''The Scarlet Web'' is a 1954 British second feature second feature ('B')

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

directed by Charles Saunders and starring Griffith Jones,

Hazel Court Margery Hazel Court (10 February 1926 – 15 April 2008) was an English actress. She is known for her roles in British and American horror films during the 1950s and early 1960s, including Terence Fisher's ''The Curse of Frankenstein'' (19 ...

and

Zena Marshall Zena Moyra Marshall (1 January 1926 – 10 July 2009) was a British actress of film and television. Early years Marshall was of English, Irish and (on her mother's side) French descent. Though born in Kenya, after her father's death and her ...

. It was written by

Doreen Montgomery Doreen Catherine Mary Montgomery (12 April 1913 in Glasgow – 24 February 1992 in London) was a British screenwriter. Biography Montgomery graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an arts degree. She submitted scripts to Associated B ...

Plot

Jake Winter is just released from prison, where he has been working undercover for an insurance company, in cooperation with the police. He is approached by Laura Vane who asks him to steal a letter from a blackmailer who has targeted her husband. At her apartment Winter is drugged, and on waking finds himself alone with the body of a woman. The police suspect him of murder. Winter's boss at the insurance company, Susan Honeywell, believes he is innocent. They find a connection between Vane and the dead woman's husband Charles Dexter. Honeywell visits Dexter but is drugged and left in a kitchen with the gas on. The police and Winter arrive just in time to rescue her and arrest Vane and Dexter.

Cast

Production

The film was made at

Walton Studios Walton Studios, previously named Hepworth Studios and Nettlefold Studios, was a film production studio in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, England.location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. When filmmaking professionals refer to shooting "on location", they are ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Its sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

John Stoll John Stoll (13 December 1913 – 25 June 1990) was a British art director. He won an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film '' Lawrence of Arabia''. During the 1950s, he worked largely on low-budget British feature f ...

Critical reception

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 "Formula detective story, made with modest competence. The basic fact that the police will believe Winter murdered an unknown woman for £50 seems improbable; this apart, however, the story is credible and no loose ends are left." ''

Kine Weekly ''Kinematograph Weekly'', popularly known as ''Kine Weekly'', was a trade paper catering to the British film industry between 1889 and 1971. Etymology The word Kinematograph was derived from the Greek ' Kinumai ', (to move, to be in motion, to ...

'' wrote "Compact, disarmingly inconsequential romantic comedy crime melodrama. ... The picture never takes itself too seriously, and its strong sense of humour, cultivated by Hazel Court and Griffith Jones, who make an engaging team as Susan and Jake, effectively cloaks its incredibilities without robbing it of penultimate suspense." ''British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959'' David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Very familiar story but more professionally put together than most of its kind." Chibnall and McFarlane in ''The British 'B' Film'' wrote: "Leavened with touches of wry, wise-cracking humour, nothing in the film would have been out of place in a hardboiled flick from America except the English accents and the backgrounds."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scarlet Web, The 1954 films British crime films 1954 crime films Films directed by Charles Saunders Films shot at Nettlefold Studios British black-and-white films Films shot in London 1950s English-language films 1950s British films English-language crime films