Grand National Night

What ought to have been night of celebration turns sour for Grand National winning owner "Coates" (Nigel Patrick) when a contretemps with his drunken wife "Babs" (Moira Lister) leaves him the subject of a police investigation. The thing is - what really happened that night and can the pernickety "Insp. Ayling" (Michael Hordern) piece it all together? Lister features but sparingly, but her characterisation of "Babs" does rather get under your fingernails, so as the police work proceeded I did start to feel just a bit of sympathy for her rather idiotic, but good natured, husband - and Patrick is on decent form in that role here. It skips along nicely and engagingly for eighty minutes with a solid contribution from the usually reliable Noel Purcell and a soupçon of glamour from the underused Beatrice Campbell too. Maybe not his "latest and greatest screen role" as it said in the publicity blurb, but it's not a bad vehicle for a star who does enough here to keep it interesting, if not exactly intriguing with what must have been a fairly limited budget.

A British film from 1953 starring Nigel Patrick as a racehorse owner and the beautiful Moira Lister as his wife Babs, this is a film about what happens after Gerald's (Mr. Patrick) horse wins the national. Babs, who doesn't seem to like horses much, parties in Liverpool without Gerald, thinks of divorce, drives home (without a license and probably a little impaired) and has a confrontation with her husband. A struggle occurs and she is killed. From there, the film becomes a detective story. This is where it gets more interesting, as the players in the film are questioned about certain aspects of their behavior. Not a long film (less than 80 minutes), it holds your interest from start to finish. Not essential, but a fairly good detective story/thriller.

I loved this B picture, black & white from 1953 and very English of it's time. It takes place in Liverpool and involves a race horse owner (the always underrated Nigel Patrick) whose horse wins the Grand National. His blowsey but beautiful wife (Moira Lister) isn't interested in him, his lifestyle of managing horses or anything which has given them the grand lifestyle they have, other than indulging in the rewards that the money available gives her, to party all night and get drunk constantly and go around with other men. One night she comes home and a row ensues leading to a fight. She grabs a knife, and that's all we see until the following morning. The rest of the film follows the investigation of her disappearance, involving her sister, a police officer played by the excellent Michael Hordern, and various other friends. Eventually, Nigel Patrick is rumbled, he confesses to a family friend (a woman who seems to like him more than she should) and it is clear to us the audience that his number is up. I was expecting him to be led away to justice and the film to end. Just keep watching, I was totally fooled.

Nigel Patrick stars with Moira Lister in The Wicked Wife from 1953.

Patrick plays Gerald Coates, a wealthy horse breeder whose horse wins the Grand National. His wife Babs (Lister) is an unhappy drunk. Her driver's license has been revoked, but after a row with a drunken friend in Liverpool, she drives home in bad weather. Her husband is furious. They quarrel; she falls and dies.

Her body is found in the car in Liverpool. The police see that the car drove 44 miles - meaning to them that she drove 22 miles home from Liverpool. Gerald denies she ever returned.

Good movie as Gerald tries to have savior faire in the face of evidence - her shoes, her compact from her evening bag found in the couch, and, most devastating, a train ticket from the husband's macintosh pocket showing he returned from Liverpool that night despite saying he was home.

Nice twist at the end. Entertaining.

Many films clearly betray their stage origin. Here most action involves people entering and leaving the same room. However the strength of the story is the tension between the characters as they stand in close proximity which a stage version would have amplified, this film version largely dissipates with its many outside scenes. Also the flat footed direction short changes a good cast and reasonable story. Hitchcock would surely have added red herrings and more visual drama - close-ups, silences, glances and deliberate mis-direction. Hitchcocks "Rope" as one example. It was also, for 1953, rather old fashioned with horsey people, country house and butler (the butler didn't do it but plays a major and interesting role. Doubt if you can get such staff these days unfortunately) It occurred to me that the play could make a good Am-Dram project? 6.5/10