A Rank Organisation B movie coming in at only 47 minutes, Penny and the Pownall Case is interesting for all sorts of ancillary reasons, but interesting in its own right too.
The ancillaries. An early role for Christopher Lee. An early role for Diana Dors, still brunette and not yet in “British Marilyn Monroe” mode (but then in 1948 Monroe herself was still on the starting blocks). The only film directed by the curiously named Slim Hand, who was more usually one of Rank’s production managers. The first British film scored by a woman, Elisabeth Lutyens (daughter of renowned architect Edwin).
Lee referred to his time on the film as a “truly grisly free-for-all” and recalls squirming with embarrassment when the finished product was screened for cast and crew. But there’s actually quite a lot to like here, a spy thriller told at speed and with economy, in which the men come off second best to the doughty women.
Peggy Evans is the star, and makes a bright and bubbly Penny, the artist’s model based on Jane, a character from a comic strip in British newspaper the Daily Mirror whose various adventures involved her falling out of her clothes on a regular basis.
The strip promised much and delivered very little, which is pretty much how it goes between Penny and the commercial artist sketching her for his daily cartoon strip, Jonathan Blair (Lee). What Penny doesn’t know is that Blair is using his strip to send secret messages to an outfit spiriting ex-Nazis out of Germany.
In the film’s opening moments a British secret agent, Pownall, is killed en route from London Airport to Scotland Yard, and suddenly the game is afoot – Detective Inspector Michael Carson is on the case, dictating letters and sharing confidential information with his secretary, Molly (Dors), who happens to be Penny’s flatmate.
Before long gossipy Molly is telling Penny about the Pownall case, so when Penny hears the name Pownall at work with Blair the next day, her ears prick up. Suddenly, going back on an earlier decision, she is agreeing to go to Spain with the predatory artist, knowing that his main reason for inviting her is to get her into bed.
I’m oversharing in plot terms because really the film is about Penny getting into and out of various outfits at Blair’s studio – “Call that work!?” his cartoonish cleaner Mrs Hodgson carps – and being caught half in and half out of her clothes at other private moments.
It’s all very tame, really, but you get the idea and it injects a bit of a frisson.
What’s odd about the film is that first-billed Ralph Michael, who plays Carson, doesn’t figure that much. Carson does barely any police work; in reality Penny is the cop on this case, aided to an extent by Molly.
Both actresses are very good. Peggy Evans is a good looking and bouncy presence, a product of the Rank charm school, which was based next door to the Highbury Studios where the film was shot. Christopher Lee and Diana Dors were also graduates of the much mocked “Company of Youth”, which sounds all a bit Third Reich, but did manage to turn out quite a few names – Claire Bloom, Joan Collins, Patrick McGoohan.
Another interesting gobbet – Lee is a villain here, the guy helping the Nazis flee, whereas in the aftermath of the war he actually worked as a spy hunting down Nazis on the run. Lee was also related to Ian Fleming, so might possibly have been a model for James Bond? Wild speculation. Either way, this was Lee’s first villain role and, along with Evans and Dors, really helps this efficient, tightly directed, low-budget entertainment swing.
Penny and the Pownall Case – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2025
