Sapphire **** (1959, Nigel Patrick, Michael Craig, Yvonne Mitchell, Paul Massie, Bernard Miles) – Classic Movie Review 5,057

Basil Dearden’s pioneering issue-led 1959 British murder thriller film Sapphire stars Nigel Patrick, Michael Craig, Yvonne Mitchell and Paul Massie. It won the 1960 BAFTA Film Award for Best British Film.

Director Basil Dearden’s pioneering issue-led 1959 British murder thriller film Sapphire stars Nigel Patrick, Michael Craig, Yvonne Mitchell, Paul Massie, Bernard Miles, Gordon Heath, Earl Cameron, Olga Lindo, Rupert Davies and Peter Vaughan. Dearden won the 1960 BAFTA Film Award for Best British Film.

Sapphire Robbins (Yvonne Buckingham), a pregnant mixed-race art/ music student, is killed and London police superintendent Robert Hazard (Nigel Patrick) and police inspector Phil Learoyd (Michael Craig) investigate her murder in this little gem of a socially-conscious thriller, tackling the subject of race relations.

Children playing on Hampstead Heath in London have found the body of the young light-skinned woman, stabbed to death.

Sapphire’s white boyfriend / fiancé, an architecture student named David Harris (Paul Massie) is under suspicion of the killing, though he claims to have been in Cambridge at the time, and so are his vaguely racist parents (Bernard Miles, Olga Lindo), as well as a gang of black youngsters. Strangely enough, London is a hotbed of racial tensions and prejudices.

Dearden’s movie is very much of its time, and now dated, but not faded. For it is still a tense, engrossing and revealing British movie, concentrating as much on the issues as the thriller elements, both entirely successfully.

Sapphire was of course very brave film to make in its day, and the team are up for it to make it work. It is tightly directed by Dearden and honourably written by Janet Green, with additional dialogue by Lukas Heller. The film is a great credit to the Michael Relph – Basil Dearden producer-director team.

Also in the cast are Jocelyn Britton, Harry Baird, Orlando Martins, Freda Bamford, Victor Brooks, Robert Adams, Philip Ray, Richard Vernon, Basil Dignam, Nora Gordon, Dorothy Gordon, Lucy Griffiths, Desmond Llewelyn and Fenella Fielding (in her film debut, as the manageress of Babette’s lingerie shop).

John Richardson, Barbara Steele, Philip Lowrie and Susan Stranks all play students.

The Mystery Writers of America awarded screenwriter Janet Green the Edgar Award for Best Foreign Film.

The film’s progressive attitudes paid off at the box office. On a £140,000 budget, it was a popular success in British cinemas and went on to take more than $1 million (US).

Sapphire is directed by Basil Dearden, runs 92 minutes, is made by Artna Films, is distributed by Rank Film Distributors, is written by Janet Green, is produced by Michael Relph and Earl St John (executive producer), is shot by Harry Waxman, and is scored by Philip Green.

Release date: 21 April 1959 (UK).

The cast

The cast are Nigel Patrick as Superintendent Robert Hazard, Yvonne Mitchell as Mildred Farr (née Harris), Michael Craig as Inspector Phil Learoyd, Paul Massie as David Harris, Bernard Miles as Mr Ted Harris, Olga Lindo as Mrs Harris, Earl Cameron as Dr Robbins, Gordon Heath as Paul Slade, Jocelyn Britton as Patsy, Harry Baird as ‘Johnnie Fiddle’, Orlando Martins as the barman at Tulip’s Club, Rupert Davies as Constable Jack Ferris, Freda Bamford as Sergeant Cook, Robert Adams as ‘Horace Big Cigar’, Yvonne Buckingham as Sapphire Robbins, Desmond Llewelyn as police constable, Richard Vernon as medical official, Victor Brooks as Sergeant Ted Newton, Edith Sharpe as landlady Mrs Thompson, Fenella Fielding as lingerie shop manager, Basil Dignam as Dr M.J. Burgess Marie Burke as Sapphire’s previous landlady, Peter Vaughan as Detective Whitehead, Lloyd Reckord as International Club pianist, Dolores Mantez as Paul Slade’s previous girlfriend, Philip Ray as International Club manager Mr. Young, Vanda Hudson as blonde girl at Tulip’s Club, Boscoe Holder as dancer at Tulip’s Club ‘Johnnie Hot Feet’, Dan Jackson as ‘Mr. Tulip’, Bartlett Mullins as the newsagent, Nora Gordon as newsagent’s wife, Barbara Steele as student, John Richardson as student, Philip Lowrie as student, and Susan Stranks as student.

Fenella Fielding (17 November 1927 – 11 September 2018).

Fenella Fielding turned 90 on 17 November 2017. She is known for Carry On Regardless (1961) and, especially, Carry On Screaming (1966).

Fenella Fielding, OBE (born Fenella Marion Feldman; 17 November 1927 – 11 September 2018).

Earl Cameron (8 August 1917 – 3 July 2020)

Earl Cameron turned 100 on 8 August 2017.

Bermudian actor Earlston Jewitt Cameron CBE (8 August 1917 – 3 July 2020) lived and worked in the UK. He starred in 1951’s Pool of London, appeared in Thunderball (1965), and carried on acting in films until 2013 in his 90s.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,057

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