The Long Dark Hall

source: The Long Dark Hall

Moviecut—The Long Dark Hall

The Long Dark Hall

The Long Dark Hall is a crime drama starring Rex Harrison and his real- life wife (at the time), Lilli Palmer, who in the film, play husband and wife, Arthur and Mary Groome. This seems to be a story within a story as told by a newspaper reporter to a crime novelist. But, the internal story is the one that I focused on throughout the movie. In this story, Arthur and Mary Groome appear to be a happily married couple who live in Richmond with two young daughters. However, when a London showgirl is found dead on a night that Arthur visited her—which he admitted to everyone that he often did--he is accused of her murder. Yet, he claimed he did not kill her, and his wife, Mary, totally believes him. His accusation and trial for her murder is based on a ton of circumstantial evidence, including his knife at the scene, witnesses, and her blood on his suit (which he admits, he in the trial, that he burned because it couldn't be dry cleaned)....

Rex Harrison stars as Arthur Groom, a man on trial for murdering a stage girl. This girl was young and became an obsession of Groom. The timeline becomes very critical as Groom claims that he spoke to a "large Italian man" at 10:00pm, the very time when the girl was murdered. All the circumstantial evidence such as the knife, seen there, lied about being in neighborhood and knowing the girl. No one can find his alibi. Trouble is as Groom tells everyone on the witness stand "I'm telling the truth but no one believes me, trouble is that it doesn't sound true, what good is the truth when it doesn't sound true." Lilli Palmer is Mary Groome, his faithful wife that stands with Arthur but will her marriage vow of "until death" be tested.

The plot is not original...Mistress is Murdered,Married Man accussed...Wife stands by him. But Sir Rex Harrison makes you believe in the story. Harrison gives an extremely fine and brilliant performance which raises the film from a typical pot boiler into the story of a regretful innocent man. Lily Palmer (at the time..Mrs. Harrison) is also in fine form as his on screen wife.

THE LONG DARK HALL is a rather average murder mystery from 1951 that needed a director of the status of a Hitchcock in order to give it some "boom". The story sees a showgirl murdered in an early sequence by the ever-sinister Anthony Dawson; subsequently, the mysterious Rex Harrison finds himself accused of the crime and struggling to prove his innocence. The fact that we see the murder carried out early on robs the story of suspense, and the decision to play things out in flashback as a kind of courtroom drama doesn't help much either. Harrison was never one of the most sympathetic actors out there, so in the end this is a rather "take it or leave it" kind of movie.

A Broody, Moody Movie that is a slightly better than Average British Thriller that makes up for its slim Story and vapid Ending with Atmospheric touches and strong Characters. It has a striking Noirish beginning with very dark streets inhabited by a Serial Killer that resembles a sewer rat. One of the Victims has a cheating Husband as a Lover and He is falsely accused of Her Murder. The middle becomes a Courtroom Melodrama with cross examinations and suspect Witnesses. This all leads to a confrontation between the real Killer and the Accused Man's Wife that is edge of your seat Suspenseful. This Movie has a Sleazy Look and a Downbeat Tone that aside from the aforementioned Wrap Up, places it in the Realm of Foreign Film-Noir and has a Creep Factor that is exploited by the truly unsettling Murderer and dingy surroundings. Slightly underrated.