Directed by:
Sidney GilliatScreenplay:
Sidney GilliatCinematography:
Wilkie CooperComposer:
William AlwynCast:
Sally Gray, Rosamund John, Trevor Howard, Leo Genn, Henry Edwards, Judy Campbell, Moore Marriott, Alastair Sim, Megs Jenkins, Ronald Ward, John Rae (more)Plots(1)
August 1944; with the puttering of Nazi Doodlebugs an ever-present menacing undertone, the staff and patients of a small rural hospital go about their daily business. But, as Alastair Sim’s narration dolefully informs us, a killer is about to strike! Sidney Gilliat’s 1946 comedy thriller wastes little time in deftly sketching out the suspects and establishing the passions, rivalries and buried secrets that could lead one of them to murder. And sure enough, without explanation, a patient dies on the operating table during a routine surgery (the green of the title refers to the colour coding of anaesthetic gas canisters - a fact probably lost on cinema audiences given that the film was made in black and white). Hospital management are determined to downplay the accident, but then a nurse announces that the death was deliberate - and that she knows who is to blame!
Despite providing the voiceover that bookends the film, Sim’s Inspector Cockrill doesn’t appear until over a third of the way into the action. Pratfalling his way over a swinging gate in his first shot, he has been called on to investigate the suspicious death. But it’s not long before he’s engaged in larceny of his own, craftily stealing every scene from under the noses of a distinguished cast that includes Trevor Howard, Sally Gray and Rosamund John. With the murderer prepared to strike again to conceal their secret, the shrewd Cockrill takes a risky gamble to unmask the culprit. But his over-confidence could yet prove to be his undoing. Sim cuts an unmistakable figure, tie askew and cadaverous face alight with mischief. And whether he’s skulking around in the background, needling the suspects like a prototype-Columbo, or gleefully pulling up a chair to watch when two of the doctors come to fisticuffs, he brings a sly, almost anarchic presence to what could easily have been a staid potboiler in less capable hands than those of Launder and Gilliat.
(Network)
Cast
Sally Gray
UK
Best movies:
Green for Danger (1947)
They Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
The Lambeth Walk (1939)
Rosamund John
UK
Best movies:
The First of the Few (1942)
Green for Danger (1947)
Trevor Howard
UK
Best movies:
Producers' Showcase (1954) (series)
Gandhi (1982)
Brief Encounter (1945)
Leo Genn
UK
Best movies:
The Longest Day (1962)
Moby Dick (1956)
Quo Vadis (1951)
Henry Edwards
UK
Best movies:
Oliver Twist (1948)
The Magic Box (1951)
Green for Danger (1947)
Judy Campbell
UK
Best movies:
Kung-Fu Master! (1988)
Green for Danger (1947)
Convoy (1940)
Moore Marriott
UK
Best movies:
It Happened One Sunday (1944)
Green for Danger (1947)
The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss (1936)
Alastair Sim
UK
Best movies:
An Inspector Calls (1954)
Scrooge (1951)
Stage Fright (1950)
Megs Jenkins
UK
Best movies:
Tiger Bay (1959)
Trouble in Store (1953)
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
Ronald Ward
UK
Best movies:
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
Sidewalks of London (1938)
Green for Danger (1947)
John Rae
UK
Best movies:
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)
Fragment of Fear (1970)
George Woodbridge
UK
Best movies:
The Red Shoes (1948)
Richard III (1955)
The Fallen Idol (1948)
Ronald Adam
UK
Best movies:
Lust for Life (1956)
The Man Who Never Was (1956)
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951)