Very Cool!!!

Charming and brutal

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

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.

I saw this gripping,atmospheric little picture on its initial British release half a century ago.I was eight years old,and it's one of a handful of British pictures from that era which haunted me for years. It's very rarely shown on British T.V.,so I never got to see it again until 1985. It had held up remarkably well, and I've watched the videotaped copy I made several times since. As far as I'm aware it was never made commercially available on video, and I'm hoping it might join the growing number of rare British thrillers from the fifties made available on DVD.Director Roy Baker is probably best known these days for the horror pictures he made for Hammer and Amicus in the seventies, all of which are markedly inferior to his earlier British work. His first picture, the moody psychological thriller "The October Man",(1948) starring John Mills,is exceptionally good, and "Tiger in the Smoke" has all the same virtues; a strong cast of seasoned character actors, a pungent sense of place, highly effective suspense and a sinister aura of moral decay. Early scenes involving a seedy gang of ex-commando street musicians are masterly.Muriel Pavlow was surely the most beautiful and talented of the Rank Organisation "charm school" actresses, and Tony Wright is chillingly effective as the psychotic Johnny Havoc, whose search for hidden treasure sets the plot in motion. The critic and theorist Raymond Durgnat wrote in 1969 that this was the most dreamlike British film outside of the horror genre. It deserves wider appreciation.

From the point of view of filming, this movie is a masterpiece. The London Smog takes on a character of its own. Characters appear and disappear mysteriously, sounds are muffled, uncertain violence is ever present. The Street Band squawks and groans eerily, its members looming distorted as nightmares from Heironymus Bosch. For those unfamiliar with Marjorie Allingham, her successful detective series featured Albert Campion, a colourless gentleman who merged with his background. The filmmakers, as has been stated, successfully lost him in the "Smoke". The truly attractive character from Allingham's series is the Police detective, Charles Luke. Charlie is tall, handsome, puppy-like and incredibly dynamic. His curly hair never stays put, He never stands still, he talks with his hands, his voice is full of expression. What a great character to play! This is where the screen adaptation seriously falls down. Alec Clune appears to be making no attempt to represent Charlie Luke. He has obviously not read the book, which is a pity! The result is that the colourful Charlie is reduced to a character as grey and insipid as Albert Campion. It is a real disappointment to Charlie's fans! On the other hand, the performances by Tony Wright as the psychopath Jack Havoc, Laurence Naismith as the courageous Canon and Bernard Miles as the Gang Leader are wonderful, while Beatrice Varley as the sinister Lucy Cash is Magnificent.The most unforgettable line is this description of Lucy Cash - "When she walks down the street curtains tremble, blinds creep down and keys turn stealthily in locks." FOOTNOTE- Smog is the name of a combination of fog and coal dust, common in London until the air was cleaned up.

Pretty good movie this.The adapters very sensibly completely omitted the vapid Albert Campion and the pallid Amanda. As usual with Margery Allingham, they are entirely redundant to the plot, and I've never found either of them even slightly credible.The ending shows the British cinema's usual utter inability to deal with landscape.