Themes: Infidelity, Race Against Time, Miscarriage of Justice
Main Cast: Rex Harrison, Lilli Palmer, Henrietta Barry
Release Year: 1951
Country: UK
Run Time: 86 minutes
Plot
Rex Harrison's extramarital relationship with Patricia Wayne comes to an end when Wayne is murdered. All evidence points to Harrison; we know that he's innocent, but the detectives don't have this advantage. With his faithful wife Lilli Palmer at his side, Harrison goes on trial for his life. Anthony Dawson, the genuine murderer, intends to confess after Harrison is hanged. Thanks to a governmental quirk, Dawson's letter reaches the authorities just a few steps ahead of the hangman. Anthony Bushell, co-director of Long Dark Hall, is featured as Harrison's defense attorney. The film was co-scripted by Hollywood's Nunnally Johnson and based on a novel by Edgar Lustgarden. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
"What good is the truth when it doesn't sound true?" says Rex Harrison's character on the witness stand, neatly summing up the theme of this taut and gripping courtroom thriller. Both the leading male characters are caught up in "untrue" lives (dedicated family man for one, compassionate friend for the other) that sound better than their "true" ones (womanizer, serial killer), and the difficulty of separating truth from fiction is played for all it's worth in the intricately-plotted, intriguing screenplay. The film is also notable for dealing with infidelity in a fairly frank manner for the time. While some may argue that it also reinforces a view that women should be forgiving of such dalliances on the part of men, the real strength of the situation lies in the wife's ability to get past her hurt and fight for the life of an essentially innocent man. Rex Harrison turns in a marvelous performance, restrained, yet not lacking, in emotional punch, and Lilli Palmer is his equal; but the standout is the deliciously sadistic Anthony Dawson. His scenes with Palmer are models of nuanced cruelty, and the sequence in which he torments her about her innocent husband's certain death is wonderfully excruciating. Tightly directed, Long Dark Hall is good, tense entertainment. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Ronald Simpson - Mary's Father; Raymond Huntley - Chief Inspector Sullivan; Ballard Berkeley - Supt. Maxey; Anthony Dawson - The Man; Denis O'Dea - Sir Charles Morton; Anthony Bushell - Clive Bedford; Henry Longhurst - Judge; Patricia Wayne - Rose Mallory; Meriel Forbes - Marjorie Danns; Brenda de Banzie - Mrs. Rogers; Jill Bennett - First murdered showgirl; Patricia Cutts - Rose Mallory; Colin Gordon - Pound; Jenny Laird; Fletcher Lightfoot; Tom Macauley; Michael Medwin - Leslie Scott; Eric Pohlmann - Polaris; Tony Quinn; Frank Tickle; Reginald Beck; Tania Held; Douglas Jeffries; Richard Littledale; Lily Molnar
Credit
George Paterson - Art Director, Reginald Beck - Director, Anthony Bushell - Director, Tom Simpson - Editor, Benjamin Frankel - Composer (Music Score), Wilkie Cooper - Cinematographer, Peter Cusick - Producer, Ronald Kinnoch - Set Designer, William Fairchild - Screenwriter, Nunnally Johnson - Screenwriter, W.E.C. Fairchild - Screenwriter, Edgar Lustgarten - Book Author
