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The Small Voice

The Small Voice (released in the USA as The Hideout) is a 1948 British thriller film directed by Fergus McDonell and starring Valerie Hobson, James Donald and Howard Keel (who was credited as Harold Keel). The film is part of a group of British film noir produced around this time.[3] It was based on the 1940 novel of the same name by Robert Westerby.

The Small Voice
Directed byFergus McDonell
Written byGeorge Barraud
Derek Neame
Julian Orde
Based onThe Small Voice Robert Westerby
Produced byAnthony Havelock-Allan
StarringValerie Hobson
James Donald
Howard Keel
CinematographyStanley Pavey
Edited byManuel del Campo
Music byStanley Black
Production
company
Constellation Films
Distributed byBritish Lion Films
Release date
  • 30 November 1948 (1948-11-30)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£121,000[1]
Box office£105,199 (UK)[2]

The film's sets were designed by the art director Andrew Mazzei. It was the film debut of Howard Keel who made it while appearing in the original London production of Oklahoma![4]

The film received a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film in 1949.[5]

The "small voice" of the title is referred to at the end of the film: the small voice in your own head, of one's conscience telling one not to do something.

Plot

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Three ex-army men escape from Dartmoor Prison and kill a man to get his car. Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Byrne bicker on a train and discuss divorce before arriving at Llanbach in Wales near their home. He has lost a leg in the war, and is very bitter. As a result they have drifted apart. He is now a playwright.

As they drive along a country road at night they are stopped at a police road block, which is looking for the three escaped convicts. Five minutes later the couple spot broken glass and a missing parapet on an awkward bend and he goes to investigate. A man comes up the dark embankment and says there is another man in the car. The couple take them to their house, which is only a mile away, and intend to phone for medical assistance.[6]

They treat the injured man in the kitchen but the first man disappears and steals their car. They are immediately suspicious and the injured man pulls a gun.

Back at the crash scene the first convict locates the third man and it is revealed that they hit another car. They search and find the car. The chauffeur is dead but two children are cowering in the back seat. They take the children back to the house.

Mr and Mrs Byrne are locked in one room together and joke about the irony. The children are locked in a room with the Byrnes' housekeeper, Mrs Potter.

The missing children's parents are at a police station trying to locate the missing car and children.

The next day the Sunday newspaper arrives and we learn that the escaped convicts have killed a policeman.

The well-educated children start correcting the convicts on their grammar. Mrs Potter distracts the convicts while Mrs Byrne escapes from an upper window. She is caught by the gang leader while trying to make a call from a telephone box. He later explains to Mr Byrne that he was born in Liverpool but raised in Chicago. He was in prison for killing an officer in his regiment.

The boy appears to have meningitis. The gang leader cannot stand the screaming and goes to shoot him. Mr Byrne finds an unattended gun and goes to shoot the leader. But he leaves the safety catch on. The leader points out the error, allowing Mr Byrne to kill him, ending the incident.

Cast

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Production

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The film was produced by Tony Havelock Allan who later recalled:

It got very good notices and was very well received but didn’t make much money. Our director was Fergus McDonell, who was an editor for Carol Reed. Carol had suggested I give him a chance to direct. I nursed him through our film and he obviously had talent but he was so highly strung that he could very easily have had a nervous breakdown. He went to Canada afterwards and did well in the documentary field.[7]

Critical reception

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Virginia Graham wrote in The Spectator in 1948, "all this is admirably done, and eventually provides melodrama of an order as English and as excellent as muffins";[8] while TV Guide concluded that "the tension is sustained throughout, with some interesting plot twists along the way."[9]

As of 30 June 1949 the film earned £80,000 in the UK of which £59,844 went to the producer.[1]

Havelock-Allen said the film "got very good notices and a lot of help, but it didn’t make any real money. It made a few thousand, but the few thousand goes out of the window very quickly if you’ve got the rent of an office in Hanover Square and three or four employees."[10]

References

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  1. ^ a b Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 354
  2. ^ Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p486
  3. ^ Mayer p.97
  4. ^ "Annie's Handsome Man". The Sunday Herald. Sydney. 18 June 1950. p. 4 Supplement: Features. Retrieved 17 July 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Film in 1949 | BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  6. ^ The Small Voice at TCMDB
  7. ^ McFarlane, Brian (1997). An autobiography of British cinema : as told by the filmmakers and actors who made it. Metheun. p. 293.
  8. ^ "The Hideout (The Small Voice) (1948)" – via www.rottentomatoes.com.
  9. ^ "Hideout | TV Guide". TVGuide.com.
  10. ^ Charles Drazin (2014) Film Finances: The First Years, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 34:1, 2-22, DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2014.878999 p 6

Bibliography

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  • Mayer, Geoff. Roy Ward Baker. Manchester University Press, 2004.
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