The Man Upstairs

I don't think its any coincidence that this film came out the year after 12 Angry Men.

Dicky Attenborough is the accused and the 12-man jury is made up of his fellow tenants.

Good film but would have made a better TV episode - tighter and more focused.

Once again,I won't tell the topic of this solid UK drama, Long Horn has done it very well on the summary line. I will just point out that Richard Attenborough gives here a powerful, outstanding performance as a lost soul, not a lunatic, but a character for whom the audience can't not feel some empathy...

But no user seem have noticed that picture is very similar to Marcel Carne's LE JOUR SE LEVE, starring Jean Gabin as the lead. And it is absolutely obvious; a blind man, only by hearing the dialogues, could tell the same thing.

That's all, folks. I have nothing to add.

Oh, yes, I think Don Chaffey's films are hard to purchase, but when you can make it, it's worth. I know this guy directed some AVENGERS TV series episodes.

I used to play Edward Evans (Fire Brigade Officer) at table tennis.

This a production from ACT the film technicians union who made 23 films between 1951 and 1962.The aim being to give employment to their members.It has to be said that most of the films were unmentionable and modestly budgeted.Given that this is not one of the best remembered of Richard Attenboroughs films,the film is mainly confined to the house and there is no music it could be said that the film conforms to type.At 84 minutes it rather lustrous it's welcome and it could be said that this would probably worked better as a TV play.British Lion often had a struggle to get its films booked on the major circuits so I think that any success for this film would have been limited.

Attenborough is pretty good, but he can't save this as a film. Some of the other acting is ok - but some is dreadful, especially Donald Houston (does he ever do anything except overact? I never understood why he was in so many films) - and several of the characters are pure clichéd stereotypes. The script is wooden and stilted, presumably because of its stage-play origins, and the action is a sequence of simply implausible events, largely engineered to get all the main characters together in one room and sounding off at each other. Corny, with little credibility.