The Night Won’t Talk *** (1952, Hy Hazell, John Bailey, Mary Germaine, Ballard Berkeley, Sarah Lawson) – Classic Movie Review 13,555

The 1952 British second feature crime film The Night Won’t Talk is written by Brock Williams and Roger Burford, and stars Hy Hazell, John Bailey and Mary Germaine.

Director Daniel Birt’s 1952 film The Night Won’t Talk is written by Brock Williams from an original story by Roger Burford, and stars Hy Hazell, John Bailey, Mary Germaine, Ballard Berkeley, Elwyn Brook-Jones, and Sarah Lawson.

The Night Won’t Talk is a well plotted, entertaining, more than acceptable old Brit crime support-feature thriller, with the fiancé Clayton Hawkes (John Bailey) suspected after his artist’s model girlfriend Stella Smith is murdered, strangled in her bed in Chelsea, London. The police think he may have dunit, possibly with the help of his new girlfriend Hazel Carr (Mary Germaine), another model, until she, too, is nearly dunin by the killer.

But Inspector West (Ballard Berkeley) has three murder suspects: Stella Smith’s sinister ex-husband (Grey Blake), the sexually disturbed artist Martin Soames (Elwyn Brook-Jones) and her violent new boyfriend Clayton Hawkes (John Bailey), who is prone to unexplained blackouts, and even thinks he might be the killer after he has quarrelled with the dead woman earlier that that night. And what’s unlikely lady sculptor Theodora ‘Theo’ Castle (Hy Hazell) doing in all this?

The Night Won’t Talk is short (62 minutes) and really rather enjoyable, with a good atmosphere of creaky old 50s austerity England, and even one or two precious little views of old Chelsea, notably the barge setting on the River Thames, the home of the sculptor Theo. The Bohemian artist background is profitably explored. Obviously anyone who works as an artist or model is clearly capable of murder in this twisted movie world. Ballard Berkeley (for ever the Major in Fawlty Towers) is excellent as Inspector West, quietly and politely commanding and cunning as he finally sets a trap to catch the killer, whose identity is fairly well concealed, at least till shortly before the reveal.

Despite his non-star billing Berkeley gets to play the film’s main character, and he has the last little shot to prove it, as he walks away from the stench of the Chelsea art world that he clearly despises so much. They are not his kind of people. The film suggests they are not our kind of people either, all of them capable of murder, though Inspector West opines that we all are.

Berkeley, Hy Hazell, Mary Germaine and Sarah Lawson (as Hazel’s friend and flat mate Susan) are the best in a strong B-movie cast, but John Bailey, Elwyn Brook-Jones and Grey Blake give impressively creepy turns, and Duncan Lamont gives Berkeley loyal support as his police Sergeant Robbins.

The Night Won’t Talk is neatly and briskly handed by capable director Daniel Birt, finding his path through working economically.

The cast are Hy Hazell, John Bailey, Mary Germaine, Ballard Berkeley, Sarah Lawson. Elwyn Brook-Jones, Helene Burns, Leslie Weston. Grey Blake, Duncan Lamont, Raymond Young, and Stuart Pearson.

It was made at Kensington Studios, London, and released by Associated British-Pathé in October 1952.

The Night Won’t Talk is directed by Daniel Birt, runs 62 minutes, is made by Corsair Pictures, is released by Associated British-Pathé, is written by Brock Williams and Roger Burford (original story), is shot in black and white by Benjamin J Stafford, is produced by Harold Richmond, is scored by Gilbert Vinter, and designed by Bernard Robinson.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,555

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com