The October Man (1947)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Roy Ward Baker

Writers:

Eric Ambler (novel) and
Eric Ambler (screenplay)

Release Date:

20 May 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery

Tagline:

He was Suspect Number One...while the real killer stalked the streets. [video cover]

Plot:

Jim Ackland, who suffers from a head injury sustained in a bus crash , is the chief suspect in a murder hunt...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Mental Illness | Man Hunt | Based On Novel

Cast

John Mills	...	Jim Ackland
Joan Greenwood	...	Jenny Carden
Edward Chapman	...	Mr. Peachy
Kay Walsh	...	Molly Newman
Joyce Carey	...	Mrs. Vinton
Catherine Lacey	...	Miss Selby
Adrianne Allen	...	Joyce Carden
Felix Aylmer	...	Dr. Martin
Frederick Piper	...	Det. Insp. Godby
John Boxer	...	Det. Sgt. Troth
Patrick Holt	...	Harry Carden
George Benson	...	Mr. Pope
Jack Melford	...	Wilcox
Esme Beringer	...	Miss Heap
Ann Wilton	...	Miss Parsons

Runtime:

110 min | Germany:90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Germany:16 | Finland:K-16 | UK:A

Filming Locations:

D and P Studios, Denham Studios, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Two Cities Films

October is the cruelest month?

I first heard of this 1947 British film in one of Leslie Halliwell's books. Written by Eric Ambler and directed by Roy Baker, it's kind of a British answer to Hollywod's noir, essentially a reworking of Grahame Greene's Ministry Of Fear. Chemist (and I do mean "chemist", not pharmacist or apothecary) John Mills blames himself for the death a friend's daughter in a bus crash, which also gives Mills a concussion and tendencies towards blackouts and amnesia. Quicker than you can say "Alfred Hitchcock" Mills is accused of murdering a fellow resident of his boarding house, and poor old John can't remember if he did it or not. What's most fascinating to me is the subtext -- Mills is clearly supposed to represent returning war veterans, but the film's makers were too afraid to have war wounds be the source of his blackouts (even though H'wood had already done it in The Blue Dahlia) and instead resorted to the bus crash contrivance. There is effective direction by Baker (who went to H'wood and made the classic 3D "depthie" Inferno, later returning to England to do A Night To Remember) and Ambler's script is good, with a few surprise scattered throughout.