Send for Paul Temple [The Green Finger] * (1946, Anthony Hulme, Joy Shelton, Tamara Desni, Jack Raine, Beatrice Varley) – Classic Movie Review 4,488

John Argyle’s 1946 British mystery thriller Send for Paul Temple [The Green Finger] gets the Francis Durbridge Paul Temple film series off to a shaky start. Anthony Hulme and Joy Shelton star as novelist Paul Temple and a reporter called Steve. 

Writer-producer-director John Argyle’s 1946 British black and white mystery thriller Send for Paul Temple [The Green Finger] gets the Francis Durbridge Paul Temple film series off to a very shaky start. The film is a heavily abridged version of the first Paul Temple radio serial, Send for Paul Temple, broadcast in April and May 1938 in eight episodes.

The radio script was by Francis Durbridge, who collaborated with John Thewes on a novelisation, published in June 1938. John Argyle had to cut a 200-minute serial into an 83-minute film running time, a herculean task, no doubt. Out went much of Durbridge’s dialogue, characters and plotting, and of course cliffhanger endings.

Anthony Hulme and Joy Shelton star as novelist Paul Temple and a woman newspaper reporter called Steve Trent, who combine efforts to uncover a ring of gem-thieves who have killed the reporter’s investigating brother. The acting is none too thrilling in this rather poor and unconvincing first cinema outing in a franchise of four for British radio’s famous sleuth Paul Temple, based on the serial by Francis Durbridge.

Despite a good original radio serial and Durbridge working on the screenplay with the producer-director John Argyle, the script is far too melodramatic, the production cheap looking and Hulme makes insufficient impact as Temple. Jack Raine plays Scotland Yard’s Sir Graham Forbes – and survives to return for the sequel.

Also in the cast are Tamara Desni as Diana Thornley, Beatrice Varley as Miss Amelia Marchment, Hylton Allen as Dr Milton, Maire O’Neill as Mrs Neddy, Philip Ray as Horace Daley, Olive Sloane as Ruby and Michael Golden as Dixie, with Richard Shayne as Chief Inspector Richard Dale, Melville Crawford as Chief Inspector Gerald Harvey, Edward V Robson as Inspector Merritt and Norman Pierce as Sergeant Morrison, and Charles Wade as Temple’s valet Rikki.

It is filmed at Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England.

Send for Paul Temple [The Green Finger] is directed by John Argyle, runs 83 minutes, is made and distributed by Butcher’s Film Service, is written by John Argyle and Francis Durbridge, based on the radio thriller by Francis Durbridge, is produced by John Argyle, shot in black and white by Geoffrey Faithfull, scored by Sidney Torch, and designed by George Paterson.

Opening credits, Send for Paul Temple (1946).

It is followed by Calling Paul Temple (1948), Paul Temple’s Triumph (1950) and Paul Temple Returns (1952), in which Anthony Hulme was replaced as Paul Temple by John Bentley and John Argyle was replaced as director by Maclean Rogers.

Films from Durbridge’s work: the 1946 Send for Paul Temple (with Anthony Hulme as Paul Temple), the 1948 Calling Paul Temple (based on Send for Paul Temple Again, with John Bentley as Paul Temple), the 1950 Paul Temple’s Triumph (based on News of Paul Temple, with John Bentley as Paul Temple), the 1952 Paul Temple Returns (based on Paul Temple Intervenes, with John Bentley as Paul Temple), the 1953 The Broken Horseshoe (based on the 1952 BBC TV series), the 1953 Operation Diplomat (based on the 1952 BBC TV series), the 1954 The Teckman Mystery (based on The Teckman Biography), the 1955 Portrait of Alison (US: Postmark for Danger) (based on Portrait of Alison), and the 1957 The Vicious Circle.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,488

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