Green for Danger

Released Aug 7, 1947

1h 33m

Mystery & Thriller

List

73%

15 Reviews

Tomatometer

84%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

During a German bombing raid on rural southeast England during World War II, a hospital undergoes heavy shelling. Postman Joseph Higgins (Moore Marriott) dies on the operating table when a bomb explodes in the operating room. But when Sister Marion Bates (Judy Campbell) dies after revealing that this is not the first patient of anesthetist Barney Barnes (Trevor Howard) to die under suspicious circumstances, Police Inspector Cockrill (Alastair Sim) is brought in to investigate.

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Audience Member

Crisply photographed by Oswald Morris, this low budget post-war whodunnit benefits from the wartime paranoia - careless talk costs lives - and constant threat from bombings as its protagonists - a small team of medics - deal with a series of murders on the operating table, sexual betrayal, and - most terrifying of all - the amused attentions of Alastair Sim's determined Inspector Cockerill. The sound mix occasionally drowns out the dialogue, but it's entertaining stuff, and foreshadows every Agatha Christie adaptation you've ever seen.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Frances H

I just love Alistair Sim! What a wonderful actor he was! This is a very nifty murder mystery, but a crucial clue is kept from the audience, which only the inspector knows, which in my view is rather a cheat on the audience. In really first rate mysteries all of the clues should be in plain sight, so that the audience (or reader, as the case may be) has a chance to solve it!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/28/21

Full Review

Audience Member

Apart from a dud ending this is an excellent whodunnit. Trevor Howard gives his usual intense performance and as well as the murder mystery there's plenty of drama arising from the love triangle between Howard, Leo Genn and the sumptuous Sally Gray. Alastair Sim as Inspector Cockrill steals the show, though, somehow managing to be extremely funny without in any way undercutting the drama.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A well done British mystery set in southeast England during the V1 blitz of World War 2. Well acted and well plotted.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/25/18

Full Review

Audience Member

Decent, slightly strange mystery movie. Inspector Cockrill, played by Alastair Sim, is clearly the highlight. It's too bad they didn't make his character into a series. His sense of humor and non omnipotence is a refreshing take on the mystery sleuth. Also interesting in terms of being an early postwar film, you can see the influence of it, much like many US postwar movies.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is an entertaining British whodunit with a very witty script ("That's what you call laughing gas isn't it?" "Oh yes but it's the impurities that cause the laughs." "Oh just like our Music Halls.") Two murders and an attempted third in a British hospital during WWII, five suspects (including Trevor Howard) and one very eccentric Scotland Yard detective (played deliciously by Alistair Sim) make a recipe for a great night in. Get it cheap with two other films in Beyond Entertainment's Classic Matinee Triple Bill of lost gems from the Rank Organisation's back catalogue.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

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Sidney Gilliat

Director

Alastair Sim

Inspector Cockrill

Trevor Howard

Dr. Barnes

Sally Gray

Nurse Linley

Rosamund John

Nurse Sanson

Leo Genn

Mr. Eden

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TIME Magazine

Green for Danger is just another proof that the British, too, can make mediocre pictures.

Dec 7, 2011

Full Review

Steven D. Greydanus

Decent Films

Rated: A-

Oct 29, 2008

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

The plot is too laboriously constructed, and the reason for the murders appears too incredible.

Jan 22, 2008

Full Review

Josephine O'Neill

Daily Telegraph (Australia)

[Director Sidney] Gilliat's urbane treatment presents the whole story not to terrify but entertain; and he does .this very well.

Apr 4, 2019

Full Review

Eve Tushnet

Patheos

Its final twists came a little too fast and twisty for me.

Feb 8, 2019

Full Review

MFB Critics

Monthly Film Bulletin

Though the story has plenty of improbabilities when considered in cold blood, this thriller holds one well when on the screen.

Jan 23, 2018

Full Review

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Synopsis

During a German bombing raid on rural southeast England during World War II, a hospital undergoes heavy shelling. Postman Joseph Higgins (Moore Marriott) dies on the operating table when a bomb explodes in the operating room. But when Sister Marion Bates (Judy Campbell) dies after revealing that this is not the first patient of anesthetist Barney Barnes (Trevor Howard) to die under suspicious circumstances, Police Inspector Cockrill (Alastair Sim) is brought in to investigate.

Director: Sidney Gilliat
Distributor: Criterion Collection, Eagle-Lion Films Inc. [us]
Production Co: J. Arthur Rank Films [gb], Individual Pictures Ltd.
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 7, 1947, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 8, 2017
Runtime: 1h 33m

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