The Girl in the Picture (1957) User Reviews

Neat little mystery!

[Freddiebaer · 6/10 · 16 September 2005]

A 4 year-old photograph published in the London Evening Echo provides a clue to an unsolved murder - intrepid reporter Deering (Donald Houston) and Inspector Bliss (Partick Holt) are soon hot on the trail of the 'Girl in the Picture'! Surprisingly good little mystery from the days when you got your money's worth at the pictures (supporting features, etc.!).

Check out the bespectacled office boy, Wilfred - he's credited as David Greeves, but is better known as James Booth, probably world famous for his excellent portrayal of Henry Hook in 'Zulu'.

Sadly, James Booth passed away in August 2005.

An Average Thriller...

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 5/10 · 6 March 2018]

Four years ago, a robbery went wrong resulting in a policeman being murdered and the killers escaped. However, a photograph turns up on news reporter Jon Deering's (Houston) desk. It shows the getaway car and a woman looking into it. Believing this woman holds the key to the case, Deering sets off to find her... unfortunately, in his investigations, he tips off the robbers, who then start a search, though be it more deadly, for the girl in the picture... Pat Dryden (Crawford)

I do like this as a premise for a story, however, I don't think all the possibilities were utilised well. This could have been a cat and mouse stalking game, what with the police, the reporter, and the bad guys tracking her down. However, the police don't get involved too much and the murderers are hanging on the reporter's coattails. This has the effect of making it less suspense-filled than it could have been?

The story and the acting are enough to make this an enjoyable one watch flick, though I would warn about the soundtrack. It's your basic standard full orchestration, but when you get to the climax the director decides to use the music to jar your nerves... and turns the volume up. This mixed with the old-fashioned police bells and sirens is enough to drive you mad. As for the direction, it's okay, there's nothing innovative in the camera work and the pace stays pretty steady throughout. Changing these would have helped to create a better atmosphere and tenseness to draw the viewer in.

The acting is pretty good and both Houston and Crawford do well in their roles. That said, there are moments when it gets a little melodramatic and the acting begins to feel a little hammy. Though these are few and have little effect on the film or story.

The one thing I did like about the story was the lack of a love interest. In most films, this is a must, even when it's not required and sometimes it even feels awkward. But there's nothing between Dryden and Deering, they are merely an eyewitness and a reporter. It was a refreshing change not to have the fawning doting of screen romance.

Though it's not the best thriller of its time it's still worth a checkout.

All in the Family

[mickcsavage · 6/10 · 11 July 2022]

Interesting not only for the shots of late fifties Hammersmith (News Of The World - Players' Weights) but also for the following;- 1) Paddy Joyce (as garage-owner Jack Bates - nice Dublin accent, by the way), was actually the nephew of James Joyce!

2) Tom Chatto (George Keefe, the murdered cop's brother) was the father-in-law of Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones - the niece of the Queen!

(He's also a descendant of the Chatto of publishers Chatto & Windus fame).

Nice to imagine the two actors attempting to out-relly each other during a break in filming. (For my money, Paddy's got the top trump!)

A quota-quickie from the 50s with intriguingly unexpected connections.

Feel free to amaze your friends with that one...

Find That Girl!!

[kidboots · 27 September 2015]

All eyes are on page 3 and some people don't like what they see!!! When the page in question is bought to the attention of Echo reporter John Deering (stocky Donald Houston) he realises that the car in the picture was one that is wanted in connection with a robbery and murder!! And what's more there is a girl in the photo waving them off!! She is the key, all roads lead to the girl!! Apart from the off beat beginning it soon turns into a pretty pedestrian, follow the dots crime drama even though a review at the time called it an "honest hour's entertainment"!!

The girl is Pat Dryden, an attractive cover-girl who left the chemist shop where she was employed as a sales girl for the bright lights of modeling but who, when she is found, is more in the dark than anyone else in the movie!! Yes, she did know the driver, gormless Jack Bates, but she is convinced he couldn't be the killer (and from his few scenes he doesn't seem to know which end is up!!) - it must have been the other man in the car!! Most of the plot involves a race between Deering and debonair Inspector Bliss (Patrick Holt) to track the girl down clue by clue to find out what she really knows - which is nothing much!! And to get to her before the shadowy killer does!!

Houston is pretty stolid as the reporter and Holt is pretty suave - the film would have benefited by having him more in the picture but Junia Crawford as the bubbly Pat is the real reason to watch. She really brightens up the proceedings and gives the movie a light hearted touch. It's a pity she only made a handful of films - the last in 1959.

It didn't drag

[peterwburrows-70774 · 7/10 · 3 March 2021]

I am sure it was a B film when it came out and therefor lacking in finance. However the plot was OK and the pace of the film kept one interested till the end. Always nice to see London in the past.

Snapshot.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 10 November 2019]

Getting home late at night from a Horror film festival in Birmingham,I decided that I would end the night with a quick Noir. Having been impressed by his Clinic Exclusive (1971-also reviewed) taking a more serious tone for a saucy 70's flick,I got set to witness Don Chaffey take a picture of a girl.

View on the film:

Despite the audio on Simply Media's transfer sounding like it was recorded in a tin can, the first screenplay by Paul Ryder grabs some snappy headlines in a mad-dash Noir mystery for cop George Keefe (a fittingly frantic Tom Chatto) being desperate to find the name of a woman in a photo taken the day his brother was killed. Matching Ryder's printing, director Don Chaffey & cinematographer Ian D. Struthers joining Keefe chasing the killer in rapid whip-pans, which whilst sadly not closing in for headline grabbing close-ups, do catch the girl in the picture.

A distinctively average British crime picture

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 10 May 2016]

THE GIRL IN THE PICTURE is your usual quota picture, a British crime thriller about a crusading journalist who's hunting down a pretty girl seen in an old photograph. The twist is that in said photo she's seen waving to the driver of a car later linked to an unsolved murder, so by tracking her down he hopes to find the murderer himself.

There are good and bad things about this movie. Donald Houston is a rather poor and uninteresting choice of lead, but Patrick Holt in support is much better as the wry detective. The lovely Junia Crawford had a brief B-movie career in the late 1950s before dying young. There are a handful of scene-setting moments that ably bring the 1950s to life, but Don Chaffey, who later directed JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, does a strictly pedestrian job and can't seem to work up much steam. The villain is a weak and non-threatening one too. Scriptwriter Paul Ryder's best work was in the Stanley Baker heist thriller, A PRIZE OF ARMS.

There's Always A Girl In The Picture

[boblipton · 6/10 · 11 April 2023]

Newspaperman Donald Houston takes another look at a picture of a robbery gone wrong. There's a girl waving at someone in the getaway car. He goes in search of Junia Crawford, while Detective Inspector Patrick Holt smells his own boutoniere, waiitng for something to turn up.

It's a nice case of the newspaperman out-detectives the police, and doesn't quite get it right. There's nothing extraordinary here, but everything is done just about right, with a nice role for Paddy Joyce as the boy she left behind. The final do-up is well shot and edited, showing that a decent script, and decent work in all departments produce a good movie.

The Police Out Of The Picture

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 4 April 2006]

As a result of the new satellite channels we are now able to view many British crime thrillers of the 40s and 50s which we all thought were consigned to the vaults for all time.So here we are afresh.The police speeding round in their Morris police cars with bells clanging:policemen disappearing into their Tardis like police box,conveniently letting the stakeout out of sight;and of course the intrepid crime reporter who is always one step ahead of the police.It is little wonder that the police ever solved any crimes unless the villain was handed to them on a plate.Incidentally as the credits are going through we see

an ABC cinema showing "Tarantula".I bet that it was a better film than this.Anyway the absurdities of the plot are entertaining enough.

Cheesecake and Cliches

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 30 May 2021]

The usual nonsense with it's tongue in it's cheek about an eager young reporter hot on the trail of the big story directed by the up-and-coming Don Chaffey on half a shoestring with a thundering musical score on the soundtrack. The tinny studio scenes are compensated for by the occasionally vivid photography and vintage location work preserving for posterity a Hammersmith of trolly buses and bobbies on the beat.

In the title role Junia Crawford was plainly chosen for her striking looks rather than her acting ability, Patrick Holt plays a dapper detective with a carnation in his buttonhole, Maurice Kaufman is a very saturnine villain and a young James Booth appears uncredited as Donald Houston's nerdy press room assistant.

Humdrum quota quickie

[johnshephard-83682 · 3/10 · 10 April 2020]

Bog standard cheapo thriller featuring all the tropes of its type. No one locks their doors in these films so the villains are able to come and go as they please in any building they choose, and the plot can move along quickly. There's fair amount of expository dialogue, and characters have to speak out loud some clunky lines, and some, especially poor Junia Crawford express surprise by repeating what's just been said - 'Jack was involved in a robbery', 'A robbery?' 'Yes. and then a murder', 'A murder?' 'Jack's dead', 'Dead?' and so on. The journalist hero is always head of the police, who send a bobby to watch a suspect's garage, who abandons his post to find a call box to ring in with 'nothing happening here, sir', allowing the villain to stroll in unseen and do his murderous deed. At the end, damsel in distress, Pat, is trapped in her flat with the murderer (having not only not locked her door, but left it wide open), the goodies arrive en masse, there's punch up, and villain walks backwards over a fire escape, and all is well. In its defence the 'mistake' cited in the 'goofs' section actually isn't a goof - the script makes one character unwittingly mis-name a block of flats as a plot device to delay the police.