Chain of Events ** (1958, Dermot Walsh, Susan Shaw, Jack Watling, Lisa Gastoni, Kenneth Griffith) – Classic Movie Review 10,050

Director Gerald Thomas’s mildly enjoyable 1958 British B-movie crime film Chain of Events is adapted from a radio play called London Story by Leo McKern, and stars Susan Shaw, Dermot Walsh, Jack Watling and Lisa Gastoni, with Kenneth Griffith, Freddie Mills and Joan Hickson. The good cast, intriguing story, quick pace and short running time of 62 minutes keep it involving and entertaining enough.

In McKern’s plot, a bank clerk with insufficient cash tells a lie to dodge paying his bus fare to a London bus conductor (Cyril Chamberlain), denying his integrity in front of his inspector (Martin Boddey), and starts a chain of catastrophic events that include blackmail and death.

Susan Shaw stars in Chain of Events (1958).

The cast are Susan Shaw as Jill, Dermot Walsh as Quinn, Jack Watling as Freddie, Alan Gifford as Lord Fenchurch, Harold Lang as Jimmy Boy, Lisa Gastoni as Simone, Kenneth Griffith as Clarke, Ballard Berkeley as Stockman, Frank Forsythe as Johnson, Cyril Chamberlain as Bus Conductor, Freddie Mills as Tiny, Martin Boddey as Bus Inspector, Anthony Sagar as The Drunk, Myrtle Reed as Mrs Clarke, Martin Wyldeck as Becket, James Raglan as Magistrate, Joan Hickson as Barmaid and John Stuart as Bank Manager.

It is made by Beaconsfield Productions at its Beaconsfield Studios, Buckinghamshire, England.

Chain of Events is directed by Thomas Bentley, runs 62 minutes, is made by Beaconsfield Productions and British Lion Films, is released by British Lion Film Corporation (1958) (UK), is written by Patrick Brawn, based on the radio play London Story by Leo McKern, is shot in black and white by Peter Hennessy, is produced by Peter Rogers, and scored by John Bath, Hugo de Groot and Kenneth Essex (stock music), with Art Direction by Eric Saw.

It is released by Network Distributing in 2015 in the UK on DVD.

It was made just before Susan Shaw’s husband, the actor Bonar Colleano, died in a tragic road accident in 1958. She went to pieces and battled a drinking problem until her death from liver cirrhosis in 1978, aged 49. She died penniless but her funeral was paid for by the Rank Organisation.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,050

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