The Four Just Men (1939 film)

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The Four Just Men
"The Four Just Men" (1939).jpg
Original Australian trade ad
Directed byWalter Forde
Written by
  • Angus MacPhail
  • Sergei Nolbandov
  • Roland Pertwee
Based onThe Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace
Produced byMichael Balcon
Starring
  • Hugh Sinclair
  • Griffith Jones
  • Francis L. Sullivan
  • Frank Lawton
  • Anna Lee
CinematographyRonald Neame
Edited by
  • Stephen Dalby
  • Charles Saunders
Music byErnest Irving
Production
company
Ealing Studios
Distributed by
  • ABFD (UK)
  • Monogram Pictures (US)
Release date
7 June 1939
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Four Just Men, also known as The Secret Four, is a 1939 British thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Hugh Sinclair, Griffith Jones, Edward Chapman and Frank Lawton.[1] It is based on the 1905 novel The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace. There was a previous silent film version in 1921.[2] This version was produced by Ealing Studios,[3] with sets designed by Wilfred Shingleton.

The Four Just Men was re-released in 1944 with an updated ending featuring newsreel of Winston Churchill and the Allied war effort as a fulfilment of the ideals of the Four. The adviser on the House of Commons of the United Kingdom scenes was Aneurin Bevan.[4]

Premise[]

The Four Men are British World War I veterans who unite to work in secret against enemies of the country. They aren't above a spot of murder or sabotage to achieve their ends, but they consider themselves true patriots.

Cast[]

  • Hugh Sinclair – Humphrey Mansfield
  • Griffith Jones – James Brodie
  • Francis L. Sullivan – Leon Poiccard
  • Frank Lawton – Terry
  • Anna Lee – Ann Lodge
  • Alan Napier – Sir Hamar Ryman M.P.
  • Basil Sydney – Frank Snell
  • Lydia Sherwood – Myra Hastings
  • Edward Chapman- B. J. Burrell
  • Athole Stewart – Police Commissioner
  • George Merritt – Inspector Falmouth
  • Garry Marsh – Bill Grant
  • Ellaline Terriss – Lady Willoughby
  • Roland Pertwee – Mr Hastings
  • Eliot Makeham – Simmons
  • Frederick Piper – Pickpocket
  • Henrietta Watson – Mrs Truscott
  • Jon Pertwee – Rally campaigner
  • Liam Gaffney – Taxi driver
  • James Knight – Policeman Outside Parliament
  • Charles Paton – Platform Speaker
  • Percy Walsh – Prison Governor
  • Percy Parsons – American Broadcaster
  • Bryan Herbert – Taxi driver
  • Arthur Hambling – Constable Benham

Critical reception[]

The New York Times reviewer wrote, "Four Just Men, by Edgar Wallace, whatever it might have been, was probably not a work of literature, and therefore, on that charitable assumption, it is gently, rather than harshly, that one must deal with the British-made screen version, now on view at the Globe Theatre. Like all pictures seeping over from England nowadays, it is more than a little infected with the virus propagandistus, but, over and above that common-carrier failing, it is a model of sheer incredibility crossed with what (carrying out the charity idea) we might designate as espionage melodrama".[5] According to a writer for the Radio Times decades later "it defiantly suggests that Britain could never fall under the sway of a dictator. But in all other respects it's a rollicking boys' own adventure, with some of the most fiendishly comic-book murders you will ever see... hugely entertaining sub-Hitchcockian antics".[6]

References[]

  1. ^ "The Four Just Men". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 January 2009.
  2. ^ "The Four Just Men". BFI. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012.
  3. ^ Wood p. 100
  4. ^ "The Four Just Men".
  5. ^ "Movie Review - The Four Just Men - THE SCREEN; Two Spy Melodramas, 'The Secret Four' at Globe and 'Enemy Agent' at the Rialto, Are Seen Here - NYTimes.com".
  6. ^ David Parkinson. "The Four Just Men". RadioTimes.

Bibliography[]

  • Low, Rachael. Filmmaking in 1930s Britain. George Allen & Unwin, 1985.
  • Perry, George. Forever Ealing. Pavilion Books, 1994.
  • Wood, Linda. British Films, 1927-1939. British Film Institute, 1986.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""