Sidney Gilliat (1946)
In his youth Martin Scorsese had ideas of becoming a priest; in old age his tastes in cinema are acquiring the status of holy writ. BFI is running a ‘Martin Scorsese Selects Hidden Gems of the British Cinema’ season. It’s true that Green for Danger, part of that programme, was screening in the smallish NFT2 but I was surprised to be part of a full house, even so: I can’t believe Sidney Gilliat’s hospital whodunnit would have been so popular without Scorsese’s authoritative recommendation. The film doesn’t quite qualify as either ‘hidden’ (it seems to crop up on television from time to time) or a ‘gem’. Although it’s briskly entertaining, I didn’t, on this occasion anyway, find Green for Danger the absorbing thriller I thought I recalled.
Gilliatt and Claud Gurney’s screenplay is adapted from a 1944 detective novel of the same name by Christianna Brand. The story, set in Kent, is contemporary. A postman injured in a German doodle-bug explosion is rushed to the local hospital for treatment. On the operating table, he unexpectedly dies under anaesthetic. A few hours later, the nursing sister present in the operating theatre reveals very publicly that the patient’s death wasn’t an accident; shortly afterwards, she is murdered. Inspector Cockrill of the Kent County Police (who features in several of Brand’s novels) arrives to investigate. Through the inspector’s voiceover narration, Sidney Gilliat succinctly sets up the story and its timeframe. As the camera moves round the operating theatre, Cockrill (Alastair Sim) introduces each of the medical staff there: the surgeon, Mr Eden (Leo Genn); Nurses Linley (Sally Gray), Sanson (Rosamund John) and Woods (Megs Jenkins); Sister Bates (Judy Campbell); and anaesthetist Dr Barnes (Trevor Howard). Postman Higgins (Moore Marriott) is brought to the hospital on August the 17th, 1944. After running through the six staff in the theatre, Cockrill notes that ‘by August the 22nd two of these people would be dead and one of them a murderer’.
Alastair Sim’s casting is a mixed blessing. Cockrill’s voiceover frames the film and Sim’s familiar presence governs it. The inspector’s penchant for drolly gnomic remarks is occasionally interrupted by misapprehensions, minor and major, that turn him sheepish; Green for Danger sometimes seems to be lampooning the idea of the omniscient sleuth. Sim’s ability to switch effortlessly between comic eccentricity and real urgency is impressive but his screen persona’s humorous core also hints at the film’s jocose, isn’t-this-fun aspect. The film is often fun but you may resent being told that repeatedly. Besides, Green for Danger tends to stay ‘light’ only because it doesn’t always follow through its serious elements. The theatre sister’s shock news that Higgins didn’t die of natural causes reduces a staff social to silence but not for long: the music and dancing have resumed by the time distraught Marion Bates has fled from the gathering out into the night and her own death (by scalpel). The revelation that Nurse Woods’s twin sister is a collaborator, broadcasting from Nazi Germany, is, for all its significance in the plot, quickly forgotten about in terms of its influence on the characters’ relationships.
Trevor Howard’s romantic, brittle ‘Barney’ – Nurse Linley has broken off her engagement to him – gives proceedings much-needed substance. The female performances, despite some melodramatic opportunities, aren’t up to much, except for that of thoroughly dependable Megs Jenkins. For this viewer, one of the most interesting things about seeing the film again was discovering that I’d misremembered the identity of the culprit – I think because I always find Leo Genn sinister and, as the super-suave Eden, repellent, too. Christianna Brand’s and the film’s title is intriguing even though, once you know the green refers to colour-coding on the gas canisters used by anaesthetists, it also gives some of the game away.
8 September 2024
