The Four Just Men (1939 film)
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The Four Just Men | |
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Original Australian trade ad
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Directed by | Walter Summers |
Produced by | Michael Balcon |
Written by | Edgar Wallace (novel) Angus MacPhail Sergei Nolbandov Roland Pertwee |
Starring | Hugh Sinclair Griffith Jones Francis L. Sullivan Frank Lawton Anna Lee |
Music by | Ernest Irving |
Cinematography | Ronald Neame |
Edited by | Stephen Dalby Charles Saunders |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | ABFD (UK) Monogram Pictures (US) |
Release dates
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June 1939 |
Running time
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85 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
The Four Just Men is a 1939 British thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Hugh Sinclair, Griffith Jones, Edward Chapman and Frank Lawton.[1] It is based on the novel The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace. There was a previous silent film version in 1921.[2] The film was made at Ealing Studios,[3] with sets designed by Wilfred Shingleton.
The Four Just Men was re-released in 1944 with an updated ending featuring newsreel of Winston Churchill and the Allied war effort as a fulfilment of the ideals of the Four. The adviser on the House of Commons of the United Kingdom scenes was Aneurin Bevan. [4]
Plot
The Four Men are British World War I veterans who unite to work in secret against enemies of the country. They aren't above a spot of murder or sabotage to achieve their ends, but they consider themselves true patriots.
Cast
- Hugh Sinclair – Humphrey Mansfield
- Griffith Jones – James Brodie
- Francis L. Sullivan – Leon Poiccard
- Frank Lawton – Terry
- Anna Lee – Arm Lodge
- Alan Napier – Sir Hamar Ryman M.P.
- Basil Sydney – Frank Snell
- Lydia Sherwood – Myra Hastings
- Edward Chapman- B. J. Burrell
- Athole Stewart – Police Commissioner
- George Merritt – Inspector Falmouth
- Garry Marsh – Bill Grant
- Ellaline Terriss – Lady Willoughby
- Roland Pertwee – Mr Hastings
- Eliot Makeham – Simmons
- Frederick Piper – Pickpocket
- Henrietta Watson – Mrs Truscott
- Jon Pertwee – Rally campaigner
- Liam Gaffney – Taxi driver
- James Knight – Policeman Outside Parliament
- Charles Paton – Platform Speaker
- Percy Walsh – Prison Governor
- Percy Parsons – American Broadcaster
- Bryan Herbert – Taxi driver
- Arthur Hambling – Constable Benham
Critical reception
The New York Times wrote, "Four Just Men, by Edgar Wallace, whatever it might have been, was probably not a work of literature, and therefore, on that charitable assumption, it is gently, rather than harshly, that one must deal with the British-made screen version, now on view at the Globe Theatre. Like all pictures seeping over from England nowadays, it is more than a little infected with the virus propagandistus, but, over and above that common-carrier failing, it is a model of sheer incredibility crossed with what (carrying out the charity idea) we might designate as espionage melodrama" ;[5] while the Radio Times wrote, "produced by Michael Balcon at Ealing, it defiantly suggests that Britain could never fall under the sway of a dictator. But in all other respects it's a rollicking boys' own adventure, with some of the most fiendishly comic-book murders you will ever see... hugely entertaining sub-Hitchcockian antics." [6]
References
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- ↑ Wood p.100
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Bibliography
- Low, Rachael. Filmmaking in 1930s Britain. George Allen & Unwin, 1985.
- Perry, George. Forever Ealing. Pavilion Books, 1994.
- Wood, Linda. British Films, 1927-1939. British Film Institute, 1986.
External links
- Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). The Four Just Men at IMDb
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- English-language films
- 1939 films
- British films
- 1930s thriller films
- British thriller films
- Films directed by Walter Forde
- Ealing Studios films
- Films set in London
- Films set in England
- Films based on British novels
- Films based on works by Edgar Wallace
- 1930s British film stubs
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