Scarlet Thread is a 1951 British second feature (‘B’)[1] crime drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and produced by Ernest G. Roy.[2] It was written by Moie Charles and A.R. Rawlinson.
Plot
Two criminals plan a jewellery robbery. The robbery goes wrong and an innocent man is shot.
Cast
- Kathleen Byron as Josephine
- Laurence Harvey as Freddie
- Sydney Tafler as Marcon
- Arthur Hill as Shaw
- Dora Bryan as Maggie
- Eliot Makeham as Jason
- Harry Fowler as Sam
- Cyril Chamberlain as Mason
- Renee Kelly as Eleanor
- Hylton Allen as the Dean
Production
The film was made at Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, England, and on location.
Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: “Sydney Tafler and Laurence Harvey do well as the unattractive pair of gangsters, and the characterisation and dialogue are as a whole more effective than the improbable story.”[3]
Kine Weekly wrote: “Well-made, if slightly far-fetched romantic melodrama … Unusual and intriguing story, exciting climax, feminine angle, and quota.”[4]
In The Radio Times Guide to Films Allen Eyles gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: “In one of his early leading roles, Laurence Harvey working with Alfie director Lewis Gilbert gives this downbeat British crime drama some modest interest. Harvey is convincingly unpleasant as the skirt-chasing spiv and petty criminal with a sleazy charm, who panics and kills a bystander during a jewel robbery. But the twist in the tale is more implausible than ironic.”[5]
References
- ^ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British ‘B’ Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-8445-7319-6.
- ^ “Scarlet Thread”. British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 5 April 2025.
- ^ “Scarlet Thread”. The Monthly Film Bulletin. 18 (204): 281. 1 January 1951. ProQuest 1305814418.
- ^ “Scarlet Thread”. Kine Weekly. 439 (2417): 20. 22 October 1953. ProQuest 2738578714.
- ^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 808. ISBN 9780992936440.