The Last Man to Hang ** (1956, Tom Conway, Elizabeth Sellars, Eunice Gayson, Freda Jackson, Hugh Latimer) – Classic Movie Review 11,138

‘The Love Triangle That Became a Circle… of Rope!’

Director Terence Fisher’s 1956 black and white crime drama The Last Man to Hang stars Tom Conway and Elizabeth Sellars, with Eunice Gayson, Freda Jackson and Hugh Latimer.

A courtroom setting grabs some audience attention for this barely involving tale of one juror swinging the trial of an aristocrat, Sir Roderick Strood (Conway), accused of killing his wife Daphne (Sellars) with poison after he has been set up by their evil housekeeper Mrs Tucker (Jackson). Now he is in court on trial for the murder.

The old chestnut yarn, from the novel The Jury by Gerald Bullett, has the sole juror believing in him convincing the others one by one in Twelve Angry Men fashion. The story is too talky and utterly improbable, with a barely credible dénouement, but it is historically apt for its views on capital punishment. Both the acting from a very solid cast and Fisher’s competent direction help out a lot.

Also in the cast are Anthony Newley as Gaskin, Margaretta Scott, Raymond Huntley, David Horne, Victor Maddern, Walter Hudd, Anna Turner, Russell Napier, Olive Sloane, Tony Quinn, Hal Osmond, Bill Shine, Leslie Weston, Harold Goodwin, Jack Lambert, John Stuart, and Charles Lloyd Pack, plus John Schlesinger as a doctor called Dr Goldfinger and Gillian Lynne as Gaskin’s girlfriend.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,138

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