Grand National Night [The Wicked Wife] *** (1953, Nigel Patrick, Moira Lister, Michael Hordern, Beatrice Campbell) – Classic Movie Review 12,947

Grand National Night (1953, Nigel Patrick, Beatrice Campbell).

The ingenious, expert 1953 British crime thriller film Grand National Night [The Wicked Wife] stars Nigel Patrick, Moira Lister, Michael Hordern and Beatrice Campbell.

Director Bob McNaught’s expert 1953 British crime thriller film Grand National Night [The Wicked Wife] stars Nigel Patrick, Moira Lister, Michael Hordern and Beatrice Campbell.

Inspector Ayling (Michael Hordern) is on the case of racehorse stable trainer boss Gerald Coates (Nigel Patrick) after the apparently accidental death of his philandering, boozy wife Babs (Moira Lister) a violent argument on the evening Coates’s horse wins the Grand National. But the copper thinks that it is murder and plans to do everything he can to bring Coates to justice.

Grand National Night is a good old-fashioned detective mystery yarn, fairly rousingly handled and quite nicely made, with full-blooded performances from a solid cast and a decent script from Dorothy and Campbell Christie’s ingenious play, with Bob McNaught and Val Valentine as the uncredited writers adapting the work for the screen.

Of course the Grand National meant nothing in the US, where they changed the title to The Wicked Wife.

It is shot by cinematographer Jack Asher at Walton Studios, Surrey, near London, on sets designed Frederick Pusey.

Beatrice Campbell married Nigel Patrick in 1951, and they remained married until her death in 1979. Last Holiday (1950) is her best-known role. She starred in Silent Dust (1949) with Nigel Patrick.

Grand National Night [The Wicked Wife] is directed by Bob McNaught, runs 81 minutes, is made by Talisman, is released by Renown Pictures (UK) and Allied Artists (US), is written by Bob McNaught and Val Valentine, based on Dorothy and Campbell Christie’s play, is shot in black and white by Jack Asher, is produced by Phil C Samuel and George Minter, scored by John Greenwood, and designed Frederick Pusey.

Release date: 15 April 1953.

The cast are Nigel Patrick as Gerald Coates, Moira Lister as Babs Coates, Beatrice Campbell as Joyce Penrose, Betty Ann Davies as Pinkie Collins, Michael Hordern as Inspector Ayling, Noel Purcell as Philip Balfour, Leslie Mitchell as Jack Donovan, Barry MacKay as Sergeant Gibson, Colin Gordon as Buns Darling, Gibb McLaughlin as Morton, Richard Grayden as Chandler, May Hallatt as Hoskyns, George Sequira as George, Ernest Jay as railway official, Russell Waters as plainclothes detective, George Rose as plainclothes detective, Arthur Howard as Hotel Manager, and Edward Evans as garage attendant.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,947

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