1958 British film
Tread Softly Stranger is a 1958 British crime drama directed by Gordon Parry and starring Diana Dors, George Baker and Terence Morgan. The film was shot in black-and-white in film noir style, and its setting in an industrial town in northern England mirrors the kitchen sink realism movement coming into vogue in English drama and film at the time. The screenplay was adapted from the stage play Blind Alley (1953) by Jack Popplewell.[1][2]
Plot
Johnny Mansell has fled to the Yorkshire steel town of Rawmarsh, his home town, after racking up large gambling debts in London. He moves into a cramped flat with his brother Dave, a clerk in a local steel mill. Dave's girlfriend Calico, a hostess in a local nightclub, lives close by and their flats have neighbouring flat roof spaces which they often use. Calico comes up with a plan for the brothers to rob the payroll at Dave's workplace to steal enough money to cover Dave's fraud and Johnny's debts.
Production
The film was shot at Walton Studios in Walton-on-Thames[3] and on location in Parkgate, Rotherham.
The eponymous theme tune was sung by Jim Dale.
Box office
Kinematograph Weekly listed it as being "in the money" at the British box office in 1958.[4]
Critical reception
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan wrote: ''Thriller has silly dialogue, fails to make use of Rotheram backgrounds.''[5]
Leslie Halliwell wrote: "Hilarious murky melodrama full of glum faces, with a well-worn trick ending; rather well photographed."[6]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "The big question here is, what on earth were Diana Dors, Terence Morgan and George Baker doing in such a dreary little film? Director Gordon Parry was capable of making involving pictures, but here he insists on his cast delivering each line as if it had the dramatic weight of a Russian novel, which is more than a little preposterous for a petty melodrama about criminal brothers falling for the same girl."[7]
Release
Tread Softly Stranger received its first DVD release in the UK in 2008.
