Suspected Person *** (1943, Clifford Evans, Patricia Roc, David Farrar, Robert Beatty, Eric Clavering, Anne Firth, William Hartnell) – Classic Movie Review 13,492

The taut and tense 1942 British drama thriller film Suspected Person stars Clifford Evans, Patricia Roc, David Farrar, Robert Beatty, Eric Clavering and Anne Firth.

Writer/ director Lawrence Huntington’s 1942 British drama thriller film Suspected Person stars Clifford Evans, Patricia Roc, David Farrar, Robert Beatty, Eric Clavering, Anne Firth, and William Hartnell.

Suspected Person is a taut, fast-moving, downbeat realist melodrama following the fortunes in England of a pair of American bank robbers Franklin and Donlan (Robert Beatty, Eric Clavering) whose stolen loot a New York bank job has ended up in the hands of British associate Jim Raynor (Clifford Evans). Raynor heads for London where his sister Joan (Patricia Roc) keeps a boarding house. Joan has a nasty shock when both Scotland Yard and the bank robbers turn up looking for Jim and the loot.

The result is a surprisingly extraordinary, exciting, distinguished British B-picture, with stalwart performance and plenty of mystery and tension from a prolific director of support features.

Patricia Roc stylishly steals the show as Jim (Evans)’s sister, whom Scotland Yard Inspector Thompson (David Farrar) hopes will help him find the loot. Anne Firth is charming in her feature film debut as Carol, the singer who also lodges in Joan’s boarding house and becomes Jim’s girlfriend.

It was shot at Welwyn Studios, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, in Hertfordshire, England, which operated from 1928 to 1950.

It was made by the Associated British Picture Corporation, who owned the studio from 1933.

It was released in the UK in 1943 by Pathé Pictures International and in the US in 1944 by Producers Releasing Corporation.

The cast

The cast are Clifford Evans as Jim Raynor, Patricia Roc as Joan Raynor, David Farrar as Inspector Thompson, Anne Firth as Carol, Robert Beatty as Franklin, Eric Clavering as Dolan, Leslie Perrins as Tony Garrett, Eliot Makeham as Davis, John Salew as Jones, William Hartnell as Saunders, Martin Benson, Terry Conlin, and Anthony Shaw.

Patricia Roc (born Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold; 7 June 1915 – 30 December 2003)

Pat Roc began her career on stage actress, debuting in the 1938 London production of Nuts in May. Producer Alexander Korda saw it and gave her an uncredited bit in The Divorce of Lady X (1938).

Anne Firth (1 August 1918 – 16 January 1961)

Anne Firth was stricken with paralysis of the spine in 1945, stopping her career for 18 months. Then io 1953, she was injured in a van crash that left her badly disfigured. She died of an intentional aspirin overdose after losing her job as a barmaid because of her injuries, aged just 42.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,492

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