Fields * Michael Partridge as Jengel * Howard Douglas as Tweest * John Ainsworth as P.C. Masters * Michael Balfour as coffee stallkeeper * Robert Adair as August Meraulton

Production

Filming took place at Nettleford Studios in September 1953. It was the second film from Belinda Lee.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' said the "transference" from stage to screen "has been made without much imagination. The involved plot is helped along by a few barbed lines but Derrick de Marney fails to make a sympathetic hero out of a private detective who stoops to robbery, blackmail and bribery in his investigations." In ''British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959'' David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Sort of street-level ''Thin Man'' is effective thick ear, short on charm." ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' wrote, "Mystery programmer has a couple of good moments, but little else."

Plot

Cast

Production

Critical reception

References

External links