Dangerous Afternoon (1961)

Looks can be deceiving,  23 October 2019

Wheelchair-bound Letty Frost (Ruth Dunning) runs a boarding house for elderly women. But these aren’t the sweet old things they at first appear.  Each has a criminal past to hide (and some hide it better than others). It’s a quiet house, until a woman with a score to settle from Miss Frost’s past pays a visit.  How much can Miss Frost take until she snaps and her genteel facade crumbles?

Overall, Dangerous Afternoon is a nice little British crime/drama. You can find far better, more exciting films, but it’s a decent enough way to spend an hour.  The acting is really strong. Though I can’t say I’m overly familiar with any of them, Dunning and the rest of the old ladies obviously knew their way around a movie set.  The way they play against type (as in the opening shoplifting scene) is often quite funny. The plot is interesting enough. It does take some time to get going and much of the story can be fairly predictable, but at about an hour, it doesn’t overstay its welcome.  At first, I didn’t understand how the subplot featuring the niece fit in, but by the end, that plot thread becomes crucial to the whole story. However, I did not care for the final scene at all. But I suppose that in 1961, a murderer couldn’t go unpunished.

Finally, I can’t end this without mentioning the music playing over the opening credits.  It was eerily reminiscent of the bombastic, overwrought, melodramatic music featured in the soap operas my grandmother watched when I was a child.  It just about put me off the film before it even began.

5/10