Time without Pity **** (1957, Michael Redgrave, Alec McCowen, Leo McKern, Ann Todd, Peter Cushing) – Classic Movie Review 5,844

Michael Redgrave stars in Joseph Losey’s 1957 film noir Time without Pity as a hard-drinking dad, who, in the middle of a drying-out phase, comes to London to see if he can find out anything to rescue his son (Alec McCowen) from execution for murder. 

Joseph Losey directs this dark-hued, intense, intelligent and stylised 1957 British noir film version of Emlyn Williams’s classic 1953 anti-capital punishment thriller play Someone Waiting.

Michael Redgrave stars in Time without Pity as a hard-drinking dad, David Graham, who, in the middle of a drying-out phase, comes to London to see if he can find out anything to rescue his son Alec Graham (Alec McCowen) from hanging for killing. He has got just 24 hours to save the young man from the gallows for a murder of which he is innocent.

Graham contacts the place of the murder, home of the family of a car boss called Robert Stanford (Leo McKern), whose wife Honor (Ann Todd) he finds loved McCowen’s Alec.

Encouraged by actor-friendly Losey, there is excellent acting by the stars and the classy support performers. Michael Redgrave and Alec McCowen are particularly effective. The movie is sharply photographed in black and white by Freddie Francis. And, above all, it is imaginatively and cleverly made by Losey, who pushes both its artistic symbolism and its heart-felt anti-capital punishment message to the limit.

The American ex-patriate Losey is working under his own name again here after being blacklisted as a communist in Hollywood, but fleeing to the UK, and forced to direct under pseudonyms (Victor Hanbury, Alec C Snowden) in Britain. It is his fourth film in Britain and his first under his own name. The screenplay is by fellow blacklisted writer Ben Barzman.

Joan Plowright appears briefly as Agnes Cole, a feisty chorus girl, and Lois Maxwell, the first Miss Moneypenny, stands out in one scene as Vickie Harker, a young woman for sale.

Also in the cast are Renée Houston, Peter Cushing, Joan Plowright, Paul Daneman, Lois Maxwell, Richard Wordsworth, George Devine, Ernest Clark, Dickie Henderson (as himself, the comedian), Peter Copley, Hugh Moxey, Julian Somers, John Chandos, Vernon Greeves, Arnold Diamond, Aubrey Richards, Gwynne Whitby, David Landon, Richard Leech, Christina Lubicz, Marianne Fawcett, and Dervis Ward. Plus there are uncredited appearances by Dirk Bogarde as Court Reporter and Richard Leech as Proprietor of Espresso Bar.

Time without Pity is directed by Joseph Losey, runs 85 minutes, is made by Harlequin Productions, is released by Eros Films (UK) and Astor Pictures (US), is written by Ben Barzman, adapted from the play Someone Waiting by Emlyn Williams, is produced by John Arnold, Anthony Simmons and Leon Clore (executive producer), and is scored by Tristram Cary, with Production Design by Reece Pemberton.

It shows the gates of Wandsworth prison in South West London. Built in 1851, it is UK’s largest prison with 1665 prisoners and is the site of 135 executions, the last in September 1961.

Shot in June and July 1956, and released in March 1957, it was Cushing’s immediate film before Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein (1957).

Dirk Bogarde.

The cast are Michael Redgrave as David Graham, Ann Todd as Honor Stanford, Leo McKern as Robert Stanford, Paul Daneman as Brian Stanford, Peter Cushing as Jeremy Clayton, Alec McCowen as Alec Graham, Renée Houston as Mrs Harker, Lois Maxwell as Vickie Harker, Richard Wordsworth as Maxwell, George Devine as Barnes, Joan Plowright as Agnes Cole, Ernest Clark as Home Office Undersecretary, Peter Copley as Prison chaplain, Hugh Moxey as Prison governor, Dickie Henderson as Comedian, John Chandos as First journalist, Vernon Greeves as Second journalist, Arnold Diamond as Third journalist, Julian Somers as First warder, Aubrey Richards as Prison gatekeeper, Gwynne Whitby, David Landon, Christina Lubicz, Marianne Fawcett, Dervis Ward, Dirk Bogarde as Court Reporter, and Richard Leech as Proprietor of Espresso Bar.

Dirk Bogarde had starred in Losey’s first British feature, the 1954 film noir The Sleeping Tiger. Losey followed that film with A Man on the Beach and The Intimate Stranger. Bogarde later starred in Losey’s The Servant, Accident, and Modesty Blaise. It was a very profitable collaboration.

The Someone Waiting Broadway programme.

On stage, Someone Waiting premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, in 1953  before transferring to the Globe Theatre in London’s West End, where it ran for 156 performances between 25 November 1953 and 10 April 1954, with Williams starring. It ran for only 15 performances at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway in February 1956 with Leo G Carroll and Jessie Royce Landis (both Hitchcock favourites).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,844

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