Lost (1956)

Well made but not much of a story. You suspect from the beginning that there is some innocence involved or some mistake or some misunderstanding, but the following of the police work is terrific, the systematical persecution of the smallest clues, some buttons leading to a story of its own, a shred of a torn page from a book, and of course many mistakes and red herrings on the way.My only difficulty was with Julia Arnall, the mother, who was only allowed to make one more film and then sent home. She overdoes it all the way, and no wonder her husband loses patience with her. Of course, any mother in a similar situation would react in the same way, wailing on the brink of constant hysteria, but she is overly lackadaisical and therefore not quite convincing, repeating herself more than actually acting, trying desperately to seem like Grace Kelly; but Grace Kelly was beautiful and could act, while Julia Arnall is just a faint copy. Well, that's how I found her acting. Fortunately there is David Farrar, reliable as always for the supreme suspense. All the others are perfect, and the finale is worth waiting for.

After a long and successful career as a cinematographer this was Guy Green's second effort as a director and he approached "Lost" in a straightforward narrative manner,adopting an almost documentary style not unlike a Rank "Look at Life"episode featuring the workings of the Met Police.To some extent the involvement of the missing baby's parents is almost a side issue to the police procedural - type exposition of the plot.Mr D.Farrar is excellent as the senior detective to whom the kidnap is but one of a number of parallel enquiries.Dedicated,pains-taking,a stickler for protocol,smartly dressed and articulate,he is the type of copper that has disappeared from the radar in the last thirty years or so since "The Sweeney" made it fashionable for detectives to grunt,sniff and swear at everyone in between taking great gulps from the office Scotch. His sidekicks Mr A.Oliver and in particular the lovely Miss E.Summerfield also shine and are spick and span and clearly clean in thought,word and deed. Miss Julia Arnall is very beautiful,exquisitely dressed and a better actress than she has been given credit for.She is eminently believable as the distraught middle - class mother repressed by her own upbringing. Mr D.Knight as her husband is slightly less satisfactory.Presumably included as the token American presence he plays as very much second fiddle to the formidable Miss Arnall. My personal favourite Miss Shirley Anne Field makes her first credited movie appearance as what in the 1950s was known - disgracefully - as a "lumpy jumpered petrol pumper", posh daughter of yokel taxi driver Mr G.Woodbridge. For those who remember bomb sites,Booklovers' Libraries and paper bags with shop names on them,"Lost" is a positive feast of nostalgia. Judged on it's own merits it is a highly competent piece of work with a splendid cast right down to the wines and spirits.I can thoroughly recommend it to lovers of well - paced Britsh crime dramas just a little out of the main stream.And those clothes,those cars...the height of 1950s chic.

This film really is as good as people say. It's worth watching for the locations, the photography and that gallery of British stars. As soon as I saw Joan Hickson chatting to Barbara Windsor about lipstick shades I was hooked. The script is often funny, despite the harrowing subject matter (every parent's nightmare), but I can't help feeling it would have been much better directed if made 10years earlier. Films of the 40s had a comic snap that the 50s lost. In fact, it sometimes looks like a 40s script made in the 50s. It's just that opportunities for comedy are lost. A film with this structure is picaresque - it's an excuse to get your foot in the door and nose around other people's front rooms and meet a lot of people you wouldn't otherwise. More could have been made of theencounters with Thora Hird ("Take the door with you, dear, as far as it will go.") and the fat lady in the newsagents who blames the Russians. Why theRussians? "Well, if we knew that we'd know everything." The boy on the bikecould have been more of a character. And the girl at the garage (gas station to you) is just a Rank starlet with her painfully refined accent and crisp summer dress (for dispensing petrol?). Some of the best bits are back at the policestation with the excellent David Farrar and the sergeants who have to read apile of trashy novels as part of the investigation. Well worth a look.

This was when us Brits still had stiff lips and knew "our place".It is no wonder Yanks get such a false picture of the Brits from this sort of stuff.Nonetheless it reeks of nostalgia. You can almost smell the leather on the car seats!I particularly liked the view of all the 1955 coaches lined up at Victoria Coach Station, London. That coach station is still there in the hub of west London, awkwardly located for any of us on the east of the country but the place that remains the hub of coaches throughout the UK.I spotted a very young and almost good looking Dandy Nichols, I suppose this must be what she looked like when Alf Garnett (Till death us do part!) fell for her!One senses they were trying to be trendy and "with it" with the female CID officer who was a sergeant already. A very enjoyable time was had by all even though the main characters were unfamiliar, even to an oldster like me.