Quarter 1 Reviews- 018 Mystery- Old

018 Mystery – Old

At times, I did despair of Hanging Judge from 1953; at an hour and a half, it was WAY, WAY too long (a consequence of its era, no doubt, but also probably due to writer Raymond Massey’s self-indulgence and a desire to give star Boris Karloff a really good part).  I reckon you could have done it in half an hour, 45 minutes tops, these days, and made a really tight thriller.  Nevertheless, Karloff does get a chance to really test those acting chops, playing a cavern-voiced, sinister, yet highly urbane and eloquent High Court judge who is known for convicting innocent men and sending them to the gallows.  This earns him enemies.  A supremely slimy individual, Sir Francis Brittain leads a double life in the remote countryside as Frederick Bainbridge, where he has illicit relations (how taboo for radio in 1953!) with a guileless West Country servant called Mary Reddish (Gabrielle Blunt).  One day, he gets accosted at his club by John Teal (John T. St Barry), who arranges to meet him in Norfolk.  There, Teal reveals he is Brittain’s illegitimate son and has brought letters Brittain wrote to his mother, first of all urging an abortion, then washing his hands of the whole affair.  However, Teal is at least as horrid as his father, as he engineers his own death by Brittain’s hands, making it look like a premeditated murder.  Immunity can protect Brittain only for so long, and eventually he is put on trial, his enemies baying for his blood.  As a vehicle for Karloff, it’s great stuff; as a narrative, it’s pretty tortured yet effective.  Nevertheless, it’s populated by boring stuffed shirts, lawyers and policemen the lot of them, despite the best efforts of the actors.  What a stifling place Britain must have been in 1953.  No wonder the Goons were trying to drive themselves sane.  It was produced by Cleland Finn and also starred Hugh Manning, Duncan McIntyre, Howieson Culff, Robert Webber, Richard Williams, Norman Claridge, and Richard Hutton.