The Blind Goddess *** (1948, Eric Portman, Anne Crawford, Hugh Williams, Michael Denison) – Classic Movie Review 13,376

The 1948 British courtroom drama film The Blind Goddess stars Michael Denison as a private secretary who sets out to expose his aristocratic boss for embezzlement.

Director Harold French’s 1948 thriller The Blind Goddess is based on the play by Patrick Hastings, and stars Eric Portman, Anne Crawford, Hugh Williams, and Michael Denison.

Patrick Hastings’s exciting stage play becomes a solid but run-of-the-mill courtroom thriller film with this rather plodding script by Muriel Box and Sydney Box, and pedestrian direction by Harold French.

Michael Denison plays Derek Waterhouse, a young personal assistant who discovers that his aristocratic employer Lord Brasted (Hugh Williams) has been embezzling public funds and sets out to expose him.

It is the stalwart and sterling acting by Denison and Eric Portman as the King’s Counsel Sir John Dearing in the court at the Old Bailey that keeps it going, though there is an excellent support cast too.

Claire Bloom (born 15 February 1931) makes her film début, aged 17. Harold French recalled: ‘I don’t think the film was successful but it got Claire noticed.’ Bloom’s screen test for Ophelia in Hamlet (1948) impressed the Rank Organisation and they put her under contract.

It is based on the popular 1947 stage play by noted barrister Patrick Hastings, who wrote plays in his spare time.

Harold French is right. The film was not commercially successful: on a budget of £143,000, is eventually took £88,000 at the box office.

Release dates: 9 September 1948 (London) and June 1949 (US).

It was filmed in July 1948 at Islington Studios by Gainsborough Productions, which had been swallowed up by the Rank Organisation. Gainsborough’s head of production Sydney Box and his wife Muriel Box carved out the screenplay.

Lady Justice.

The Blind Goddess, by the way, is Lady Justice. Interesting that Justice is female. She has scales, a sword and sometimes a blindfold.

The origin of Lady Justice is Justitia, the goddess of Justice within Roman mythology, introduced as a bit of an afterthought by Emperor Augustus (Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), so she’s not a very old Roman deity in the pantheon, though the Greeks had one earlier, the goddess Themis.

Since the 16th century, Lady Justice has often been depicted wearing a blindfold, originally a satirical addition to show Justice as blind to the injustice around her. My how times change! It has now been reinterpreted to represent impartiality.

The cast

The cast are Eric Portman as Sir John Dearing KC, Anne Crawford as Lady Helen Brasted, Hugh Williams as Lord Arthur Brasted, Michael Denison as Derek Waterhouse, Nora Swinburne as Lady Dearing, Raymond Lovell as Frank Mainwaring KC, Claire Bloom as Mary Dearing, Frank Cellier as Old Bailey Judge, Clive Morton as Mersel Elspet Gray as Daphne Dearing, Maurice Denham as butler Johnson, Cecil Bevan as Morton, John Stone as Sir John’s Junior, Philip Saville as Mainwaring’s junior, Martin Benson as Count Stephan Mikla, Cyril Chamberlain as Policeman in Park, Thora Hird as Derek’s charwoman, Rosemary Treston as Helen, Martin Miller as Savoy waiter Mario, Marcel Poncin as Bertoni, Carl Jaffe as Johan Meyer, Geoffrey Denton as Foreman of the Jury, Noel Howlett as Court Usher, Wallace Bosco as Newspaper Seller, and Philip Ray as Porter.

Eric Portman (13 July 1901 – 7 December 1969)

Eric Portman is best remembered for his roles in three 1940s films for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger: 49th Parallel (1941), One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), and A Canterbury Tale (1944).

He also the thrillers Wanted for Murder (1947), Dear Murderer (1947) and The Mark of Cain (1947), played a hangman in Daybreak (1948), and made Corridor of Mirrors (1948) and The Blind Goddess (1948).

Later he appeared in The Whisperers (1967) and Deadfall (1968) for director Bryan Forbes.

Anne Crawford (22 November 1920 – 17 October 1956)

Anne Crawford died of leukaemia in a London nursing home in 1956, aged only 35.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,376

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com