The Large Rope

Seven years later this film's director & cameraman made 'Village of the Damned' from John Wyndham's 'The Midwich Cuckoos'. This earlier film has a more conventional plot (it's easy to guess whodunnit, for example) but the mood and look compares favourably with classic French rural dramas of the previous decade like 'Le Corbeau' and 'Panique'.

A large and largely unfamiliar cast include one of the first film appearances by Edward Judd and one of the last when she was still an unknown bit player by Katie Johnson.

Now I can imagine a long rope; or a thick rope - but can a rope actually be "large"? Anyway, enough of my pedantry. Donald Houston returns to his rural English village after being in prison for assaulting a women. When another local woman is murdered, he is the obvious suspect and must prove his innocence whilst avoiding the pursuing police and angry villagers. It is quite a fast moving story, and one of the few you will ever see that demonstrates any form of English social disobedience - the villagers almost descend into a lynch mob - of the constabulary. I thought it obvious who the real killer was from early on, but Wolf Rilla keeps it all moving well until a rather soppy, violin-inspired, conclusion.

Before becoming known as THE LONG ROPE, director Wolf Rilla's THE LARGE ROPE meant that Donald Houston's central character, a young man released from jail and returning to his small hometown village, is basically caught right in the thick of it...

Not only does no one want him around, especially ex-girlfriend Susan Shaw and his former best friend she's marrying, but he winds up accused of murdering a flirtatious older woman played by an actress who made a living brilliantly playing them...

After Vanda Godsell's killed by a person she sees and we don't, what's a kind of frantic melodrama becomes a bonafide whodunnit, and Houston does a nice job frowning and arguing his way through various domiciles and a crowded pub full of drunks who basically want him dead...

Director Rilla, who'd later make another small town thriller in VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, keeps the pace on a hectically intriguing level, and the British actors (including Robert Brown, Peter Byrne and Edward Judd) are topnotch, going beyond the minuscule budget - that actually suits the desperate one-street purgatory.

Tom Penney (Donald Houston) is returning to his small English village after spending three years in prison. However, he apparently did not actually commit any crime though the town is about as unfriendly as it can be. They all assume he's guilty and treat him like dirt. Only a couple people in town know the truth but they won't speak up about it.

In the midst of all this antipathy, a dead woman is discovered. Immediately the town assumed Tom killed her and a lynch mob mentality erupts. As for Tom, he's scared out of his wits and runs. Can the truth be revealed? I must first point out that my wife wasn't as thrilled with this film as I was. When it was over, she complained that although the film was good, they really didn't explain what happened to send Tom to prison three years earlier. While it's true that this is vague, I liked the way the picture portrayed human nature at its worst. An interesting story.

A subject as old of the hill : the ex-convict, unfairly imprisoned , who comes back to his native village where he is not the welcome; he is definitely an outcast, and his place is no longer among the well-respected people ;only his mother and his old flame still trusts him .

The movie is too short and too hurried for comfort ,but it is an estimable work : pay attention to the girlies the newcomer unwittingly scares, it's one the details which urges the villagers to take the law in their own hand ,after a murder which takes place just at the moment when the unfortunate young guy arrives .The chase across the streets which may lead to a lynching is the best moment ,but the ending seems botched .