The Rossiter Case

Well-made if somewhat slow-paced British melodrama involving an aristocrat cheating on his paralyzed wife with her sister. Sheila Burrell's portrayal of the husband-stealing sister is powerfully disturbing even negatively impacting her physical appearance as her character unfolds throughout the movie. The condoning of the overt affair by family and friends is remarkably insensitive to its impact on the paralyzed woman, Liz Rossiter. Helen Shingler's Liz Rossiter is selfless without becoming pitiful. This is a good movie that requires patience due to the snails-pacing.

The only point of interest in this way too talky film was seeing a young Stanley Baker as a glorified extra cast as Joe who is entrusted with one line of dialogue by the producers and yet he became the more famous of the cast.Other reviewers have given the basic premise of this 1950 film which could have been edited to one half its length.I will not repeat the sparse plot and I only rated it 6/10.The only actor familiar to me was seeing Euen Solon as the police inspector.I agree with another user's review, it should not have been filmed but consigned to the radio at a time when most of the population went to the cinema to see their heroes and heroines of the silver screen and listened to the radio.

Helen Shingler stars with Clement McCallin and Sheila Burrell in "The Rossiter Case" from 1951.

Before I go on, if you remember the Gold Blend Coffee commercials with Anthony Head that were a continuing saga, like a soap opera, Helen Shingler was Anthony Head's mother. She died two months after her 100th birthday.

Here, Shingler plays Liz Rossiter, who is paralyzed from the waist down. Her husband Peter (Clement McCallin) is having an affair with his sister-in-law Honor (Sheila Burrell). She's a horror - it's like a Whatever Happened to Baby Jane scenario.

Honor insists that Peter divorce Liz, which he doesn't want to do - he still loves her and doesn't want to hurt her. A specialist is at the Rossiter home to examine her - if he thinks there is some hope Liz can walk again, Honor extracts a promise from Peter that he will take steps to leave her.

Liz claims she can be helped, but it's a lie because she's afraid of losing Peter. Everyone is aware of the affair, even though Liz pretends she doesn't.

Peter decides to end it with Honor once and for all. Then Honor hits him with the news that she's expecting. He goes out and gets drunk. Meanwhile, no one is home, so Liz asks a member of the staff to take her to Honor's cottage, which is at the end of the road.

I liked this film - the acting and the atmosphere are both good. I guess if you're a Hammer fan, it's disappointing, but I loved the drama of it. And Helen Shingler is an actress I wasn't familiar with until now. She did an excellent job.

Helen Shingler is paralyzed from the waist down. Her husband, Clement McCallin, loves her dearly, but is carrying on an affair with his sister-in-law, Sheila Burrell. Everyone knows about it, but keeps quiet. When Helen tells McCallin that the doctor says her paralysis can be cured, he decides to call an end to the affair, calmly, decently, but she tells him she is expecting. So he does the only thing a man can do decently in a situation like that: he goes out and gets stinking drunk. Meanwhile, his wife has one of the help wheel her to Sheila's cottage, where the two of them have it out.

It's a murder story, but not a murder mystery. It's a story of emotions and doing the right thing and stiff-upper-lipping it through a bad situation. It's not the sort of story I like, but it seems to be very well done, even though it's a cheap affair from Hammer. It's from a stage play by Kenneth Hyde. None of the actors are well known, but they all do a fine job.

I've said that none of the actors are well known, but Miss Shingler celebrated her hundredth birthday this year.

Clement McCallin is wholly convincing, as he hits the panic button, feverishly digging through his coat pockets and lining in a desperate bid to locate a missing package. An equally thorough search of his car leads to the inevitable conclusion that the item is lost. His ensuing horror is almost palpable. Unfortunately, at a later stage, he's not quite so impressive as the plastered pub patron, lurching around, while slurring demands for another whiskey.

Ironically, these two scenes set the tone for a jarringly uneven movie. Severely paralysed Helen Shingler is determined to both recover and hold on to philandering hubby, McCallin, rapidly being drawn into the clutches of femme fatale, Sheila Burrell. The picture gives us a snatch of soap opera here and a taste of mannered deportment there, before a surprisingly dark, dramatic twist dissolves into a torrent of rambling, sentimental twaddle, accompanied by suitably syrupy strings.

Where movies like 'Rossiter' score most points is providing an insight into the prevailing attitudes and tenets of affluent post war Britain, where elements of Edwardian society remain in tact: The servants, housekeepers and cooks. The staunch, unwavering view towards 'the done thing' and 'not the done thing.' The eye-popping, jaw dropping response to the merest whiff of scandal. Throw in a variable print, a few missing frames and you pretty much have the .....er...complete package.