Meet Simon Cherry

Simon Cherry is a Church of England clergyman in the Docklands, known for his friendly manner to the locals and to the police for helping to solve crimes. He is in need of a vacation, so a friend lends him a clunker of a car. He drives and drives through the countryside of England until it breaks down during a storm. He takes refuge in the home of local lady Courtney Hope. He tries calling the local garage, but the lines are down, so he accepts the hospitality of the house, meets everyone except Zena Marshall, who is bedridden. That night, Miss Marshall dies. Is it murder?

Like other early Hammer films, it's based on a popular BBC radio show of the period, "Meet the Rev". Apparently the Reverend Mr. Cherry is a sort of cut-rate Father Brown. He gets involved in local murders and helps sort the situation, ending with a pious moral, as here.

The script, with a credit for the show's writer, Gale Pedrick, shows its origins with a voice-over near the beginning and an awful lot of talk, a bit more than is cinematic. Still, the players deal well enough with the script. If there are few big moments, it's a nice conceit to show various scenes from the characters' points of view. It's a decent enough programmer, although not good enough to make another movie.

Another film watched for the "House of Hammer" podcast, "Meet Simon Cherry" is yet another early Hammer adaptation of a successful radio series, though one I hadn't heard of. It's transformed here into a middling film, one which had sections I enjoyed but large stretches that I did not.

The Reverend Simon Cherry (Hugh Moxey) takes leave from his Eastend Parrish to head to the Coast. When his car breaks down during a storm, he ends up at Harling Manor, where he's offered shelter and a room for the night. When Lisa (Zena Marshall), Lady Harling's (Courtney Hope) bedridden daughter is found dead, and the circumstances are suspicious, the amateur Detective Cherry takes it upon himself to find the killer.

To be clear, nobody asks him too. He just starts asking questions and everyone is too polite to ask him to leave. For a film that is just 67 minutes long, it takes quite a while to get to the death, and amongst various discussions about the weather I began to lose interest pretty quickly. I hung in there though, and was rewarded with the Rashomon section, exploring Lisa's relationship with Alan, played by Anthony Forwood, from the viewpoint of a couple of different characters. I wish more of the film had been like that.

The performances are OK and Hammer keep the cost down by only really shooting in two locations (and one of those is only a single scene). Another drag though was the score that, at least in the version I saw, swelled at the wrong moments and drowned out dialogue at times.

It's not the worst film I've watched to keep up with the podcast, but it's far from good.

I'm inserting reviews of all films I've seen that so far are lacking one, this is a rare occasion where I can recommend one of these obscurities, review follows.... Hammer thriller, based on a BBC radio serial, the Rev S.Cherry is on his way to the west country, his car breaks down & he has to stay the night at a country house, just as a suspicious death occurs! I got a copy from a collector in the USA, it had been sourced from a screening on C4 in the UK, unfortunately it was in poor condition, and the end was missing; if you get a chance, give it a look and post a more informative review, it's worth a look. Need 10 lines re odd IMDb rules, so will simply comment that the director Godfrey Grayson directed a few films for Hammer in a short 3 year period from 1949 to 1951.

It is little surprise that this film did not lead to a series.The film was very static and the narration became a serious impediment to any tension.Apart from that the main character seemed to do little detection WOR until the usual summary at the end.The cramped confines of Bray House made the film look even cheaper than it was.