Scarlet Thread *** (1951, Kathleen Byron, Laurence Harvey, Sydney Tafler) – Classic Movie Review 13,126

The cover of the Scarlet Thread DVD (Renown Pictures).

The 1951 British crime drama film Scarlet Thread is directed with some brio and style by the young Lewis Gilbert, with Laurence Harvey and Sydney Tafler starring as crooks hiding out in Cambridge University.

Solomon Admires His Bride (Song of Solomon 4:3): ‘Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.’ (English Standard Version)

The 1951 crime drama film Scarlet Thread is a modest but enjoyable British black and wite film noir B movie criminal caper, directed with a bit of brio and style by the young Lewis Gilbert, with Laurence Harvey and Sydney Tafler starring as crooks hiding out among the dreaming spires and mortar-boards of Cambridge University.

Two criminals –  educated, aloof, upper class jewel thief Marcon (Sydney Tafler) and the yobbish, obnoxious, womanising spiv pickpocket Freddie (Laurence Harvey) who saves his life and becomes his protégé  – team up to rob a jeweller’s in Cambridge, with the help of getaway driver Sam (Harry Fowler), but the robbery goes wrong, Sam panics and shoots an innocent man.

After the bungled smash and grab jewel heist, Marcon and Freddie have to take off on foot and they run into one of the colleges and hide in the garden of the Master’s lodge. They talk their way into staying the night in a college house with the Dean’s provocative daughter Josephine (Kathleen Byron).

A pleasing cast is well used in this entertaining minor British yarn that manages successfully to use the heritage culture of quaint Britain as a selling-point. Lewis Gilbert’s use of the locations in Cambridge and the West End of London and the three main performances are the film’s main attractions. But the set-up, plot, characterisations and dialogue are pretty good too, and Gilbert manages tension, atmosphere and a bit of action very nicely.

The screenplay is by A R Rawlinson and Moie Charles from their own play.

There is filming at Trinity College, Cambridge University, Cambridge; the West End of London: and New Cavendish Street, Marylebone, London, as well as in the studio at Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England.

Furs by Molho.

Release date: May 1951 (UK).

Scarlet Thread is released on DVD by Renown Pictures.

It is Lewis Gilbert’s fourth feature film following The Little Ballerina, Once a Sinner and There Is Another Sun.

Sydney Tafler: his sister Hylda married Lewis Gilbert.

Tafler’s sister Hylda married Lewis Gilbert in 1952 and he was frequently directed by his brother-in-law.

The cast are Kathleen Byron as Josephine, Laurence Harvey as Freddie, Sydney Tafler as Marcon, Arthur Hill as Shaw, Dora Bryan as Maggie, Eliot Makeham as Jason Harry Fowler as Sam, Cyril Chamberlain as Mason, Renee Kelly as Eleanor, and Hylton Allen as The Dean.

Scarlet Thread is directed by Lewis Gilbert, runs 85 minutes, is made by Nettleford Films and International Realist, is released by Butcher’s Film Service (UK) and Realart Pictures (US), is written by A R Rawlinson and Moie Charles, is shot in black and white by Geoffrey Faithfull, is produced by Ernest G Roy, is scored by Kenneth D Morrison, and is designed by Harry White.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,126

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