Scarlet Thread (1951) User Reviews

Inventive little thriller with some great acting

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 14 August 2016]

SCARLET THREAD is an interesting little British crime film that works thanks to a good cast and some different locations to the usual. The plot sees B-movie veterans Laurence Harvey and Sydney Tafler playing an unlikely couple of robbers who decide to team up and rob a jewellers with the help of getaway driver Harry Fowler. Unfortunately things don't go to plan and they are forced to hide out in one of the local colleges, where Harvey falls for the charms of a young woman bored with her genteel life.

The first thing to note about this film is the location: instead of the grim back streets of London, this is set in the wide open Cambridge and in particular in the grounds of one of the colleges there. It makes for a refreshing change of scenery and the director makes good use of his locations throughout. SCARLET THREAD feels unpredictable from beginning to end and has sudden bursts of tense action mixed with growing suspense so that you never quite know what's going to transpire next.

The second thing of note is that the cast is very good for a film of this budget. Harvey excels as the hot-headed young criminal and makes the viewer feel nervous whenever he's on screen. Kathleen Byron is an effective object of lust and exudes charisma and believability in her part. Best of all is Tafler in a surprisingly large and sympathetic part for the actor; his crippled character is both desperate and pitiful and really holds the film together, an A-list performance in a B-list picture. The likes of Fowler, Dora Bryan, and Cyril Chamberlain add quality in minor parts. SCARLET THREAD is a decent addition to the genre that more than holds its own against rival American fare.

interesting B thriller

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 4 August 2007]

This film has just been shown as part of the "British films forever" season on BBC2.The film was made by Butchers Films(1910-1980)which made films for the bottom half of double bills.The film stars Sydney Tafler,the brother in law of that very versatile director Lewis Gilbert.Also starring is a very young Laurence Harvey ,before he adopted the "arent i beautiful"mannerisms of his later career,There are some very interesting location shots of the West End of London,including a number of cinema exteriors and also of Cambridge.The plot is a typical thriller of its times and has more holes in its plot than you would find in a piece of Swiss cheese.There is however one very daring scene for its time.Kathleen Byron plays the frustrated girlfriend of a don.She is immediately attracted to Harvey.They have a dance then a very sensual kiss and there is a clear indication that he can have his wicked way with her when mum has gone to sleep.To ensure an early night for mum she is given a sleeping pill but fate intervenes.Anyway to buffs of British cinema it is worth a watch.

Scarlet Thread

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 12 February 2023]

There are two things memorable about this crime drama. The first is Laurence Harvey's hair - two or three tubs of Brylcream? The second is - as always - Kathleen Byron's eyes. She can smile all she likes but those eyes always look they are about to impale you, violently, on a nearby rusty nail! Actually, as this film unfolds it proves distinctly possible that the former may well end up a victim of the latter as he and his partner-in-crime "Marcon" (Sydney Tafler) take refuge at her stately pile whilst on the run from the police. Harvey ("Freddie") is a cocky young man who panics during a jewel robbery and he kills an innocent man. Now the two must flee the pursuing constabulary and slowly but surely begin to mistrust one another - a situation that comes to an head as Miss Byron ("Josephine") discovers the identity of their victim. Lewis Gilbert assembles a decent supporting cast - Dora Bryan and Tafler's regular screen pal Harry Fowler to keep this rather less predictable and more interesting than many of the genre. There is a bit of scope for characterisation and the story has a twist at the end that adds a certain element of just desserts too. Rarely seen nowadays, but worth a watch.

Racy little number

[oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx · 7/10 · 3 August 2007]

Well you could have knocked me down with a feather when I saw that this one was without 5 votes at the time of comment. I caught it on UK TV (BBC2) last night as part of a season that they are doing of great British films.

Basically the film is about an upper class jewel thief Marcon and the oikish pickpocket Freddie who becomes his protégé. Early on in the movie Freddie saves Marcon's life. After this and clearly against his better judgement Marcon feels a sort of responsibility for Freddie and decides to do a job with him. Freddie is mercurial, and unlike the blue-blood Marcon does not know when the boat should not be rocked. He's got a caveman type thang for the ladies and is not averse to the odd tantrum.

They commit a bungled jewel heist in Cambridge and have to make off on foot. They run into one of the colleges and hide in the garden of the Master's lodge. They talk their way into staying the night with Josephine, the Master's daughter who is not aware that anything is afoot. Josephine is the most interesting character, a lady whom the audience of the time would certainly have identified with. She has grown weary of the softly-dripping peace of Cambridge and her bespectacled don suitor. She's looking for a more racy life, she's bought a ticket on the ride and wants her money's worth so to speak. Cue Freddy who moves through the gears in no time impressing her with his cinema-learnt American accent and lingo.

Josephine as played by Kathleen Byron is what we in Britain would call a fox. Her skin is like alabaster and her bosom full and on permanent display. There is not even the mark of a scowl on her face, she's a classy lady. It is after her that the movie is titled, quoting from the Song of Solomon 4:3 "Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, And thy mouth is comely." She comes by the end of the movie to realise that flings with Freddies are not quite all they're cracked up to be. But I won't spoil that for you.

There is in this film some of the raciest innuendo that I've ever seen even in modern movies, and it's all quite carefully disguised. That for me was the added value. There is also a quite noirish sentiment, education is shown off as the luxuriant pursuit of the fop. If this had been an American-made film it would certainly be called noir. It's a very enjoyable little film, not quite as coherent or stylised as the great movies, but a high-calibre matinée that one can't quite fail to enjoy. 8/10

Stronger characterisation than usual for film of its type

[wilvram · 7/10 · 8 June 2012]

What distinguishes this crime film from many of its contemporaries is not so much the plot, though the dialogue is above average, but the degree of authenticity its characters have and the location shooting in Cambridge and the West End of London.

Laurence Harvey's cheap aggressive spiv, complete with trilby and a phony accent, modelling himself on an American gangster, or at least the Hollywood version of one, had his real life counterparts, as court cases of the period show. One clever scene is set in a seedy amusement arcade as Harvey's womanising Freddie tries to pick up a low class tart (Dora Bryan) much to the disapproval of Sydney Tafler's educated, rather aloof, possibly gay character Marcon (alias Bellingham). There's also a vague resemblance at first to the relationship between Terry and Arthur in MINDER; Tafler is excellent throughout. We meet the magnetic Kathleen Byron's Josephine just before the botched smash and grab resulting in murder and soon learn of her anxiety at the prospect of being stifled amid the tranquil, cloistered "backwater" of her university surroundings with her suitor, staid academic Arthur Hill. Byron was one of the few British actresses of the day whose characters were clearly made of flesh and blood, and here the refined Josephine is sufficiently attracted to the working class, pseudo American Freddie, as to be quite ready to jump straight into bed with him, an unusual development for a film of the time. There's some tension and moments of dry humour, particularly involving Josephine's aunt Eleanor (Renee Kelly). But the film's main interest in the later stages lies in the relationship between the three leading characters, as it works out against the university background.

Sadly, the recent DVD release confirms that the film has only survived in a mutilated form, with minutes missing toward the end, leaving the eventual fate of Freddie, Marcon and accomplice Harry Fowler unclear.

Could have been a good film if handled and filmed better.

[j_paul_murdock · 5/10 · 31 July 2021]

Lawrence Harvey plays a jumpy, would-be womanising, failed pickpocket, Freddy, who falls in with a jewel thief played by Sydney Tafler. Their first joint assignment takes them out of London, and takes Freddy out of the reluctant and unimpressed arms of Dora Bryan, and to Cambridge. There they bungle the robbery when someone gets in the way of them and the getaway car (driven by Harry Fowler). In his panic, Freddy pulls his gun and shoots the person in the way. Harry Fowler drives off with the body dangling out of the door.

The two crooks are chased and take refuge in a college house where Josephine (played by Kathleen Byron), who has just said goodbye to her ageing lecturer of a father, is bored with life. These two strange men seem interesting.

Both of them fall in love with her and then argue amongst themselves. But the game is up when the getaway car, which Harry Fowler has abandoned, is found and the body of the bystander who got shot for being in the way is identified as Josephine's father.

Although an original screenplay, the film reads like a stage play with the prelude in London tagged on. The outside location shots in London seem particularly poorly filmed and the sudden jump to Cambridge is, well, sudden. Much of the dialogue is muffled and much of the editing is not handled very well. Curiously, a number of actors seem to step over something that isn't there and Tafler's breast pocket has a mind of it's own, even changing sides on his jacket!

The main problem with the film is that it is too short to breathe or to be in a position to build up tension. In fact, the ending is over so quickly that no one is given any time to laugh.

One thing I've never mentioned may seem trivial, but how many British houses in the 50s and 60s had rooms with arches, let alone indoor steps, for no apparent reason? Was this a tradition or a trademark amongst set designers and builders?

A Good Film for its Time

[james.hale · 7/10 · 3 February 2012]

This is a good example of a British B movie from the 1950's with good actors and a decent script by A R Rawlinson. It is particularly gratifying to find a British film that does not have an American actor in the lead which was a feature of British films at the time.Both the story and the acting are a little dated but if you look behind the actors at London and Cambridge in 1950 you realise how much Britain has changed. - No yellow lines and no parking metres. I too saw this film on BBC 2 as part of their season of British Films and was disappointed with the abrupt ending. It is clear that part of the last reel is missing. I saw this film at the cinema in 1951 and have a clear recollection that the Lawrence Harvey character jumps from the window of the whispering gallery onto the roof of the adjacent building as a means of escape described by the Sidney Tafler character earlier in the movie but slips and falls to his death. It is a pity the BBC could not find a complete print by a director, Lewis Gilbert,who went on to direct a number of important British films later in his career.

You've got to pick a pocket or two.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 3 September 2022]

This is a pretty minor British crime drama, rather dull until things get going, involving a petty pick pocket (Laurence Harvey) who is stopped by a master jewel thief (Sydney Tafler) while trying to pick his, and ending up joining together for an attempted jewel robbery. Someone is accidentally killed in the process, and Harvey and Tafler hide out inside Cambridge, eventually talking themselves into staying in the home of the home of the dean through an invite by his daughter (Kathleen Byron). But when the identify of the man they killed is revealed, their freedom is threatened and the two men begin to crack at the thought of being arrested and hung.

The slow pacing for most of the film will either intrigue or bore the audience because for a while, it seems that nothing's going on. Byron has a suspicious older aunt who makes her feelings about the two men known, but much of her actions makes it appear that she's dotty. An early Laurence Harvey film, back when he played a lot of heavy's, and his clean cut demeanor makes his being cast as such characters completely fool the audience. Intriguing begining, slow middle, and intense finale, with decent performances foiled by predictable resolution. Byron, known for her dark roles, plays a complex character, and gives the best performance. Alright for the kind of film it is, but this nearly gave me the scarlet sleep a couple of times.

Interesting little drama.

[ronevickers · 7/10 · 2 March 2009]

This early fifties British film starts off really well, and features some excellent London and Cambridge locations. The chase scene, concerning the students pursuing the crooks through the streets of Cambridge, is novel and very well staged. Unfortunately, from thereon in the film tails off, and becomes bogged down in a talky and drawn out scenario. Kathleen Byrom and Sydney Tafler acquit themselves well, although it has to be said that Laurence Harvey, in an early role, gives a patchy performance, at best. The interlude between Byrom and Harvey, referred to by other reviewers, is certainly a surprise especially given the age of the film. The censor must have nipped out for a coffee at that point, but obviously returned for the end of the film which simply terminates far too abruptly (can anyone shed any light on this?) In conclusion, it's a pity the film wasn't condensed a bit more before its finale, which could have done with being more conclusive.

Pulling the trigger in Cambridge

[clanciai · 9/10 · 9 March 2023]

Kathleen Byron was one of the most fascinating actresses of the noir period, while she only came to her rights under the direction of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. She did make a number of other thrillers besides the Archers productions, and this was one of her best. She is confronted here by Laurence Harvey as a very young man in one of his earliest roles, acting a nervous young amateur gangster with a gun, which of course he uses only for blunders, but his performance as this green hoodlum totally unsure of himself except for his interest and relations with dames is just perfect. This was Lewis Gilbert's first film, and it is startlingly Hitchcockian. The pastoral idylls of Cambridge with its ancient colleges and almost equally ancient professors are made the background of a shockingly grim drama of a burglary going wrong involving the accidental murder of an old man, who proves to be the last man the murderer would have liked to have killed. Sydney Tafler is the other villain, who has forced Harvey into his service for a professional job, in no way alerted by the fact that Harvey is such an unreliable amateur. Of course, it can only go from bad to worse, but there are many great moments of sustained suspense, and the fireworks in the end for the celebration of a centenary of a college is the perfect background for the final escape by the Ghost's Gallery, where for a striking effect the ghost actually appears of a man believed dead.

Handsome Thriller In Lewis Gilbert's First Feature

[boblipton · 6/10 · 25 January 2023]

Laurence Harvey tries to lift Sidney Tafler's wallet. Tafler calls him out on it, but does not call the nearby police. Instead, he takes him home, gives him dinner, and tells him that when he has a job for him, he'll send for him. The job is a smash-and-grab on a jeweler's window in Cambridge. Harvey shoots a man who tries to interfere, a crowd gets between them and their getaway car, which drives off. The men outrace the crowd and take refuge in the University, where they impose, due to Tafler's having gone to Trinity, on Kathleen Byron, whose father has gone to a meeting in London.

Lewis Gilbert does a nice job directing his first feature. After a look at the town and the university grounds, it turns into a nice study in Tafler's and Harvey's minds. Harvey is a punk, exhibiting the craziness he would use to advantage in future movies. There's also a nice bit of suspense in the situation, with the police looking for them with poor descriptions, and the fate of the shot man. There is a touch too much in the way of coincidence in the second half of the movie, but it's tightly plotted and it holds together well while watching it.

Effective thriller but with an unsatisfactory ending.

[last-picture-show · 6/10 · 3 August 2007]

Laurence Harvey plays a young down-and-out hoodlum, Freddie, who Sydney Taffler (Marcon) employs to help him on a smash and grab raid. But this isn't just any robbery but the theft of a piece of rare ceremonial jewellry in Cambridge associated with a University college. All goes well until a man stands in the way of them and their getaway car and Freddie shoots the man who falls into the getaway car. Freddie and Marcon flee pursued by a gang of college students and take refuge in a college garden. Meanwhile the getaway driver Sam (Harry Fowler) dumps the car ensuring that the body, and the man's identity, isn't discovered until much later in the day. Marcon and Freddie pose as two college visitors and befriend Josephine (Kathleen Byron), the daughter of a professor, while they plan their escape. Eventually they are caught when it is revealed that their victim's identity is the college professor and the missing jewellry is discovered. There is much to enjoy in this long-forgotten British thriller, although it turns into something of a melodrama half way through. Directed by Lewis Gilbert (best known for Alfie and The Spy Who Loved Me) it has some interesting features, including some superb location filming in Cambridge and some good performances, most notably by Tafler and Kathleen Byron. Harry Fowler however is wasted in a few brief scenes as the getaway driver Sam.

The main problem is that it is based on a stage play and it shows. While the first half is exciting and daring, the second half is plodding and unconvincing. Too much time is wasted with Freddie posing as an American falling for Jospephine simply because she is the type of sophisticated woman he could never normally have. The idea that two desperate thieves would carry out such a ridiculous charade just doesn't make sense. It is also never fully explained how and why Marcon really was at Cambridge but has now been reduced to carrying out smash and grab raids to make a living. The only interesting aspect in the second half is the underlying suggestion that Marcon is gay and despises Freddie's interest in women which eventually leads to their downfall.

There is also one unintentionally funny moment near the end which puts the tin lid on the film being anywhere near a classic. When Josephine realises that Freddie is the killer she confronts him. Caught off guard he suddenly drops his assumed American accent, but reverts to an equally fake RADA-style comic book Cockney accent of the type spoofed by James Dreyfus as Tom Farrell in the sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme. I'd be very surprised if writer Johnathan Harvey wasn't inspired by his namesake's performance in this scene because it's not just the accent that's questionable but there's some terrible overacting as well. Harvey doesn't look at his accuser but shifts about nervously with his eyes darting back and forth like a spectator at a tennis match. It's in the same league as Anita Dobson hamming it up as Angie Watts in EastEnders and Audrey 'Im a good girl I am' Hepburn In My Fair Lady. Fascinating to watch but terrible at the same time.

Another odd aspect is the ending which just fizzles out without a proper denouement. We don't know if the police arrest the thieves and we don't know if Marcon lives or dies. I suspect that the print I saw is missing a few scenes at the end because I can't believe that the director would leave things up in the air in this way.

Trenchcoats and Gowns

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 8 July 2020]

A drab, talky little drama enhanced by vivid photography by veteran cameraman Geoffrey Faithfull, much of it filmed on location in London and then Cambridge.

A once-in-a-lifetime cast headed by top-billed Kathleen Byron then on the slide and Lawrence Harvey working his way up (along with director Lewis Gilbert) manages in one scene to include both Arthur Hill and Eliot Makeham.