Tread Softly Stranger

1958 British film

August 1958 (1958-08)

Running time

90 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglish

Tread Softly Stranger is a 1958 British crime drama directed by Gordon Parry and starring Diana Dors, George Baker and Terence Morgan. The film was shot in black-and-white in film noir style, and its setting in an industrial town in northern England mirrors the kitchen sink realism movement coming into vogue in English drama and film at the time. The screenplay was adapted from the stage play Blind Alley (1953) by Jack Popplewell.^[1]^[2]

Plot

Johnny Mansell has fled to the Yorkshire steel town of Rawmarsh, his home town, after racking up large gambling debts in London. He moves into a cramped flat with his brother Dave, a clerk in a local steel mill. Dave's girlfriend Calico, a hostess in a local nightclub, lives close by and their flats have neighbouring flat roof spaces which they often use. Calico comes up with a plan for the brothers to rob the payroll at Dave's workplace to steal enough money to cover Dave's fraud and Johnny's debts.

Cast

Diana Dors as Calico
George Baker as Johnny Mansell
Terence Morgan as Dave Mansell
Patrick Allen as Paddy Ryan
Jane Griffiths as Sylvia
Joseph Tomelty as Joe Ryan
Thomas Heathcote as Sgt. Lamb
Russell Napier as Potter
Norman Macowan as Danny
Maureen Delany as Mrs. Finnegan
Betty Warren as Flo
Timothy Bateson as Fletcher
John Salew as Pawnbroker
Michael Golden as St. John's Ambulance Man
George Merritt as Timekeeper
Andrew Keir as Inspector Harris
Hal Osmond as Flatcap
Norman Pierce as Publican
Patrick Crean as Blue Blazer
Wilfrid Lawson as Holroyd (uncredited)
Jerold Wells as Constable at racecourse (uncredited)

Production

The film was shot at Walton Studios in Walton-on-Thames^[3] and on location in Parkgate, Rotherham.

The eponymous theme tune was sung by Jim Dale.

Box office

Kinematograph Weekly listed it as being "in the money" at the British box office in 1958.^[4]

Critical reception

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan wrote: ''Thriller has silly dialogue, fails to make use of Rotheram backgrounds.''^[5]

Leslie Halliwell wrote: "Hilarious murky melodrama full of glum faces, with a well-worn trick ending; rather well photographed."^[6]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "The big question here is, what on earth were Diana Dors, Terence Morgan and George Baker doing in such a dreary little film? Director Gordon Parry was capable of making involving pictures, but here he insists on his cast delivering each line as if it had the dramatic weight of a Russian novel, which is more than a little preposterous for a petty melodrama about criminal brothers falling for the same girl."^[7]

Release

Tread Softly Stranger received its first DVD release in the UK in 2008.

References

^ "Tread Softly Stranger". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
^ "TREAD SOFTLY, STRANGER". Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 25, no. 288. London. 1 January 1958. p. 92.
^ Nepean, Edith (12 April 1958). "Round the British Studios". Picture Show. Vol. 70, no. 1828. London. p. 11.
^ Billings, Josh (18 December 1958). "Others in the Money". Kinematograph Weekly. p. 7.
^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 392. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 1048. ISBN 0-586-08894-6.
^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 957. ISBN 9780992936440.