Penny and the Pownall Case ** (1948, Ralph Michael, Peggy Evans, Diana Dors, Christopher Lee) – Classic Movie Review 10,878

Christopher Lee calls Penny and the Pownall Case ‘a Z-feature, a truly grisly free-for-all’.

Director Slim Hand’s engaging 1948 British second feature mystery film Penny and the Pownall Case, starring Ralph Michael, may be obscure but it is a buff’s paradise, energetically showcasing new talent of the day.

It showcases the first featured role for Diana Dors (plump and still with dark mousy hair!), as the second female lead, heroine’s friend, and the tall, dark and gruesome Christopher Lee, inevitably as the villain. The two of them, and glamorous star Peggy Evans, were members of Rank’s Charm School, aka The Company of Youth for budding screen actors.

The score is by Elisabeth Lutyens, as the first female British composer to score a feature film.

The brilliantly named director Slim Hand was normally a production manager at Ealing Studios.

It is written by William Fairchild, based on his story, in which the titular glamour model Penny Justin (Peggy Evans) helps the Scotland Yard policeman Detective Inspector Michael Carson (Ralph Michael) to hunt down a gang smuggling Nazi war criminals out of Europe and investigate the murder of Detective Henry Pownall. Christopher Lee plays cartoonist Jonathan Blair, who is hiding secret messages in the comic strips he is drawing, in the style of the 1940s Daily Mirror newspaper strip Jane. Comic strip fan and amateur sleuth Peggy agrees to go with Blair to travel to Spain for modelling, where Sam Costa is reception clerk.

Diana Dors, on her way to stardom, makes quite an impression, playing the dowdy secretary of the Inspector and the heroine’s flatmate, but so does Christopher Lee in his different way as the Nazi cartoonist. But then ideally cast Ralph Michael and Peggy Evans, parading as a tasteful sex symbol, are strong and solid too.

It is the first film made by the Rank Group’s Highbury Productions, making 50-minute ‘curtain raiser’ programmers for Rank’s main feature films. It is distributed by General Film Distributors, another Rank company,

Christopher Lee in his memoirs calls it a Z-feature, a truly grisly free-for-all: ‘Only the technicians, working with a grim sense of purpose, were pros in the proper sense. Every other function, from direction to walk-on parts, was up for grabs.’ He says the cast was forced to watch the film being previewed and he found the experience extremely embarrassing. [Spoiler alert] It was the first time he died on screen.

It runs only 47 minutes.

Three of the cast died in the grim summer of 2015: Christopher Lee on June 7, Olaf Pooley (Von Leicher) on July 14 and Peggy Evans on July 26.

Also in the cast are Frederick Piper as policeman, Olaf Pooley as Von Leicher, Ethel Coleridge as Mrs Hodgson, Sam Costa as reception clerk, Dennis Vance as Crawford, Shaun Noble as Henry Pownall, John Lorrell as Fraser, Philip Saville as police car driver Slim, Peter Madren as Adams and Duncan Carse as boatman.

Philip Saville went on to be a director.

It is shot at Highbury Studios, Highbury, London the home of the Rank Charm School.

Comedian, disc jockey and singer Sam Costa is remembered for the radio comedy Much Binding in the Marsh with Richard Murdoch and Kenneth Horne.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,878

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