In the midst of Nazi air raids, a postman dies on the operating table at a rural English hospital. But was the death accidental? A delightful and wholly unexpected murder mystery, British writer/director Sidney Gilliat’s Green for Danger features Trevor Howard and Sally Gray as suspected doctors and Alastair Sim in a marvelous turn as Scotland Yard’s insouciant Inspector Cockrill. A screenwriter who had worked with Hitchcock on such films as The Lady Vanishes and Jamaica Inn, Gilliat slyly upends whodunit conventions with wit and style.
Cast
| Mr. Eden | Leo Genn |
| Inspector Cockrill | Alastair Sim |
| Dr. Barnes | Trevor Howard |
| Nurse Freddi Linley | Sally Gray |
| Nurse Esther Sanson | Rosamund John |
| Sister Marion Bates | Judy Campbell |
| Nurse Woods | Megs Jenkins |
| Dr. White | Ronald Adam |
| Mr. Purdy | Henry Edwards |
| Joseph Higgins | Moore Marriott |
| Detective Sgt. Hendricks | George Woodbridge |
| Porter | John Rae |
Credits
| Director | Sidney Gilliat |
| Producer | Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder |
| Based on the novel by | Christianna Brand |
| Screenplay | Sidney Gilliat and Claud Gurney |
| Cinematography | Wilkie Cooper |
| Music | William Alwyn |
| Played by | The London Symphony Orchestra |
| Conducted by | Muir Mathieson |
| Editing | Thelma Myers |
| Production Design | Peter Proud |
| Production manager | A. S. Bates |
by Geoffrey O’Brien
Feb 12, 2007
Green for Danger is an escapist entertainment made just after the close of World War II—a classical whodunit with an impeccably droll Scotland Yard inspector in charge of the proceedings—and it is at the same time a film pervaded by the war just ended, whose wreckage was everywhere evident . . .
by Robert Mundy
May 10, 1993
Green for Danger is a welcome twist on that most venerable of English concoctions, the drawing-room thriller. In this instance, the drawing room is instead a hospital not far from London, where surgery is conducted under a cascade of German flying bombs. Production on the film did not . . .
