Tourneur’s delightful mystery is a tour of postwar Britain, a road trip that takes us from the bustling markets of Covent Garden to the beautiful Scottish Highlands before stopping off in the mining communities of Wales and the busy streets of Birmingham. It’s the kind of movie that whisks you away and delights with its elegant storytelling as secrets are unbottled and lies unpicked. Studiocanal Vintage Classics Collection presents Circle of Danger on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital for the first time on February 5.
Jacques Tourneur’s 1951 RKO Picture Circle of Danger sees Clay Douglas (the brilliant Ray Milland) leave Florida and travel to postwar Britain to find answers about his younger brother’s death during a British commando raid toward the end of the Second World War. But there’s a problem: Clay doesn’t know where to start in finding the answers he seeks, other than a few random names of the soldiers his brother fought alongside.
Tourneur’s delightful mystery is a tour of postwar Britain, a road trip that takes us from the bustling markets of Covent Garden to the beautiful Scottish Highlands before stopping off in the mining communities of Wales and the busy streets of Birmingham. It’s the kind of movie that whisks you away and delights with its elegant storytelling as secrets are unbottled and lies unpicked.
As Clay tracks down the survivors from his brother’s troop, he meets the upstanding commanding officer Hamish McArran (Hugh Sinclair), the fiery and brilliant Sholto Lewis (Marius Goring), who is now a ballet choreographer, and the weaselly, shrewd and sharp Reggie Sinclair (Naunton Wayne). Clay even has time during the brisk 86-minute runtime to fall in love with a young English writer, Elspeth Graham (Patricia Roc). As the jigsaw slowly comes together, the truth will be outed, and an impossible choice will be unearthed in a windswept finale beautifully framed by the legendary cinematographer Oswald Morris (Oliver!).
Tourneur is most widely known for the superb Night of the Demon (1957) and Cat People (1942). Throughout Circle of Danger, his talent for subtle visual spectacle and naturalistic performances shines through. At the same time, the mystery, tension and play-like structure mark Circle of Danger out as Tourneur’s love letter to Hitchcock. Of course, that’s not surprising when you look at the producer, Joan Harrison, an associate of Hitchcock and lead screenwriter of Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and Suspicion and screenwriter Philip MacDonald, who also worked with Hitchcock several times.
However, while there are clear parallels to Hitchcock’s work, Tourneur’s Circle of Danger also carves its own unique path. There are moments of brilliantly timed humour that cut through the tension (the out-of-tune Scottish schoolchildren in the drawing room are a delight), and its wayward romance and rather odd love triangle are beautifully realised.
As with all their Vintage Classic Collection releases, Studiocanal delivers a stunning 4K restoration of Jacques Tourneur’s movie for the Blu-ray and digital release. The picture is crisp, the sound sharp and detailed, and the extras are an absolute delight, from an interview with Christina Lane, the author of “Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock,” to discussions with Imogen Sara Smith, author of “In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City.”
But just as delightful was the “spot the cameos” game I played while watching Tourneur’s Circle of Danger. There is a hell of a lot of outstanding British talent that flows through this movie, and I urge you to look beyond the leading players, where you will find Dora Bryan (A Taste of Honey), Peter Butterworth (Doctor Who) and Reginald Beckwith (Thunderball), to name just a few! Oh, and if you’re not whistling the tune that ripples through Robert Farnon’s brilliant score by the end, I’ll eat my hat and yours!
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