No Resting Place *** (1951, Michael Gough, Noel Purcell, Jack MacGowran, Eithne Dunne, Brian O’Higgins, Diana Campbell) – Classic Movie Review 13,590

Michael Gough stars as an Irish Traveller relentlessly pursued by a policeman (Noel Purcell) after accidentally killing a gamekeeper, in the 1951 crime drama film No Resting Place.

‘NEVER out of sight…NEVER out of mind…NEVER free of the guilt of murder’

Director Paul Rotha’s realist 1951 crime drama film No Resting Place is based on the 1948 novel by Ian Niall and stars Michael Gough, Noel Purcell, Jack MacGowran, Eithne Dunne, Brian O’Higgins, and Diana Campbell. It is one of the first British feature films shot entirely on location and was nominated for BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Best British Film in 1952, and the Golden Lion at Venice in 1951 (Rashomon won).

Michael Gough plays Alex Kyle, an Irish Traveller (or a tinker), who is out poaching and accidentally kills a gamekeeper while trying to escape, and afterwards hits a policeman in bar fight. Noel Purcell plays the veteran Garda police officer, Mannigan, who resolves to bring him to justice, and hunts him and his family down.

Ideal acting draws you in to this worthy, appealing melodrama with a fine atmosphere and beautiful location filming (black and white cinematography by Wolfgang Suschitsky) and a good hearted story highlighting the problems at the time of vagrants in Ireland. Stars Michael Gough and Noel Purcell are outstanding, but then so are the support cast from Irish theatres and radio. A lot of evident effort has gone in to make it feel authentic and truthful.

It is the first fiction film directed by documentary maker Paul Rotha, who had previously made the documentary films World of Plenty (1943) and The World Is Rich (1947). The black and white cinematography is by Wolfgang Suschitsky in his first fiction film as cinematographer. Wolfgang Suschitzky (29 August 1912 – 7 October 2016) had previously made the documentary films World of Plenty (1943) and The World Is Rich (1947) with Paul Rotha, and he is noted for the 1971 film Get Carter. The Austrian-born British documentary photographer and cinematographer lived to be 104. His son Peter Suschitzky is also a noted cinematographer.

Also in the cast are Austin Meldon, Christy Lawrence, Maureen O’Sullivan, Esther O’Connor, Billy O’Gorman, and Bobby Hennessey.

It is made on a low budget of £60,000 by Colin Lesslie Productions and shot entirely on location in County Wicklow, Ireland.

William Alwyn’s score uses traditional Irish instruments: harp, flute and violin.

Irish Travellers worked with metal and travelled throughout Ireland, making ornaments, jewellery and horse harnesses to earn a living. So they were referred to as tinkers (tin smiths), a term later regarded as derogatory. Travellers refer to themselves in the Irish Traveller language Shelta as Mincéirí, or in Irish as an lucht siúil (the walking people).

Ironically for such an Iris project, the source novel writer is Scottish. Ian Niall (7 November 1916 – 24 June 2002) was born John Kincaid McNeillie in Galloway, Scotland. The 1964 film A Tiger Walks, starring Vera Miles and Brian Keith, is also based on one of Niall’s works.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,590

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