Blackmailed ** (1951, Mai Zetterling, Dirk Bogarde, Fay Compton, Robert Flemyng) – Classic Movie Review 9707

A good yarn based on Elizabeth Myers’s novel Mrs Christopher becomes a rather artificial and tame British thriller in 1951 as Blackmailed, but with a good, hard-working cast headed by Dirk Bogarde and Mai Zetterling, and sympathetic direction by French film director Marc Allégret.

Fay Compton plays Mrs Christopher, a hospital almoner who accidentally kills the blackmailer Mr Sine (James Robertson Justice) in a struggle, after she does a favour for a patient by delivering a sum of money to him and discovers his secret and threatens to expose him.

There is enough interest in the story, but the strong, involving cast is probably Blackmailed’s main attraction.

The film’s producer Harold Huth also co-stars as Hugh Sainsbury; and the future film director Roger Vadim co-wrote the screenplay along with Hugh Mills.

Also in the cast are Robert Flemyng as Doctor Freeman, Michael Gough  as Maurice Edwards, Joan Rice  as Alma, Wilfrid Hyde White  as Lord Dearsley, Bruce Seton as Superintendent Crowe, Nora Gordon, Charles Saynor, Derrick Penley, Peter Owen, Dennis Brian, Cyril Chamberlain, Arthur Hambling as Inspector Canin, Shirley Wright as Mary, Marianne Stone as Maggie, Helen Goss as Matron, Constance Smith as Nurse Anne, Edie Martin as Mrs Porritt, John Horsley as Maggie’s Doctor, and Ballard Berkeley as Dr McCormick.

Blackmailed is directed by Marc Allégret, runs 85 minutes, is made by Harold Huth Productions, is released by General Film Distributors (UK), is written by Hugh Mills and Roger Vadim, is shot in black and white by George Stretton, is produced by Harold Huth and Norman Spencer, and is scored by John Wooldridge.

The 20-year-old Marc Allégret and André Gide in 1920.

Marc Allégret became André Gide’s lover when he was 15 and Gide was 47. Later, Allégret fell briefly under the spell of Jean Cocteau. Allégret found he preferred women after having experiences with Congolese women but he and Gide remained close friends until Gide’s death in 1951.

Allégret is noted for developing new talent, including Roger Vadim who became his directing assistant.

Robert Flemyng fell in love with a younger man in his middle age but could not act on his repressed feelings because male homosexuality was illegal in the UK till 1967 and because he was married. He had a nervous breakdown and then a stroke.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9707

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com