The Clouded Yellow (1950)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Ralph Thomas

Writer:

Janet Green (original story and screenplay)

Release Date:

25 December 1950 (UK)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

When Secret Service agent David Somers is fired, he takes a quiet job with the Fentons at their country estate - cataloging butterflies...

Plot Keywords:

Lake District | Murder | Handyman | Butterfly | Fired Employee

Cast

Jean Simmons	...	Sophie Malraux
Trevor Howard	...	Maj. David Somers
Sonia Dresdel	...	Jess Fenton
Barry Jones	...	Nicholas Fenton
Kenneth More	...	Willy Shepley
Geoffrey Keen	...	Police Inspector
André Morell	...	Secret Service Chief Chubb (as Andre Morell)
Michael Brennan	...	Police Superintendent
Gerard Heinz	...	Dr. Karl Cesare
Lily Kann	...	Minna Cesare
Eric Pohlmann	...	Taxidermist
Richard Wattis	...	Employment Agent
Sandra Dorne	...	Kyra
Maire O'Neill	...	Nora
Maxwell Reed	...	Hick

Runtime:

USA:95 min | USA:85 min (video) | UK:95 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Norway:16 | USA:Approved (PCA #14606) | UK:PG (video rating) | UK:U (original rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

County Durham, England, UK

Company:

Carillon Films

An interesting, not-quite-Hitchcock film

Sort of paint-by-numbers Hitchcock. But still, it probably comes closer to the style of the master than any other pretender with the exception of "Niagara".

Hitch always liked a story with some odd eccentricities to the plot. This story has a butterfly collector, a taxidermist, and some shady Chinese Liverpudlians.

But you can tell it's not Hitch easily enough. I believe it's the pacing, which never reaches a nail-biting pitch of intensity -- more like nail-drumming. I hope someone more astute than I will analyse precisely what marks this film as ultimately un-Hitchcock.

The film's ending is very abrupt and more than a little unsatisfying, with the loose ends being tied up in a slip knot.

An important element in many a great Hitchcock film is the pursuit sequence through imaginative locations. At least we are not disappointed in that respect. Besides Liverpool, our hero and heroine are hunted through night-time Newcastle which is made to resemble Vienna in an earlier Trevor Howard film, "The Third Man". Some of the best chase scenes take place among the hills, lakes, and waterfalls of the English Switzerland -- the Lake District, at that time in Cumberland (hence the name of the bus line) and Westmorland.

Our beautiful English Swiss Miss, Jean Simmons, seems to be more voluptuous here than she would be later in her career, but perhaps I'm mistaken.

The film's mysterious title refers to a variety of butterfly found in a meadow near the collector's house.