The Hangman Waits

The more amateurish a feature the more avant-garde it tends to look, especially after a few years have passed. That certainly applies to this no-budget crime movie enlivened by early morning shots of postwar London landmarks like the Houses of Parliament and St.Paul's Cathedral, which are possibly the work of 'Dennis' (sic) Coop, who as Denys Coop nearly a quarter of a century later helped recreate the Christie case as cameraman on '10 Rillington Place'.

(Somebody involved in 'The Hangman Waits' probably also used to attend the Film Society during the twenties, since the outdoor scenes are slickly edited together to a silent-style piano & organ score by someone called Albert Ferber that one user has already compared to Brian Easdale's for 'Peeping Tom'.)

The interior scenes depicting the offices of the 'News of the World' and at Scotland Yard are by contrast rendered almost inaudible by lousy sound recording, so one has to strain to catch the grisly details of the Victoria trunk murder. However it eventually livens up with an energetic climactic chase through the Fleet Street headquarters of the 'News of the World'; which has been shamelessly plugged throughout the film.

Connoisseurs of old British movies will recognise John Turnbull as the detective, Anthony Baird (the hospitalised racing driver in 'Dead of Night') as the wanted man, and John Le Mesurier in an eyeshade in a couple of scenes as one of the night staff at 'The News of the World'.

The Hangman Waits is an extraordinary little-known crime docudrama made in co operation with the News of the World, appearing on DVD for the first time. It comes accompanied with an apology for the less than perfect quality of the source print for which due attention should be drawn. (The accompanying film is much better served).

The Hangman Waits is an account of a manhunt, but told in very striking fashion. It is, I'd suggest - and one hesitates to use the term so readily in such an obscure context - the work of a poverty row auteur: the director, producer and writer being the same person, one A Bar-Smith, apparently his only full length directing job. A lonely review on IMDb points out that this film "looks and feels as though it was made at the dawn of talking pictures with some stilted performances, erratic editing and simplistic storyline...". That's one view.

It certainly seems a throwback to earlier times with dialogue playing a constant second to visuals and sound - and in fact it is 6 minutes in before any dialogue is spoken. Even the police are presented at one point Keystone-cops style, manning the running boards of cars to the final showdown, in a couple of remarkable 'frozen' shots, the careful framing of which, I'd suggest, indicates surely a deliberate stylistic strategy on the part of the director rather than clumsiness. I'd argue that like another favourite of mine, White Zombie, the anachronistic styling gives the film a unique feel, and by using a distinctive mode of storytelling, it turns its austere production values to advantage. The editing is not erratic either: in fact it is at some points quite deliberately structured, such as during the suspenseful, Hitchcockian opening scenes. In fact, dialogue issues apart, The Hangman Waits is striking on several counts throughout, including no less than 3 montage sequences, and a unique score featuring piano and organ instrumentation (at times reminding me of that for Peeping Tom). The killer's face is not revealed until the last few sequences; instead the film contains several interesting minor characters and incidents, which go by way of compensating for the enigmatic man on the run at the centre of the plot. The involvement of the News of the World is obvious with some effective location shooting in Fleet Street, but the view of journalists and reporters is not rose-tinted. The final montage sequence is the most interesting, creating an almost stream-of-consciousness effect as the killer recalls moments of his romantic past as the organ plays a canzona.

Some will find little in the film; others I hope will pause and discover it's avant-garde qualities, seen for the first time in a generation or so, in this release with all of the surprise and delight I did. I certainly watched Bar-Smith's work open mouthed.

It has just appeared for the first time on a double feature UK DVD, albeit in a less than perfect transfer.

The plot in this curiosity is simple enough. A cinema usherette is murdered immediately following a dalliance with the cinema manager and with the killer on the loose, we follow the police attempts to catch the person responsible and a newspaper's (ironically The News of the World) efforts to get the story. Some attempt was made to make a kind of semi-documentary out it (rolling printing presses etc) but I suspect it was hoped to deflect from the plot's deficiencies.

I'm really not sure why this film was ever made. It was released in 1947 when British Cinema was perfectly capable of making professional and entertaining films but this film is neither of those things. It looks and feels as though it was made at the dawn of talking pictures with some stilted performances, erratic editing and simplistic storyline.

There are some faults in the actual physical quality of the film but I'm not criticising those because this is obviously a rarity that must have been rescued from the darkest corners of Renown's vaults and if you are like me, curiosity means you must watch it for your own satisfaction.

So – accept this film purely as a rare curiosity and nothing more. However it is notable for one thing. The sharp-eyed viewer will see the very first screen appearance of the great British character actor John Le Mesurier. His first film is often quoted as being DEATH IN THE HAND from 1948 but he appears here as a newspaper employee called into his editor's office and has one line to speak.

The discovery of parts of a murdered girl sends the press and police on a manhunt.

It's a fairly experimental thriller directed by a fellow named A. Barr-Smith, who directed, produced and wrote a few movies around this time. He was born in 1905, he was Australian, and that's about the limit of knowledge about him on the Internet. His technique here is advanced, as if someone were to apply early Academician techniques to a murder mystery. It works, although erratically, because a loud and irrelevant score by Albert Ferber demands the viewer's attention. Still, the editing technique works in building suspense, as we see peoples' reactions more than the action, and parts of the performers, as if they are victims of the murderer. Over all, I found it unsatisfactory because of its inconsistent pacing, but it definitely points the way to something that might have been interesting.

John Le Meseurier makes his first screen appearance in an uncredited bit.

I stumbled over this little known British film from the late 40's on Talking Pictures TV whilst having my breakfast this morning.

What can I say? Well apart from the terrible acting, probably because most of the cast weren't pro actors, the writing and direction were bad as well. Most of it was quite comical, shades of the Keystone cops in a chase sequence with half a dozen policemen hanging off the sides.

A lot of padding with footage of trains running back and forth, then the chase sequence up the stair, and up the stairs and yet more running up the stairs.

Nice to see a very young, uncredited John Le Mesurier with a couple of lines, if you don't recognise the face his voice is unmissable. Filmed around the streets of London, still very heavily bomb damaged, makes it worth watching.

Don't expect anything special but worth an hour or so of your time.

By the way, who let the cat out on the piano, the music soundtrack was awful.