Made at Pinewood Studios, London. The Rank Organisation presents a Leslie Parkyn Production, made with the co-operation of the City of London Police, and released in the U.K. by J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors: 17 December 1956. No New York opening. In fact, never theatrically released in the U.S.A. Australian release through British Empire Films: 21 November 1957. Sydney opening at the Victory. British length: 8,457 feet. 94 minutes. 97 minutes in Australia.
SYNOPSIS: Ten years alter the death of her husband in action, Meg Elgin (Muriel Pavlow), now engaged to Geoffrey Levett (Donald Sinden), begins to receive clippings from recent magazines showing her husband at social events. (Available on an excellent ITV DVD).
COMMENT: There's quite a lot I'd like to say about this marvelous film, which I regard as the best mystery/suspense thriller to come out of England. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm is not shared. I will admit that, when you stop to think about it, the tale is wildly improbable. But who's going to stop and think? I will also admit that Margery Allingham fans have a case for under-rating the movie because Pelissier's superlative script drops the aristocratic Allingham hero, Edmund Campion, right out of the proceedings altogether.
But this "unkind cut" doesn't worry me. It sets me cheering. Why? I always thought Campion a bore. More importantly, the film is far too off-beat, weird and bizarre to attract the general public, yet not unconventional in a sufficiently kinky way to arouse the interest of the corduroy set. In other words, it falls between quite a number of stools, — and that's one of the minor reasons I rate it so highly.
My major thought when I think about Tiger in the Smoke is its atmosphere. Really quite unique. A blend of The Hunchback of Notre Dame with The Dark Eyes of London. So relentlessly gripping that when the mysterious killer is finally uncovered, his less than psychotic motive comes almost as an anticlimax.
Atmosphere is created and achieved through the ingenious collaboration of highly inventive direction, startlingly imaginative cinematography, creatively dynamic, isolated yet claustrophobic sets, and a music score combining stark dissonance with hideously haunting, superficially melodious, popular claptrap. All four of these gentlemen — Roy Ward Baker, Geoffrey Unsworth, Jack Maxsted, Malcolm Arnold — should take a bow from their brilliant work here (which far surpasses all their other achievements, — some of them quite notable).
But were they nominated for any awards? Of course not!
The picture's technical achievements are so compulsively engrossing, the acting comes almost as an afterthought. Yet here too, the viewer confronts distinctions in all departments. The principals — Sinden, Pavlow, Wright, and Miles — never gave more charismatic performances. The lead players — Clunes, Naismith, Rhodes, and Victor — were never more compellingly convincing; while the cameo actors, led by the fascinating Kenneth Griffith, were never more sharply precise.
In short, Pelissier has done wonders with Allingham's novel. As have all the craftsmen and women who worked on the movie. "Tiger in the Smoke" emerges nothing like the usual bland Rank product at all. A genuinely frightening film, it's one of the great achievements of British cinema and certainly deserves to rank alongside "The Third Man" in the mystery/suspense field.
SYNOPSIS: Ten years alter the death of her husband in action, Meg Elgin (Muriel Pavlow), now engaged to Geoffrey Levett (Donald Sinden), begins to receive clippings from recent magazines showing her husband at social events. (Available on an excellent ITV DVD).
COMMENT: There's quite a lot I'd like to say about this marvelous film, which I regard as the best mystery/suspense thriller to come out of England. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm is not shared. I will admit that, when you stop to think about it, the tale is wildly improbable. But who's going to stop and think? I will also admit that Margery Allingham fans have a case for under-rating the movie because Pelissier's superlative script drops the aristocratic Allingham hero, Edmund Campion, right out of the proceedings altogether.
But this "unkind cut" doesn't worry me. It sets me cheering. Why? I always thought Campion a bore. More importantly, the film is far too off-beat, weird and bizarre to attract the general public, yet not unconventional in a sufficiently kinky way to arouse the interest of the corduroy set. In other words, it falls between quite a number of stools, — and that's one of the minor reasons I rate it so highly.
My major thought when I think about Tiger in the Smoke is its atmosphere. Really quite unique. A blend of The Hunchback of Notre Dame with The Dark Eyes of London. So relentlessly gripping that when the mysterious killer is finally uncovered, his less than psychotic motive comes almost as an anticlimax.
Atmosphere is created and achieved through the ingenious collaboration of highly inventive direction, startlingly imaginative cinematography, creatively dynamic, isolated yet claustrophobic sets, and a music score combining stark dissonance with hideously haunting, superficially melodious, popular claptrap. All four of these gentlemen — Roy Ward Baker, Geoffrey Unsworth, Jack Maxsted, Malcolm Arnold — should take a bow from their brilliant work here (which far surpasses all their other achievements, — some of them quite notable).
But were they nominated for any awards? Of course not!
The picture's technical achievements are so compulsively engrossing, the acting comes almost as an afterthought. Yet here too, the viewer confronts distinctions in all departments. The principals — Sinden, Pavlow, Wright, and Miles — never gave more charismatic performances. The lead players — Clunes, Naismith, Rhodes, and Victor — were never more compellingly convincing; while the cameo actors, led by the fascinating Kenneth Griffith, were never more sharply precise.
In short, Pelissier has done wonders with Allingham's novel. As have all the craftsmen and women who worked on the movie. "Tiger in the Smoke" emerges nothing like the usual bland Rank product at all. A genuinely frightening film, it's one of the great achievements of British cinema and certainly deserves to rank alongside "The Third Man" in the mystery/suspense field.