Green for Danger

A country hospital during the Second World War. German aircraft pass over and bombs fall. A postman is brought in wounded. The operation looks simple. He dies on the table and the reason is unclear. A nurse says she has noticed something and the next day she is killed too. Inspector Cockrill comes from Scotland Yard. He is pleased with himself, sardonic, and needles everyone. There are five suspects: two surgeons, two nurses and an anaesthetist. All of them have something to hide. Cockrill gathers them in one room. Sidney Gilliat directs. Alastair Sim plays Cockrill; Leo Genn, Trevor Howard and Sally Gray are in the cast. It is a British production, made in 1946. The source is Christianna Brand's novel. The inspector Alastair Sim plays is its best known feature; the character is built as the reverse of the classic detective and gets things wrong. The narrative uses the war not as background but as part of the tension; the sound of bombing runs through the scenes. The operating theatre scenes are shot in detail and the medical detail is functional in the solution. The ending does not put the detective in the right, an unusual choice for its period. The narrative carries romantic lines too but does not resolve them. The film was among the successful British crime pictures of its time. Its limit is age; the narrative is weighted to talk, the pace slow, and the solution technical. Who it is for: viewers who like British crime films and classic detective pictures. Who it is not for: it is old, slow, and the ending technical.