The Girl in the News
| Girl in the News | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Australian theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Carol Reed |
| Screenplay by | Sidney Gilliat |
| Based on | novel by Roy Vickers |
| Produced by | Edward Black executive Maurice Ostrer |
| Starring | Margaret Lockwood Barry K. Barnes Emlyn Williams |
| Cinematography | Otto Kanturek |
| Edited by | R. E. Dearing |
| Music by | Louis Levy (uncredited) Charles Williams (uncredited) |
Production company | Twentieth Century Productions |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (UK) 20th Century Fox (U.S.) |
Release dates | 28 August 1940 (UK) 31 January 1941 (U.S.) |
Running time | 78 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Girl in the News is a 1940 British thriller film directed by Carol Reed and starring Margaret Lockwood, Barry K. Barnes and Emlyn Williams.[1] It was based on the eponymous novel by Roy Vickers, released the same year.
Plot
After her elderly patient is poisoned, nurse Anne Graham is tried for murder, but is acquitted with the help of her lawyer, Stephen Farringdon. The press and public opinion are still against her, so Anne finds it difficult to get another job. She changes her name and finds work nursing wheelchair user Edward Bentley. After Bentley too is found dead, Bill Mather, a detective from Scotland Yard, arrests Anne, but Farringdon fights once again to prove her innocence.
Cast
- Margaret Lockwood as Anne Graham
- Barry K. Barnes as Stephen Farringdon
- Emlyn Williams as Tracy
- Roger Livesey as Bill Mather
- Margaretta Scott as Judith Bentley
- Wyndham Goldie as Edward Bentley
- Basil Radford as Doctor Threadgrove
- Irene Handl as Gertrude Mary Blaker
- Mervyn Johns as James Fetherwood
- Betty Jardine as Elsie
- Kathleen Harrison as Cook
- Felix Aylmer as Prosecuting Counsel
- Leo Genn as Prosecuting Counsel - First Trial (uncredited)
- Michael Hordern as Assistant Prosecuting Counsel - Second Trial (uncredited)
- Jerry Verno as Charlie - Prisoner In Police Car (uncredited)
Production
The film was based on a bestselling novel by Roy Vickers.[2] It was the first of several collaborations between the director Carol Reed and the writer Sidney Gilliat. Gilliat later recalled:
He [Reed] seemed to be an interpreter rather than a creator; he followed the screenplay quite closely rather than bringing forth original ideas of his own. I felt he was not at all interested in The Girl in the News, which I think was a pallid job. The chief obstacle was Carol's stage background - the couldn't really believe in the screenwriter. He needed close collaboration with a writer.[3]
Gilliat also claimed Reed avoided the "sexual implications" in the script until it "became postively genteel."[4]
The film was originally meant to star Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave, who had just appeared together in The Lady Vanishes.[5] It was one of several films Lockwood made with Reed.
It marks the film debut of Michael Hordern, who has one line, during a court scene, as a junior counsel to the senior counsel played by Felix Aylmer.
Critical reception
On the film's initial release the reviewer for The New York Times wrote, "bring out the smelling salts, folks. Another spellbinding English thriller has come to town!"[6] More recently the Radio Times called the film a "workmanlike if rather transparent murder mystery";[7] and Allmovie wrote: "this early Carol Reed effort tended to be dismissed or ignored by its director in later interviews. Even so, the film is a worthwhile effort, with an intricate and sometimes amusing script by Sydney Gilliat."[8]
Radio adaptation
The Girl in the News was presented on Philip Morris Playhouse 21 November 1941. The adaptation starred Joan Bennett.[9]
References
- ^ "The Girl in the News (1940)". BFI. Archived from the original on 29 November 2007.
- ^ "A Lady Who Has Looks". The New York Times. 5 June 1938.
- ^ Brian McFarlane, An Autobiography of British Cinema p 224
- ^ Fowler, Roy; Haines, Taffy (15 May 1990). "Interview with Sidney Gilliat" (PDF). British Entertainment History Project. p. 119.
- ^ "BRITISH FILMS OF 1939". Western Mail. Vol. 59, no. 2, 742. Western Australia. 15 September 1938. p. 30. Retrieved 4 May 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "THE SCREEN; 'The Girl in the News,' Another Suspensive Drama Directed by Carol Reed, Opens at the Globe". The New York Times. 5 May 1941 – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ David Parkinson. "The Girl in the News". RadioTimes.
- ^ Hal Erickson. "The Girl in the News (1940) - Carol Reed - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.
- ^ "(photo caption)". Harrisburg Telegraph. Harrisburg Telegraph. 15 November 1941. p. 29. Retrieved 26 July 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
External links
- The Girl in the News at IMDb
- Girl in the News at TCMDB
- The Girl in the News at British Film Institute
- The Girl in the News at Britmovie
- Review of film at Variety