The Big Chance **½ (1957, Adrienne Corri, William Russell, Ferdy Mayne) – Classic Movie Review 13,449

The enjoyable 1957 second feature drama film The Big Chance is a short, minor British black and white suspense thriller with welcome faces: Adrienne Corri, William Russell, Ferdy Mayne.

Writer-director Peter Graham Scott’s enjoyable 1957 second feature drama film The Big Chance is a short, minor British black and white suspense thriller with welcome faces: Adrienne Corri, William Russell, Ferdy Mayne.

It’s the big chance for a disillusioned meek clerk called Bill Anderson (William Russell) to steal from the safe at a travel agent’s where he works, dump his dull sad wife (Penelope Bartley), put his photo on the passport of a customer (Ferdy Mayne) and use his plane ticket to Panama, and take off to South America with an alluring wealthy lady, Diana Maxwell (Adrienne Corri), he meets at the airport. It turns out that she’s married too, to rich older Adam Maxwell (Ian Colin), who comes after them after their plane is delayed overnight in fog. It turns out too that she’s not as nice a person as Bill.

It’s of considerable interest, mainly for the involving performances, though also the plot is quite inventive and entertaining, but Scott directs rather sluggishly and he slightly struggles with his script (co-written with Barbara S Harper) from Pamela Barrington’s novel. It is an improbable story, with a lot of hard to-swallow detail, but it’s engrossing enough and it’s okay to go with the flow. Attractive performers Adrienne Corri and William Russell again show their class. They had good careers, but deserved great ones. Their roles here suit their contrasting personalities exactly.

This minor picture is made by Major Pictures. It runs only runs 59 minutes. It has a lot of ground to cover in such a short running time, with many changes of locale, airport and countryside scenes, much of it in fog, and a considerable size of cast, challenging the low budget. With an extra half hour, more outside filming and a lot more money spent on it, the film could have been tremendous, but even so it really is rather good in the circumstances.

Release date: September 1957 (UK).

William Russell (19 November 1924 – 3 June 2024).

The cast

The cast are Adrienne Corri as Diana Maxwell, William Russell as Bill Anderson, Ian Colin as Adam Maxwell, Penelope Bartley as Betty Anderson, Ferdy Mayne as Dimitri Aperghis, John Rae as Mr Jarvis, Mary Jones as Miss Jessop, Douglas Ives as Stan Willett, Doris Yorke as Mrs Willett, Edwin Richfield as café owner, Howard Lang as saw mill man, Peter Swanwick as passport official, Richard Shaw as airport official, John Walters as customs man, Reginald Hearne as customs official, and Robert Raglan as police inspector.

Scottish actress Adrienne Corri (born Adrienne Riccoboni; 13 November 1931 – 13 March 2016)

The Big Chance is directed by Peter Graham Scott, runs 59 minutes, is made by Major Pictures, is released by J Arthur Rank Film Distributors (UK), is written by Peter Graham Scott, is shot in black and white by Walter J Harvey, is produced by John Temple-Smith and Francis Edge, and is scored by Eric Spear.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,449

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