A tightly plotted and nicely played whodunit of the old school, Green for Danger is also British to the core. Set during the Second World War, it was made in 1946, when it was possible to look back at the darkest hour – the Blitz, doodlebugs (the weaponised drones of yore) and all that with half a smile.
The plot centres on the death in hospital of a man whose minor operation shouldn’t have killed him at all. Did someone want this local postman dead? If so, why? The medical team who operated on him all look guilty as hell, but all also seem to have plausible alibis. Enter Alastair Sim as Inspector Cockrill in what looks like a warm-up for Sim’s starring role in The Inspector Calls eight years later, except here the cop isn’t just drole, he’s quite the comedian.
As for the rest of them, dark and not so dark secrets – two men fighting over the same woman, the hot-headed anaesthetist Dr Barnes (Trevor Howard) with a skeleton rattling and the too-charming, womanising surgeon Mr Eden (Leo Genn). Looking on forlornly from the side is Sister Bates (Judy Campbell), one of Eden’s many discarded lovers. Nurse Sanson (Rosamund John) verging on a nervous breakdown over the death of her mother. Nurse Woods (Megs Jenkins), who looks like a wrong’un from the start and might be a Nazi collaborator. And Nurse Linley (Sally Gray), the woman the two men are locking horns over.
As said, any one of them could have done it, but if it takes the inspector till the film’s closing moments to flush out the killer – by getting the medical team to restage the operation that called him there in the first place – he has worked out the murder method almost instantly. Switched gas bottles leading to the anaesthetist inadvertently killing the patient. Green is for danger if it indicates the gas within is deadly carbon dioxide.
It’s directed by Sidney Gilliat and co-produced by him and his frequent writing/directing partner Frank Launder, a duo responsible for any number of fine British films from the 1930s to the 1950s and beyond. They also wrote The Lady Vanishes for Alfred Hitchcock and the same lightness of touch, gentle comedic tone and spareness of detail is evident here, along with the economy of Gilliat’s direction.
There’s a noirish element, thanks to the lighting by Wilkie Cooper and the clarion brass of composer William Alwyn, and Sue Gray brings a femme fatale noirishness to the role of Nurse Linley, the sort of woman a man might kill for.
Gray is in fact wowsers throughout, and you can understand why there’s trouble between Barnes and Eden. But it’s Alastair Sim who really makes the movie, and transforms it from being potentially just another Agatha Christie-style whodunit into something that’s simultaneously fun and deadly serious.
The book on which the film is based was written by Christianna Brand. Her cop hero appeared in six other stories but this is the only time Cockrill made it onto the screen. A pity. He’s an ideal fit for Sim and his peculiar ability to switch from light to dark at the blink of an eye.
It all wraps up neatly in just a shade over 90 minutes with an added surprise twist beyond the revelation of the killer, which appears to accuse the inspector of having been too flippant by half. There’s a war on, you know, seems to be the idea, and pulling together requires a certain fixity of purpose. Shoulder to the wheel and no messing about.
If you’re interested, the Criterion Collection also think this is something of a winner, and I can see no good reason not to go for their restored, hi-def digital transfer, DVD or Blu-ray, which comes with a commentary, subtitles and an essay filling in background detail. Well worth spending your pocket money on.
Green for Danger – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2024
