• Source: Tread Softly Stranger

Tread Softly Stranger is a 1958 British crime drama film directed by Gordon Parry and starring Diana Dors, George Baker and Terence Morgan. The screenplay was written by George Minter adapted from the stage play Blind Alley (1953) by Jack Popplewell. The film was shot in black-and-white in film noir style, and its setting in an industrial town in northern England mirrors the kitchen sink realism movement coming into vogue in English drama and film at the time.




Plot


Johnny Mansell has fled to the Yorkshire steel town of Rawborough, his home town, after racking up large gambling debts in London. He moves into a cramped flat with his brother Dave, a clerk in a local steel mill. Dave's girlfriend Calico, a hostess in a local nightclub, lives close by and their flats have neighbouring flat roof spaces which they often use. Calico comes up with a plan for the brothers to rob the payroll at Dave's workplace to steal enough money to cover Dave's fraud and Johnny's debts.




Cast






Production


The film was shot at Walton Studios in Walton-on-Thames and on location in Parkgate, Rotherham.
The eponymous theme tune was sung by Jim Dale.




Box office


Kinematograph Weekly listed it as being "in the money" at the British box office in 1958.




Critical reception


In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan wrote: ''Thriller has silly dialogue, fails to make use of Rotheram backgrounds.''
Leslie Halliwell wrote: "Hilarious murky melodrama full of glum faces, with a well-worn trick ending; rather well photographed."
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "The big question here is, what on earth were Diana Dors, Terence Morgan and George Baker doing in such a dreary little film? Director Gordon Parry was capable of making involving pictures, but here he insists on his cast delivering each line as if it had the dramatic weight of a Russian novel, which is more than a little preposterous for a petty melodrama about criminal brothers falling for the same girl."




Release


Tread Softly Stranger received its first DVD release in the UK in 2008.




References






External links


Tread Softly Stranger at IMDb
Tread Softly Stranger at AllMovie
Tread Softly Stranger at BFI
Tread Softly Stranger at the TCM Movie Database
Tread Softly Stranger at BritMovie (archived)
Tread Softly Stranger at British 60s Cinema
Tread Softly Stranger at Letterbox DVD
Tread Softly Stranger at Noir of the Week

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Diana Dors
• Tread Softly Stranger
• George Baker (British actor)
• List of film noir titles
• Patrick Allen (actor)
• Russell Napier
• Jim!
• Terence Morgan
• Jane Griffiths (actress)
• Andrew Keir
• Joseph Tomelty