Home at Seven [Murder on Monday] *** (1952, Ralph Richardson, Margaret Leighton, Jack Hawkins, Meriel Forbes) – Classic Movie Review 8121

Director Ralph Richardson’s 1952 Home at Seven [retitled Murder on Monday in the US] is a fairly compelling amnesia mystery with a theft and a murder occurring during the 24 hours a bank clerk, David Preston (Ralph Richardson), has blanked out with amnesia.

Richardson directs himself in a smoothly enough handled version of a stage play by R C Sherriff (Journey’s End), adapted for the screen by Anatole de Grunwald, though it was obviously hard to make the material seem cinematic and Richardson cannot entirely get rid of the whiff of the theatre, though that is not unappealing.

Home at Seven [Murder on Monday] is just as you would expect from the personnel involved: with the performances quite actory and the director having no track record, it is not very filmic. But nevertheless it is still strong on the playing, mood, nuance and atmosphere.

Sir Ralph successfully re-creates his stage role as the drudgey clerk, but he never again directed. The film reunites him with Margaret Leighton, his co-star in The Holly and the Ivy (1952), and there is a role for his wife Lady Richardson, Meriel Forbes, as Peggy Dobson.

Also in the cast are Jack Hawkins, Campbell Singer, Frederick Piper, Diana Beaumont, Gerald Case, Michael Shepley, Margaret Withers, Johnnie Schofield and Archie Duncan.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8121

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