Rent Mr. Denning Drives North (1951)
- General info
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- Synopsis:
- Tom Denning (John Mills), one of the most successful aircraft manufacturers in the country, has a perfect family life with his wife and daughter. But then it happens: in a flash, this successful, highly respected man becomes a tormented figure, driven close to the edge of sanity by the desperate need to maintain a terrible secret...
- Actors:
- John Mills, Phyllis Calvert, Eileen Moore, Sam Wanamaker, Herbert Lom, Raymond Huntley, Russell Waters, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Freda Jackson, Trader Faulkner, Sheila Shand Gibbs, Bernard Lee, Michael Shepley, Ronald Adam, John Stuart, Hugh Eden, David Davies, Ambrosine Phillpotts, Herbert C. Walton, John Stevens
- Directors:
- Anthony Kimmins
- Producers:
- Anthony Kimmins, Stephen Mitchell
- Writers:
- Alec Coppel
- Studio:
- Network
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Thrillers
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Reviews (3) of Mr. Denning Drives North
Dead in a Ditch - Mr. Denning Drives North review by CH
"What's the matter? Don't you like mortuaries?"
Quoted like that, one might easily think that the line has sprung from one of Raymond Chandler's works. In fact, it is said - behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce convertible - by well-spoken aircraft manufacturer John Mills to his seemingly respectable wife (Phyillis Calvert). Having become erratic, he has confessed to her that a little while ago he had visited their daughter's spiv boyfriend (Herbert Lom) to pay him off with sufficent money for him to depart the scene. And so it appears to be, until Lom rashly sneers that - in a bold turn for 1951 - he has "already had" the daughter. Outraged, Mills hits out, and Lom does depart the scene, by falling fatally against the fireplace of his rented bachelor pad.
Such is Alec Coppel's script, from his own novel, that events take a turn, and another turn, before another, all spinning from the terror which besets Mills after he has disposed of the body during a black night in a ditch somewhere off a road to the North. Here, in the hands of director Anthony Kimmins, is something which moves between the near-noir (with recourse to many a bottle) and the almost comic, with quite a cast drawn upon to add their bit to a plot which never ceases to surprise. Step forward, Bernard Lee, Raymond Huntley and, best of all, Wilfrid Hyde Whyte whose pride in his mortuary is maintained with a cynical edge as he points towards an array of organs in glass bottles.
A transatlantic edge is brought by the daughter's subsequent boyfriend, Sam Wanamaker, a lawyer whose interest in the unfolding case looks set to scupper things, all the way up to a startlingly amoral, even immoral ending which has left far behind an opening whose brisk credits are delivered as a voice-ove (perhaps the only other film to do so is Aunt Julia and the Script Writer).
Wealthy Industrialist Gets Away With Murder - Mr. Denning Drives North review by Dr Waerdnotte
John Mills acts his socks off in this mid-ranking Brit Noir. A fine cast of British actors - Calvert, Lom, Wannamaker, Hyde, Huntley and the joy that is Hyde-White.
Unfortunately the movie plods along as Mills piles through the drinks cabinet! It's also hard to empathise with the main character as he goes about covering up his accidental murder whilst driving around in various Rolls Royces so big you could house a small community in them. It is also difficult to feel any sympathy for a man who spends most of the movie justifying his seedy murder because the dead man was a nasty foreigner, and he deserves not to be found out because he is a successful family man and his wife seems to think using some dodgy gypsies as an alibi is perfectly okay.
The film reflects much of what was wrong with post war 1950s England, a dislike and distrust of anything "other" - foreigners and gypsies, and the acceptance that our "betters" should receive a different kind of justice to the ordinary people.
An okay movie, but definitely not one of Mills' movies that deserve a second viewing.
British noir (spoiler). - Mr. Denning Drives North review by Steve
This has many motifs of American noir, like the luckless hero who gets mired in jeopardy by accident; the more he struggles, the deeper he's dragged down. And there's a classic noir look too. But in Britain, the mug ultimately gets away with it because he is the right sort of chap. In Hollywood, the production code would demand justice.
John Mills plays a respectable, wealthy, middle aged father who is needled into taking a swing at his sweet daughter's vile lover (Herbert Lom) and accidentally kills him. Dad dumps the body in a ditch out in the country, but when he returns to the scene, the corpse has gone and the cops aren't investigating.
This futile meddling eventually arouses the interest of the law. The hapless killer exposes himself to a crossfire of clue and counter clue yet always evades capture by dumb luck. This relentless good fortune shifts the tone of the film to comedy. And the enquiry concludes that there was no foul play, because the victim was hit by a drunk driver!
This is not the only ethical code which now feels lost in time. The plot rests on the 'gypsy' witnesses being moronic, antisocial liars and thieves. And Mills' suicidal, unravelling executive feels too entitled now. But... there's a fine premise, the story moves along with extraordinary speed. And there are many exciting cliffhangers.