Never Look Back

Made at the Manchester Film Studios in the autumn of 1951, this is one of the best of the early Hammer productions before their name had become synonymous with Horror.

Rosamund John is sympathetic and convincing as Anne Maitland, an ambitious barrister whom has taken silk, only to put old flame Guy Ransome (Middleton) up for the night, inadvertently providing him with an alibi for murder. Unwisely deciding to defend him, in her first case since becoming KC, she then finds current lover Nigel Stewart (Hugh Sinclair) leading for the prosecution.

This is all made more plausible than it sounds by smooth direction from the prolific Francis Searle, with more vivid characterisation than usual in a film of this type, which has its share of lighter moments too. Hugh Sinclair who made several second features around this period, gives a typically accomplished performance and Guy Middleton a more sinister version of the upper-class playboy type he often portrayed. The court room scene is well done, witnesses include Arthur Howard as a flamboyant actor and sometime Carmen Miranda impersonator, Brenda de Banzie as a brassy tart and there's a nice turn from Bruce Belfrage as the judge. There's also one of the final appearances of veteran actor and former director of quota quickies Henry Edwards as a solicitor, while future star Harry H. Corbett appears fleetingly.

Rosamund John is a newly minted barrister, in love with Hugh Sinclair. Her old boyfriend, Guy Middleton turns up at her flat; he's quarreled with his live-in girlfriend and he needs a place to stay for the night. He gets the sofa. The next morning, the girlfriend turns up shot dead, and Middleton is to be tried for murder. Middleton and Miss John agree to keep quiet about their sleeping arrangement for propriety's sake, and she agrees to defend him, putting off a wedding with Sinclair in the process. However, a witness appears in the box, saying she saw him leaving his flat at the time of death. What can she do?

It's a pretty good courtroom drama, even if it seems rushed and impossible on its surface. Director Francis Searle had a hand in the script, and directs, as he so often did, for speed, allowing the excellent cast to carry the burden. The result is a good movie that is worth seeing once, although no one covers himself in glory. The problems with the script are those of most courtroom dramas; the work that should have been done before the trial has to be done at the trial, with surprise witnesses turning up for dramatic license.

Interesting court case where all parties are emotionally involved with each other, the prosecutor being in love with the solicitor, and the prosecuted being an ex-lover of the solicitor. It is of course a real problem for her, but Rosamund John makes a great performance of it, while her two cavaliers naturally end up fighting each other. The case is tricky: her ex-lover turns up at her house just as her suitor has left it, and circumstance make him spend the night on the divan at her place, while she has locked him out of her room. When he leaves in the morning he goes back to his present girl-friend and finds her shot dead. He is prosecuted for the murder. How this tangle of messed up circumstances involving an accidental or contrived death is what the film is about, and most of it takes place in court. Guy Middleton as the lover of long ago makes an increasingly bad impression, which makes you understand the title of the film. She looked back and went through an ordeal for it. The film does not let her comment on the settlement between the rivals. It is all worth watching primarily for the excellent eloquence throughout.

I was recently able to buy this obscurity online being always on the lookout for minor British movies, particularly of the fifties.

Rosamund John has recently been given silk which means in British legal jargon she is now a more senior barrister and entitled to add KC (King's Council) to her name. It would be QC nowadays.This is quite an honor for any lawyer.

At a celebratory party, her long time admirer Hugh Sinclair proposes yet again only to be rejected in favor of her career; shocking stuff for the early sixties. He takes her home still pleading his case but eventually leaves.

She starts playing some nostalgic music and lo and behold she hears piano music which she soon finds out is being played by an old flame who is returning his front door key. His current girlfriend has thrown him out so she allows him to stay the night on the sofa.He leaves the next morning.

He finds that his girlfriend has been murdered and he is the prime suspect so eventually the new KC agrees to defend him without telling anyone he spent the night with her-platonically.

At the trial her current suitor is the prosecutor.It's a fairly familiar story after that but at least it's a cast of pros who lend credibility to the movie. Worth watching if you get a chance to see it.

Rosamund John is quite good here as the newly "silked" barrister "Anne Maitland". She is at home one evening when her ex-boyfriend "Ransome" (Guy Middleton) shows up claiming homelessness after a row with his girlfriend. She agrees to put him for the night but that's just the start of her problems. When he returns home next morning, he discovers that his gal is no more and that he is prime suspect in a murder investigation being led by the tenacious "Insp. Gaynor" (John Warwick). It now falls on her to defend him - but that's not without risk to her reputation or to her current relationship with her fiancé "Nigel" (Hugh Sinclair) with whom "Guy" is quite prepared to spar as both realise that they are in love with the formidable lawyer. It's when a witness turns up claiming to have seen something crucially important to the defence that the film starts to become interesting and the courtroom drama more tense and unpredictable. As courtroom dramas go, this is well paced with a solid story and provides a good opportunity for a woman to play a convincingly intelligent role in what would have been, in 1950s Britain, very much a man's world. Certainly better than your average daytime cinema fayre and well worth an hour or so.