A Matter of Choice ** (1963, Anthony Steel, Jeanne Moody, Ballard Berkeley, Malcolm Gerard, Michael Davis) – Classic Movie Review 12,596

The implausible though engaging enough 1963 low-budget British noir drama film A Matter of Choice stars Anthony Steel and Jeanne Moody. Director Vernon Sewell said: ‘Oh it was a disaster… a bloody awful movie.’

Director Vernon Sewell’s implausible though engaging enough 1963 low-budget British noir drama film A Matter of Choice stars Anthony Steel, Jeanne Moody, Ballard Berkeley, Malcolm Gerard and Michael Davis, and is written by Paul Ryder based on a story by Vernon Sewell and Derren Nesbitt. Sewell said: ‘Oh it was a disaster… a bloody awful movie.’

Anthony Steel, Jeanne Moody and Ballard Berkeley head a mostly routine British B-movie crime melodrama with an eternal triangle theme. Its interestingly complicated if improbable, manufactured plot (from a story by the director with the actor Derren Nesbitt) centres on an attractive young married woman, Lisa (Jeanne Moody), having an affair with a diabetic man, John Crighton (Anthony Steel), who are in an accident when a police constable is accidentally pushed in front of their car by two youths, Mike (Malcolm Gerard) and Tony (Michael Davis). Ballard Berkeley plays Lisa’s husband, the middle aged, wealthy businessman called Charles Grant, whose riches she doesn’t want to give up for her lover.

A Matter of Choice is certainly of some considerable interest and entertainment value even if the writing, handling and acting are all mostly modest. Though mightily implausible, the story is engaging enough, and Jeanne Moody does well as the wife who wants her cake and eat it. Vernon Sewell manages more flavour than pace, but his direction must be considered commendable given the production difficulties he was working under.

Vernon Sewell recalled: ‘I had been working with the producer George Maynard and I had said, “I won’t work with you again.” And he writes to me “Look here, I’ve got a contract, I can make your story Matter of Choice.'” I said “No, absolutely out, absolutely out!” He said “Well, would you sell me the script?” I said, “That, I will do,” and I sold him the script. Then his wife rings me up and says “George can’t get the film floated without you, and if he doesn’t do it, this is our last chance, he’s going to kill himself.” I should have said “Well let him do it” but I didn’t. I said “Well now, OK”.

The cast are Anthony Steel as John Crighton, Jeanne Moody as Lisa Grant, Ballard Berkeley as Charles Grant, Malcolm Gerard as Mike, Michael Davis as Tony, Penny Morrell as Jackie, Lisa Peake as Jane, James Bree as Alfred, George Moon as Spike, Richard Bebb as Waiter, Garard Green as Shop Keeper, Frank Pettitt as Police Sergeant, and Frank Shelley as Police Doctor.

Vernon Sewell recalled: ‘The sets were terrible, the whole thing was a disaster. The idea of the story was good, but [the producer George Maynard] said he had a find, a wonderful new star, and I gave her the sack the first day, couldn’t work. Tony Steel was in it and was pissed all the time. Oh it was a disaster… a bloody awful movie.’

A Matter of Choice is directed by Vernon Sewell, runs 79 minutes, is made by Holmwood Productions, is released by British Lion Films (UK),  is written by Paul Ryder, is shot in black and white by Arthur Lavis, is produced by George Maynard, and is scored by Robert Sharples.

It was made at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, England.

It was released on 3 July 1963 (UK).

It had a budget of £23,671, which was about par for a low-budget British second feature film of the time.

It screened on TV in the eighties and was released on DVD by Odeon Entertainment in 2008 paired with Charles Saunders’s crime drama, Jungle Street (1961).

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,596

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