The Large Rope

The Large Rope
Directed byWolf Rilla
Written byTed Willis
Produced byVictor Hanbury
StarringDonald Houston
Susan Shaw
Robert Brown
CinematographyGeoffrey Faithfull
Edited byPeter Graham Scott
Music byRonald Binge
Production
company
Victor Hanbury Productions (as Insignia)
Distributed byUnited Artists Corporation (UK)
Release date
  • December 1953 (1953-12) (UK)
Running time
72 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Large Rope (also known as The Long Rope) is a 1953 British crime film directed by Wolf Rilla and starring Donald Houston, Susan Shaw and Robert Brown.[1]

Plot

Tom Penney returns to his village after serving three years in prison for an assault that he did not commit, determined to take his revenge on those who framed him. He meets hostility from most of the village including his father, but his mother is glad to see him, and his former girlfriend, Susan, who is about to be married that day, finds her old feelings for him resurface. Amy Jordan, the flirtatious married woman he is supposed to have assaulted three years ago, is found dead in nearby woods just as the wedding is due to begin, and Susan runs from the church when she hears the news. Tom is taken in by the police for questioning, but escapes, and both he and the police try to discover the killer, while most of the villagers, convinced that Tom is the murderer, form a lynch mob.

Cast

Critical reception

The film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane describe The Large Rope as an "excellent thriller", adding that it has "an arresting narrative premise and an unsentimental view of the potential mean-spiritedness of village life".[2]

References

  1. ^ BFI Database entry
  2. ^ Steve Chibnall & Brian McFarlane The British 'B' Film, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009, p. 139.


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