Tiger in the Smoke
Encyclopedia
Tiger in the Smoke is a 1956
British
crime film
directed by Roy Ward Baker
and starring Donald Sinden
, Muriel Pavlow
, Tony Wright
, Bernard Miles
and Christopher Rhodes
. It is based on the 1952 novel The Tiger in the Smoke
by Margery Allingham
, although the film omits the principal character of Albert Campion
. The film is set in a noirish
smog
-shrouded London, and combines the genres of mystery
, thriller, crime
and drama
. The cinematography was by Geoffrey Unsworth
.
, Meg Elgin is led to believe he is still alive and arranges a meeting at a London railway station
. When she arrives there with the police accompanying her, she catches sight of a man in the distance wearing an old coat
of her husband's. When he is pursued and captured, he turns out to be Duds Morrison a former soldier and out-of-work actor recently let out of prison. He refuses to tell them anything, and having nothing they can charge him with, the police release him.
His interest aroused by the pictures sent to Meg, her new fiancé Geoffrey Leavitt follows Morrison and tries to demand an answer from him about his sudden appearance masquerading as Meg’s dead husband. Morrison again refuses to talk, and tries to flee from Leavitt - into an ally where he is set upon by a gang of ex-soldiers who beat him to death and take Leavitt off as a prisoner.
It is soon revealed that they are ex-commandos
and former comrades of Morrison, with whom they served on a raid in Brittany
in the Second World War. The commander of the raid had been Major Elgin, the husband of Meg. They were led to believe that Elgin had secreted a large amount of treasure in a house in Brittany and now that he is dead they are desperate to get their hands on it. They are wary of their former Sergeant, a psychopath named Jack Havoc, who has recently escaped from prison and committed several murders, who is also seeking out the treasure. Believing that Morrison was an accomplice of Havoc, they attacked him.
Wearing their old uniforms they have spent the past few years trying to carve out a living as street musicians, begging from passers by. Realising that releasing Leavitt might open them to being charged for the murder of Morrison, they bind him up and keep him as a prisoner. He is rescued later by a patrol policemen who investigates the squat while the musicians are out. Leavitt returns to Meg and together they head to Brittany to find the treasure. Havoc, now united with his former comrades, also travels to France where he discovers to his disgust that when Major Elgin had spoken of his ‘priceless’ treasure he had in fact been referring to its artistic beauty rather than its monetary worth. The treasure is in fact a statue of the Madonna.
1956 in film
The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...
British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
crime film
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
directed by Roy Ward Baker
Roy Ward Baker
Roy Ward Baker , born Roy Horace Baker, was an English film director, credited as Roy Baker for much of his career. His best known film is A Night to Remember which won a Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film in 1959...
and starring Donald Sinden
Donald Sinden
Sir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE is an English actor of theatre, film and television.-Personal life:Sinden was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, on 9 October 1923. The son of Alfred Edward Sinden and his wife Mabel Agnes , he grew up in the Sussex village of Ditchling, where their home doubled as the...
, Muriel Pavlow
Muriel Pavlow
Muriel Lilian Pavlow is a British actress. Her mother was French and her father was Russian.-Film career:She began work as a child actor with John Gielgud and the Royal Shakespeare Company...
, Tony Wright
Tony Wright (actor)
Tony Wright was a British film actor.-Selected filmography:* The Flanagan Boy * Jumping for Joy * Jacqueline * Tiger in the Smoke * Seven Thunders...
, Bernard Miles
Bernard Miles
Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre opened in the City of London since the 17th century....
and Christopher Rhodes
Christopher Rhodes
Sir Christopher George Rhodes, 3rd Baronet was an English film and television actor.-Early life:Rhodes was the only son of Sir John Rhodes, 2nd Baronet, and was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. During the Second World War he served with the Essex Regiment, reaching the rank...
. It is based on the 1952 novel The Tiger in the Smoke
The Tiger in the Smoke
The Tiger in the Smoke is a crime novel by Margery Allingham, first published in 1952, in the United Kingdom by Chatto & Windus, London and in the United States by Doubleday Doran, New York. It is the fourteenth novel in the Albert Campion series....
by Margery Allingham
Margery Allingham
Margery Louise Allingham was an English crime writer, best remembered for her detective stories featuring gentleman sleuth Albert Campion.- Childhood and schooling :...
, although the film omits the principal character of Albert Campion
Albert Campion
Albert Campion is a fictional character in a series of detective novels and short stories by Margery Allingham. He first appeared as a supporting character in The Crime at Black Dudley , an adventure story involving a ring of criminals, and would go on to feature in another 17 novels and over 20...
. The film is set in a noirish
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
smog
Smog
Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine...
-shrouded London, and combines the genres of mystery
Mystery fiction
Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...
, thriller, crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
and drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
. The cinematography was by Geoffrey Unsworth
Geoffrey Unsworth
Geoffrey Unsworth OBE, BSC was a British cinematographer who worked on nearly 90 feature films spanning over more than 40 years....
.
Plot
Having been sent a picture of her husband, a war hero killed in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Meg Elgin is led to believe he is still alive and arranges a meeting at a London railway station
London railway station
The London station group is a ring of eighteen stations served by the National Rail network in central London, England. Most are terminal stations, although a few are through stations or have a combination of terminal and through platforms. Each distinct station is part of a notional "common...
. When she arrives there with the police accompanying her, she catches sight of a man in the distance wearing an old coat
Coat (clothing)
A coat is a long garment worn by both men and women, for warmth or fashion. Coats typically have long sleeves and are open down the front, closing by means of buttons, zippers, hook-and-loop fasteners, toggles, a belt, or a combination of some of these...
of her husband's. When he is pursued and captured, he turns out to be Duds Morrison a former soldier and out-of-work actor recently let out of prison. He refuses to tell them anything, and having nothing they can charge him with, the police release him.
His interest aroused by the pictures sent to Meg, her new fiancé Geoffrey Leavitt follows Morrison and tries to demand an answer from him about his sudden appearance masquerading as Meg’s dead husband. Morrison again refuses to talk, and tries to flee from Leavitt - into an ally where he is set upon by a gang of ex-soldiers who beat him to death and take Leavitt off as a prisoner.
It is soon revealed that they are ex-commandos
Commandos
Commandos is a stealth-oriented real-time tactics game series, available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game is set in the Second World War and follows the escapades of a fictional British Commandos section. It leans heavily on historical events during WWII to carry the plot...
and former comrades of Morrison, with whom they served on a raid in Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
in the Second World War. The commander of the raid had been Major Elgin, the husband of Meg. They were led to believe that Elgin had secreted a large amount of treasure in a house in Brittany and now that he is dead they are desperate to get their hands on it. They are wary of their former Sergeant, a psychopath named Jack Havoc, who has recently escaped from prison and committed several murders, who is also seeking out the treasure. Believing that Morrison was an accomplice of Havoc, they attacked him.
Wearing their old uniforms they have spent the past few years trying to carve out a living as street musicians, begging from passers by. Realising that releasing Leavitt might open them to being charged for the murder of Morrison, they bind him up and keep him as a prisoner. He is rescued later by a patrol policemen who investigates the squat while the musicians are out. Leavitt returns to Meg and together they head to Brittany to find the treasure. Havoc, now united with his former comrades, also travels to France where he discovers to his disgust that when Major Elgin had spoken of his ‘priceless’ treasure he had in fact been referring to its artistic beauty rather than its monetary worth. The treasure is in fact a statue of the Madonna.
Production
Except for the omission of Campion, the film follows the plot of the book very closely.Cast
- Donald SindenDonald SindenSir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE is an English actor of theatre, film and television.-Personal life:Sinden was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, on 9 October 1923. The son of Alfred Edward Sinden and his wife Mabel Agnes , he grew up in the Sussex village of Ditchling, where their home doubled as the...
as Geoffrey Leavitt - Muriel PavlowMuriel PavlowMuriel Lilian Pavlow is a British actress. Her mother was French and her father was Russian.-Film career:She began work as a child actor with John Gielgud and the Royal Shakespeare Company...
as Meg Elgin - Tony WrightTony Wright (actor)Tony Wright was a British film actor.-Selected filmography:* The Flanagan Boy * Jumping for Joy * Jacqueline * Tiger in the Smoke * Seven Thunders...
as Jack Havoc - Bernard MilesBernard MilesBernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre opened in the City of London since the 17th century....
as Doll - Alec ClunesAlec ClunesAlexander "Alec" Demoro Sherriff Clunes was an English actor and stage manager.Among the plays he presented were Christopher Fry's famous play The Lady's Not For Burning. He gave the actor and dramatist Sir Peter Ustinov his first break with his production The House of Regrets. His film career was...
as Assistant Commissioner Oates - Laurence NaismithLaurence NaismithLaurence Naismith was an English actor.Naismith appeared in films such as Carrington VC , Richard III , Sink the Bismarck! , Jason and the Argonauts , and Diamonds Are Forever . He also starred in a children's ghost film The Amazing Mr Blunden...
as The Canon - Christopher RhodesChristopher RhodesSir Christopher George Rhodes, 3rd Baronet was an English film and television actor.-Early life:Rhodes was the only son of Sir John Rhodes, 2nd Baronet, and was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. During the Second World War he served with the Essex Regiment, reaching the rank...
as Detective Chief Inspector Luke - Charles VictorCharles VictorCharles Victor was a British actor who appeared in a number of films and television between 1938 and 1965.-Selected filmography:* Return of the Frog * Hell's Cargo * Contraband...
as Will - Thomas HeathcoteThomas HeathcoteThomas Heathcote was a British character actor.He was educated at Bradfield College, near Reading in Berkshire, England. His films included A Night to Remember , Village of the Damned , Billy Budd , A Man for All Seasons , Night of the Big Heat and Quatermass and the Pit...
as Rolly Gripper - Sam KyddSam KyddSam Kydd was an Ulster-born English actor. An army officer's son, he was born in Belfast, but moved to London, England when he was a child. He was educated at Dunstable Grammar School in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England....
as Tom Gripper - Kenneth GriffithKenneth GriffithKenneth Griffith was a Welsh actor and documentary filmmaker.-Early life:He was born Kenneth Reginald Griffiths in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Six months after his birth his parents split up and left Tenby, leaving Kenneth with his paternal grandparents, Emily and Ernest, who immediately adopted...
as Gang member - Gerald HarperGerald HarperGerald Harper is an actor, best known for his work on television, having played the title roles in Adam Adamant Lives! and Hadleigh ....
as Duds Morrison - Wensley PitheyWensley PitheyWensley Pithey was a South African character actor who had a long stage career.Pithey was born in Cape Town, South Africa. A graduate of the University of Cape Town where he studied music and drama, he travelled to England in 1947...
as Detective Sergeant Pickett - Stratford JohnsStratford JohnsStratford Johns, born Alan Edgar Stratford-Johns, was a popular British stage, film and television actor who is best remembered for his starring role as Detective Inspector Charlie Barlow in the innovative and long-running BBC police series Z-Cars, created by Troy Kennedy-Martin.-Early life:Johns...
as Police Constable - Brian WildeBrian WildeBrian George Wilde was an English actor, best known for his roles in television comedy, including Mr Barrowclough in Porridge and "Foggy" Dewhurst in Last of the Summer Wine...
as Trumps - Beatrice VarleyBeatrice VarleyBeatrice Varley was a British actress who appeared in a variety of television and film roles between 1936 and 1964...
as Lucy Cash - Percy HerbertPercy Herbert (actor)Percy Herbert was an English character actor who often played soldiers, most notably in The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Wild Geese and Tunes of Glory. However, he was equally at home in comedies and science fiction...
as Copper - Dandy NicholsDandy Nichols-References:* Dandy Nichols at screenonline.* Dandy Nichols at The Museum of Broadcast Communications.-External links:...
as Stall-owner