Tower of Terror (1941 film)
Tower of Terror is a 1941 British thriller film directed by Lawrence Huntington and starring Wilfrid Lawson, Michael Rennie and Movita.[1] It was made at Welwyn Studios with location shooting on Flat Holm off the Welsh coast.[2]
| Tower of Terror | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Lawrence Huntington |
| Produced by | John Argyle |
| Written by | John Reinhardt (story) John Argyle |
| Starring | Wilfrid Lawson Michael Rennie Movita Morland Graham |
| Music by | Charles Williams |
| Cinematography | Ronald Anscombe Walter J. Harvey Bryan Langley |
| Edited by | Flora Newton |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Pathé Pictures Monogram Pictures (US) |
Release date | 27 December 1941 |
Running time | 78 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Plot
Anthony Hale is a British secret agent in Germany who takes a job as assistant to lighthouse keeper Wolfe Kristan and plans to return to Britain with some valuable papers. The plan is for him to be picked up by a British boat. He meets and befriends Marie, who has escaped from a concentration camp. She had tried to evade capture by the local police by jumping into the sea but was rescued and taken to the lighthouse by the deranged Kristan, who sees in her the image of Marthe, his wife whom he killed 16 years earlier and buried in the basement of the lighthouse. After several violent encounters with Kristan, Hale and Marie manage to make their way down to the beach where they board the British boat. The lighthouse is destroyed by gunfire from a German destroyer whose captain had been alerted by Hale's signal to his rescue vessel. Kristan, prostrate with grief over his wife's opened grave, is killed during the bombardment.
Cast
- Wilfrid Lawson as Wolfe Kristan
- Michael Rennie as Anthony Hale
- Movita as Marie Durand
- Morland Graham as Harbour Master Kleber
- George Woodbridge as Gruppenfuhrer Rudolf Jurgens
- Charles Rolfe as Albers
- Richard George as Ship's Captain Borkmann
- H Victor Weske as Peters, resigning lighthouse assistant
- Olive Sloane as Florist
- Eric Clavering as Riemers
- John Longden as Commander
- Edward Sinclair as Fletcher, Hale's contact
- Bob Cameron as Military Sergeant
- Davina Craig
- Noel Dainton
Critical reception
The New York Times reviewer called it a "dire little melodrama...A penny dreadful thriller about a mad lighthouse keeper on the German-occupied coast, it cannot overcome the lack of a preposterous story preposterously acted, or a sound track which gives the impression that every one is speaking with a gag over the mouth. Even Wilfrid Lawson, that excellent actor, gives a ludicrously overwrought portrait of insanity as the keeper...Not good".[3] In Beacons in the Dark, film historian Robyn Ludwig critiques the film for its "deranged lighthouse keeper... a threatening presence, with bulging eyes, unkempt moustache and mutilated arm with a sharp metal prosthetic in place of a right hand."[4]
References
- "Tower of Terror (1941)". BFI. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012.
- Chibnall & McFarlane p.8
- "Movie Review - The Tower of Terror - At the Central". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
- "Beacons in the Dark: Lighthouse Iconography in Wartime British Cinema"
Bibliography
- Chibnall, Steve & McFarlane, Brian. The British 'B' Film. Palgrave MacMillan, 2009.