It was the curious title "Silent Dust" that drew me to this interesting story. Here is a film that draws on all the characteristics of well made Noir. Talented Director of Photography Wilkie Cooper has certainly worked very hard to give this film a great deal of visual vitality. This versatile D.O.P. certainly has an impressive list of titles to his credit, ranging from high Drama, Comedy, and Fantasy with such gems as: "I See A Dark Stranger" '46, "Stage Fright" '50 "Pickwick Papers" and a string of acclaimed Harryhausen classics that followed one after another...."7th Voyage of Sinbad", "Mysterious Island" "Jason and the Argonauts" the list goes on....Here, he is working with Cameraman Robert Day, who would later go on to Direct 'The Green Man' and 'Tarzan the Magnificent' (also penning the Screenplay) To help enhance their already strong creative moods, they have the talents of celebrated Art Director C.P. Norman known for: 'This Happy Breed', Night and the City, and 'Titfield Thunderbolt'. Little wonder then, with Director Lance Comfort (Hatter's Castle '42) they were able to reel in such an impressive looking drama.
The Cast also impresses, beginning with beautiful Sally Gray who initially trained as a dancer with Fred Astaire. After suffering a nervous breakdown in 1941 and being off-screen for a long five years, she graduated nicely into dramatic roles. Sally resisted invitations by Hollywood and retired following marriage, 'Silent Dust' unfortunately is one of her last performances. She shines in the role of the Daughter-in-Law to blind man Stephen Murray --who brilliantly plays his part-- The Wife, played by Irish beauty Beatrice Campbell tends to be a little stilted in her delivery, the director perhaps needed to work harder here. Sadly Beatrice's career was cut short with her death at 56.
The Son, who hides many dark secrets, is performed with nasty skill by Nigel Patrick. Writers Michael and Ronald Pertwee have fleshed out interesting characters for this compelling story based on their play 'The Paragon'. A near-perfect descriptive Music score by classic French composer George Auric (Moulin Rouge '52) adds the final tonal touches to this intriguing tale.
This title remains well worth catching or buying on DVD - especially the newly released Netwerk vers - while not remastered it features well transferred, clear images and sound. If you were as unfortunate as I, you may have first caught this on Gem Digital TV in Australia. This channel has much to learn about presenting classic films, their annoyingly large 'Lolly Pink' graphics appear before and after each add break, often cutting off essential image and lines of dialog ~ please, let's see a little more respect shown for your viewers and the movies. Tone down the colour and size of your overdone logos! (Seven two, get my vote and more of my viewing for this very reason) K. Roche.
