High Tide at Noon ** (1957, Betta St John, William Sylvester, Michael Craig, Flora Robson, Alexander Knox, Peter Arne, Patrick McGoohan, Patrick Allen, Susan Beaumont, Jill Dixon) – Classic Movie Review 13,809

The Rank Organisation’s 1957 British black and white romantic drama film High Tide at Noon stars Betta St John, William Sylvester, Michael Craig, Flora Robson, Alexander Knox, Peter Arne, and Patrick McGoohan.

Director Philip Leacock’s 1957 British Rank Organisation black and white film High Tide at Noon stars Betta St John, William Sylvester, Michael Craig, Flora Robson, Alexander Knox, Peter Arne, Patrick McGoohan, Patrick Allen, Susan Beaumont, and Jill Dixon.

High Tide at Noon is a shipshape romantic drama, with a screenplay by Neil Paterson based on the first of a series of novels by American novelist Elisabeth Ogilvie, about the ebb and flow of passions among Nova Scotia, Canada, lobster fishermen.

Manly fishermen Nils Sorenson (Michael Craig), Simon Breck (Patrick McGoohan) and Alec Douglas (William Sylvester) get steamed up over pretty Joanna MacKenzie (American leading lady Betta St John, born Betty Jean Striegler, November 26, 1929 – June 23, 2023) .

Flora Robson, Alexander Knox, Peter Arne, Patrick Allen and John Hayward are all members of the MacKenzie clan. With actors like these, you can expect lots of fireworks.

They are old-style melodramatics, maybe, but Philip Leacock directs with an expert eye to the tender emotions and high passions.

It is shot in Northwest Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada, and Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England. But most of the movie was shot at Pinewood Studios, where a huge set was built for the village. There was some location work in Nova Scotia in September 1956 ‘with a few of the cast, mainly footage of the boat landing,’ recalled Leacock. There was also location filming in Cornwall.

Jackson called the story ‘very interesting, quite good’ but he said the film ‘cost a lot of money and did not do very well, how could it? A sea picture shot inside! In fact it did disastrously.’

It just doesn’t have enough star power or excitement to succeed at the box office. It needed a big name as the female star, the film’s main role. Betta St John gives a pleasant performance but she struggles to command the movie. Rank were trying to please an international audience again, and ended up pleasing no one every much.

Also in the cast are: John Hayward, Errol MacKinnon, Bernard Bresslaw, Paul Massie, Bill Nagy, Ewan Roberts, Stuart Nichol, Gerald Lawson, Gary Thorne, Anthony Bate.

There was much production trouble, even more than usual. Original star Virginia McKenna did not approve of the script, and original director Pat Jackson complained about her to John Davis, head of Rank, who then told him he wanted to cancel the film because he had lost faith in it. Next Jackson then heard that Davis had hired Philip Leacock to direct, with Betta St John starring and Patrick McGoohan recast as the villain instead of the hero.

High Tide at Noon is directed by Philip Leacock, runs 109 minutes, is made and released by Rank Organisation, is written by Neil Paterson, based on the novel by Elisabeth Ogilvie, is shot in black and white by Eric Cross, is produced by Earl St John, David Deutsch and Julian Wintle, is scored by John Veale, and is designed by Edward Carrick.

Release date: 30 April 1957.

The cast are Betta St John as Joanna, William Sylvester as Alec Douglas, Michael Craig as Nils Sorenson, Flora Robson as Donna MacKenzie, Alexander Knox as Stephen MacKenzie, Peter Arne as Owen MacKenzie, Patrick McGoohan as Simon Breck, Patrick Allen as Charles MacKenzie, Jill Dixon as Matille Trudeau, Susan Beaumont as Kristy, John Hayward as Philip MacKenzie, Errol MacKinnon as Peter Grant, Bernard Bresslaw, Paul Massie, Bill Nagy, Ewan Roberts, Stuart Nichol, Gerald Lawson, Gary Thorne, Anthony Bate.

Elisabeth Ogilvie published her first novel, High Tide at Noon, in 1944, the first of eight novels in the Bennett’s Island series. She spent summers on the Maine island of Criehaven, the model for the books’ setting.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,809

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