1953 film by Lance Comfort
The Girl on the Pier is a 1953 British crime film produced by John Temple-Smith, directed by Lance Comfort and starring Veronica Hurst, Ron Randell, Brian Roper, Campbell Singer and Anthony Valentine.[1] Crime melodrama set on Brighton Pier.
Plot
Inspector Chubb dictates a warrant for arrest for murder, then catches a train to Brighton with his wife, their young son Charlie, and teenage daughter Cathy, who chats up a young crime reporter, Ronnie Hall, when she and Charlie go to the buffet car.
On Brighton Pier, ex-convict Nick Lane, who has recently started working on the pier with a dance band, flirts with Rita Hammond, talking of their assignation the night before and arranging to meet her at the dance that night. Nick surprises Rita by greeting her husband Joe Hammond as an old friend. The men go to Joe's office and Nick challenges Joe regarding the missing loot from a previous crime. He reveals that Hammond used to be called Harper. In the Chamber of Horrors section of Joe's Wax House, young Charlie Chubb hears part of the conversation. Hammond tries to get Rita to have a night out with him, wanting to make their marriage work, but she responds contemptuously. At the dance on the pier, Nick hooks up with Rita and gets inside information on Joe. Hammond spots them kissing under the pier. After Rita leaves, they fight. Nick wins and also threatens to blackmail him.
Joe demands that Rita does not see Nick again. While she sees Nick on the beach, Joe empties the safe and takes out a revolver. Charlie thinks he sees Joe kill Rita and tells his dad, but Rita is still alive.
Nick tells Ronnie Hall that Hammond is Harper. Ronnie, Cathy, and Charlie visit the library and find newspaper cuttings connecting Nick to "Harper" in a robbery 4 years before. Charlie sees a notice for a rehearsal and connecting this with what he saw, believes the murder will actually happen that night. Charlie tails Hammond/Harper, and the reporter tells his dad their theory.
Despite the warning in advance, Nick gets shot by Hammond (who has disguised himself as a clown in his waxworks). When the police arrive, Hammond "hides in plain sight" as a waxwork, but Charlie sees him move. A pursuit throughout the pier ensues, ending with Hammond falling into the sea and drowning.
Critical reception
Kine Weekly said: "The plot is completely transparent but its artful 'seen through the eyes of a youngster' approach disarms criticism, and, at the same time, enables its main action, staged in a wax-works, to carry a few modest thrills."[2]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan wrote: ''Drama is mostly sombre, slow.''[3]
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