Stormy Crossing

Sheldon Lawrence is in England to swim the Channel under the coaching of his brother, John Ireland. Joy Webster is also planning to do the swim, and they develop a friendship. Any deeper feelings are forestalled when Miss Webster tells Lawrence she is to be married to someone as soon as he gets a divorce. When they set off for their swims, a fog comes up and Miss Webster drowns. Lawrence, however, thinks it's murder.

It's nicely performed under the direction of C. M. Pennington-Richards, with DP Geoffrey Faithfull offering some nicely lit compositions. Alas, I didn't find the mystery aspect of it challenging, but a good cast includes Derek Bond, Leslie Dwyer, Maureen Connell, John Horsely, John Schlesinger, and swimmer Sam Rockett as himself.

Danny Parker is set to swim The English channel, but he's distracted by a beautiful young woman, who's also there to complete the swim, tragedy strikes, and she drowns, Danny is convinced she was murdered.

As a whodunnit, it doesn't offer up anything really, as we see the incident, it would have worked better had they omitted that scene.

So it's more in the mystery thriller genre, on the plus side, the visuals are striking, it looks and feels very authentic, and The Dover setting works incredibly well, on the debit side, I found the story a little weak, there's nothing original, the film doesn't cover any new ground.

Best scene, Baker's Garage, look out for Arthur Lowe (of Dad's Army fame,) and John Schlesinger. John Horsley and John Ireland were pretty good. Joy Webster and Sheldon Lawrence are pretty convincing, and add a bit of glamour.

It's a competent movie, 6/10.

A lightweight and weak story line, cliched dialogue, and then combine it with mediocre acting from the two female stars, makes this a tedious and underwhelming film drama that never gets out of second gear! The other problem is that too many of the characters are one dimensional and so it fails to attract the interest of the audience. John Ireland, the usual tough film guy, was badly miscast, playing a very unconvincing swimming coach. The villain of the piece, Derek Bond, plays the usual, middle class smarmy cad type, leading a double life, but all too predictably gets his come uppance. Joy Webster, who plays Kitty, shows little emotion throughout the film, never really engaging with the role of the mistress in a marriage triangle. She looks great in a swimsuit but her wooden acting crushes any potential interest in the story. This was a very disappointing film, perhaps watched simply for views of Dover in the 1950's and ladies swimwear! I can't recommend this film.

I assume this was one of those B movies made then.Usually shown in a double bill in the cinemas.I couldn't really call this a murder mystery as you see who the killer is from their first murder.As often happens in this type of thing the smaller parts are more interesting than the main leads.Leslie Dwyer is interesting here in a small role and nice to see Arthur Lowe in a small part years before Dad's Army.

"Black Tide", also called "Stormy Crossing", is a decent mystery/suspense story with an interesting setting. While the story itself is fairly routine, the setting and some likeable characters make it worth watching.

The story takes place in Dover (England). As it begins, two swimmers are in training for an attempt to swim across the English Channel - Danny, an experienced swimmer trained by his brother Griff, and Kitty, a model and amateur swimmer, backed by a separate group. They decide to make their attempt together, but things go very wrong. Danny is convinced that what happened was no accident, and he tries to investigate despite the fact that no one else believes him.

The events that follow are not too surprising, and sometimes predictable, but the story keeps the viewer's interest once it gets going. It's a mostly plausible story, and it is helped by some other positive features.

The channel/seacoast setting is an interesting one that works well for this kind of story, and it is nicely done. You do feel as if you are there at the Channel, with the mist, the birds, and the current. There are also a couple pretty likeable characters: John Ireland is good as Griff, and Maureen Connell is good as the young hotel manager. Danny, though, is not a very good character - pretty much a stereotyped indignant, headstrong young man. Overall, the positives outweigh the weaknesses.

Most fans of mystery or suspense films should find this worth a look.