80,000 Suspects
| 80,000 Suspects | |
|---|---|
 US poster | |
| Directed by | Val Guest |
| Written by | Val Guest |
| Based on | Pillars of Midnight by Elleston Trevor |
| Produced by | Val Guest |
| Starring | Claire Bloom Richard Johnson Yolande Donlan Cyril Cusack |
| Cinematography | Arthur Grant |
| Edited by | Bill Lenny |
| Music by | Stanley Black |
Production company | Val Guest Productions |
| Distributed by | The Rank Organisation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 113 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
80,000 Suspects is a 1963 British drama film directed by Val Guest and starring Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Yolande Donlan, and Cyril Cusack. It is based on the 1957 novel Pillars of Midnight by Elleston Trevor.[1] An outbreak of smallpox in Bath, England, leads to a race to contain the virus.[2]
Plot
On New Year's Eve in the city of Bath, Dr. Steven Monks diagnoses a mystery patient as being infected with smallpox and sets in motion a citywide quarantine to contain the outbreak. His commitment to the task is affected by the deterioration of his marriage to ex-nurse Julie following his clandestine affair with a family friend.
Monks receives an unexpected blow when the disease strikes closer to home than anticipated and Julie is diagnosed as having contracted the virus. The medical team gradually contains the outbreak until only one unidentified case remains.
The search narrows the identity of final carrier down to Ruth Preston, the woman with whom Monks had been having an affair and the wife of his close colleague Clifford. She's eventually traced to a deserted hotel where she is sheltering, lonely and desperately ill.
Cast
- Claire Bloom as Julie Monks
- Richard Johnson as Steven Monks
- Yolande Donlan as Ruth Preston
- Cyril Cusack as Father Maguire
- Michael Goodliffe as Clifford Preston
- Mervyn Johns as Buckridge
- Kay Walsh as Matron
- Norman Bird as Harold Davis
- Vanda Godsell as Agnes Davis
- Andrew Crawford as Dr. Ruddling
- Jill Curzon as Nurse Jill
- Ursula Howells as Joanna Druten
- Basil Dignam as Medical Officer Boswell
- Arthur Christiansen as Mr Gracey
- Ray Barrett as Health Inspector Bennett
- David Weston as Brian Davis (uncredited)
- Joby Blanshard as Health Inspector Matthews (uncredited)
- Felix Bowness as Wellford (uncredited)
- Olwen Brookes as Senior Nursing Officer (uncredited)
- Victor Brooks as Health Inspector Collins (uncredited)
- Gerald Case as Chief Administration Officer (uncredited)
- Norman Chappell as Welford (uncredited)
- Richard Coleman as Scott James (uncredited)
- Marian Diamond as Sister Durrell (uncredited)
- Suzan Farmer as Carole (uncredited)
- Leonie Forbes as Nurse Vicky (uncredited)
- Alan Keith as Health Inspector Sanders (uncredited)
- Peter Madden as ambulance driver (uncredited)
- Carmel McSharry as cleaner (uncredited)
- John Merivale as Mr Bradley (uncredited)
- Graham Moffatt as fat man in vaccination queue (uncredited)
- Bruce Montague as Brooks (uncredited)
- Russell Waters as Town Clerk of Bath (uncredited)
Production
The film was shot on location in Bath, England and the city's population at the time inspired the name of the film.[3]
Critical reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A veneer of authenticity (Bath locations, queues for vaccination, hospital staff eternally hopping in and out of decontamination units) is effectively smothered by the collection of appallingly stock characters and situations. Richard Johnson and Claire Bloom mouth all those married-couple platitudes, about taking a long look at their marriage and being brought together by shared experiences as if they had only just been thought of; Yolande Donlan, as an unsatisfied wife given to drink and free love, oozes little girl charm and ends up, like Mrs. Danvers, in flames in Ye OId Dark House; Michael Goodliffe, as her hangdog husband, suffers expressionlessly; and Cyril Cusack, as the wryly humorous Catholic priest, nobly kisses a Protestant smallpox patient on the brow. Val Guest's (rather strained) flair for story-telling, and the Bath locations keep things more or less ticking over."[4]
Variety wrote: "Val Guest is successfully following his method of making pix that combine a documentary flavor with a fictional, human interest. This time the combo doesnt quite jell yet 80,000 Suspects has a holding interest and is screened with a professional knowhow that rarely flags. It hasn't the impact of his film The Day The Earth Caught Fire [1961], but nevertheless emerges as a worthy boxoffice entrant."[5]
Sight and Sound wrote: "Guest does his best to give both narrative threads equal weight, which proves engrossing up to a point, but the film flags appreciably when the outbreak element peaks too early; and the characterisation on the domestic front never quite delineates the couple's marital malaise with enough insight to make it something special. Still, as in Jigsaw [1962], there's a definite sense that old moral certainties have become much more flexible – something Cyril Cusack's presence as a worldly priest makes clear – and Johnson, never the most nimble of performers, puts in a decent shift as the harassed medic realising that he's lost the ability to feel anything much at all."[6]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "This epidemic movie seems to have everything going for it: a bit of cod science, millions being threatened by malevolent micro-organisms and a race against time involving the daredevil doctor and the unsuspecting carrier, but it doesn't come off. More emphasis is placed on repairing the hero's marriage than on preventing disaster, which should add a human dimension to the tale, but here deprives the picture of suspense."[7]
British film critic Leslie Halliwell said: "Predictable melodrama which adequately passes the time."[8]
References
- ^ "80,000 Suspects". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- ^ Fowler, Roy (1988). "Interview with Val Guest". British Entertainment History Project.
- ^ Todd, Derek (20 December 162). "Production". Kinematograph Weekly. p. 12.
- ^ "80,000 Suspects". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 30 (348): 130. 1 January 1963 – via ProQuest.
- ^ "80,000 Suspects". Variety. 231 (13): 6. 21 August 1963 – via ProQuest.
- ^ "80,000 Suspects". Sight and Sound. 25 (12): 96. December 2015 – via ProQuest.
- ^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 283. ISBN 9780992936440.
- ^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 310. ISBN 0586088946.
External links
- 80,000 Suspects at IMDb
- 80,000 Suspects then-and-now location photographs at ReelStreets
- Original Clip from film [1] Retrieved 2010-03-11.
- Opening scenes Clip from film [2] Retrieved 2010-03-11.
- "Bath Movie Map" (PDF). Visitbath.co.uk. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2017.