The Rossiter Case

Clement McCallin is wholly convincing, as he hits the panic button, feverishly digging through his coat pockets and lining in a desperate bid to locate a missing package. An equally thorough search of his car leads to the inevitable conclusion that the item is lost. His ensuing horror is almost palpable. Unfortunately, at a later stage, he's not quite so impressive as the plastered pub patron, lurching around, while slurring demands for another whiskey.

Ironically, these two scenes set the tone for a jarringly uneven movie. Severely paralysed Helen Shingler is determined to both recover and hold on to philandering hubby, McCallin, rapidly being drawn into the clutches of femme fatale, Sheila Burrell. The picture gives us a snatch of soap opera here and a taste of mannered deportment there, before a surprisingly dark, dramatic twist dissolves into a torrent of rambling, sentimental twaddle, accompanied by suitably syrupy strings.

Where movies like 'Rossiter' score most points is providing an insight into the prevailing attitudes and tenets of affluent post war Britain, where elements of Edwardian society remain in tact: The servants, housekeepers and cooks. The staunch, unwavering view towards 'the done thing' and 'not the done thing.' The eye-popping, jaw dropping response to the merest whiff of scandal. Throw in a variable print, a few missing frames and you pretty much have the .....er...complete package.

The only point of interest in this way too talky film was seeing a young Stanley Baker as a glorified extra cast as Joe who is entrusted with one line of dialogue by the producers and yet he became the more famous of the cast.Other reviewers have given the basic premise of this 1950 film which could have been edited to one half its length.I will not repeat the sparse plot and I only rated it 6/10.The only actor familiar to me was seeing Euen Solon as the police inspector.I agree with another user's review, it should not have been filmed but consigned to the radio at a time when most of the population went to the cinema to see their heroes and heroines of the silver screen and listened to the radio.

Helen Shingler is paralyzed from the waist down. Her husband, Clement McCallin, loves her dearly, but is carrying on an affair with his sister-in-law, Sheila Burrell. Everyone knows about it, but keeps quiet. When Helen tells McCallin that the doctor says her paralysis can be cured, he decides to call an end to the affair, calmly, decently, but she tells him she is expecting. So he does the only thing a man can do decently in a situation like that: he goes out and gets stinking drunk. Meanwhile, his wife has one of the help wheel her to Sheila's cottage, where the two of them have it out.

It's a murder story, but not a murder mystery. It's a story of emotions and doing the right thing and stiff-upper-lipping it through a bad situation. It's not the sort of story I like, but it seems to be very well done, even though it's a cheap affair from Hammer. It's from a stage play by Kenneth Hyde. None of the actors are well known, but they all do a fine job.

I've said that none of the actors are well known, but Miss Shingler celebrated her hundredth birthday this year.

Wasn't intending to review this quite entertaining film, but so many people are referring to the character Honour as Liz Rossiter's sister that I wanted to put the record straight. Honour is Mr Peter's sister-in-law, which naturally leads one to think she is Liz's sister, but in fact she was married to Mr Peter's brother, Mr Christopher, so no relation at all. In fact, the staff constantly refer to her as 'Mrs Christopher'. (Liz is also constantly referred to as Mrs Peter. Very irritating, but this is 1951). We don't know what happened to Mr Christopher, who apparently did a disappearing act after the War rather than go back to his harridan of a wife, and who can blame him?

Maybe the music director decided that the dreadfully slow drama needed beefing up.So he thought it could do with a touch of the Max Steiners.So every dramatic moment is overlaid by screeching violins which at times render the dialogue inaudible. This film only warms up in the last 15 minutes.This despite the fact that the writers and director were very experienced in making this sort of film.