The Rossiter Case (1951)

Admirable film.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Maybe the music director decided that the dreadfully slow drama needed beefing up.So he thought it could do with a touch of the Max Steiners.So every dramatic moment is overlaid by screeching violins which at times render the dialogue inaudible. This film only warms up in the last 15 minutes.This despite the fact that the writers and director were very experienced in making this sort of film.

Well-made if somewhat slow-paced British melodrama involving an aristocrat cheating on his paralyzed wife with her sister. Sheila Burrell's portrayal of the husband-stealing sister is powerfully disturbing even negatively impacting her physical appearance as her character unfolds throughout the movie. The condoning of the overt affair by family and friends is remarkably insensitive to its impact on the paralyzed woman, Liz Rossiter. Helen Shingler's Liz Rossiter is selfless without becoming pitiful. This is a good movie that requires patience due to the snails-pacing.

The plot of the film largely has to do with the love triangle between a married man, his wife, who was paralyzed in a car crash and her sister who is having an affair with the husband. The sister wants the husband to leave his wife, but he won't and it causes all sorts of problems...Actually it leads to murder in the final 15 or 20 minutes of the film. There is no mystery as to who does it, the real question is will they be found out and what will the ramifications be.A way too talky film substitutes talk for action. Nothing much really happens other than emotions simmer under the surface which would be all fine and good except that the film is largely static as a result with people just sitting and standing around talking with no sense of motion (this would have been a heck of a radio play. By the time the murder happens you really won't care, especially after the denouncement at the end What were they thinking?

Not bad for this little flick from UK and directed by the prolific Francis Searle, as were Godfrey Grayson, Monty Tully, Vernon Sewell and many other filmmakers who worked for small companies: Butchers, Danzigers etc...Pleasant, entertaining tale of a paralysed young woman after a car accident who have to face her husband and his new mistress. Predictable, as you may guess, especially between the two women. But it remains an acceptable time waster, and really well acted. The seventy five minutes are quick for the viewer in front of his TV set.I can't although tell it's a film noir, as I am used to. But at least a fairly good drama.