''Calling Paul Temple'' is a 1948
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
crime film
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
directed by
Maclean Rogers
Maclean Rogers (13 July 1899 – 4 January 1962) was a British film director and screenwriter.
Selected filmography
Director
* '' The Third Eye'' (1929)
* ''The Mayor's Nest'' (1932)
* '' Up for the Derby'' (1933)
* ''The Crime at Blossoms' ...
and starring
John Bentley,
Dinah Sheridan
Dinah Sheridan (born Dinah Nadyejda Ginsburg; 17 September 1920 – 25 November 2012) was an English actress with a career spanning seven decades. She was best known for the films ''Genevieve'' (1953) and ''The Railway Children'' (1970); the lon ...
and
Margaretta Scott
Margaretta Mary Winifred ScottBrian McFarlane, "Scott, Margaretta Mary Winifred (1912–2005)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Jan 201available online Retrieved 30 August 2020. (13 February 1912 – 15 Apri ...
. It was the second in a series of four
Paul Temple
Paul Temple is a fictional character created by English writer Francis Durbridge. Temple is a professional author of crime fiction and an amateur private detective. With his wife Louise, affectionately known as 'Steve' in reference to her jo ...
films distributed by
Butcher's Film Service
Butcher's Film Service was a British film production and distribution company that specialised in low-budget productions. The company was founded by William Butcher, a chemist from Blackheath. The company survived through several production slu ...
. The first was ''
Send for Paul Temple
''Send for Paul Temple'' is a 1946 British crime film directed by John Argyle and starring Anthony Hulme, Joy Shelton and Tamara Desni. Paul Temple is called in by Scotland Yard after a major diamond theft. It was the first of four film adaptati ...
'' (1946), with
Anthony Hulme
Anthony Hulme (1910–2007) was a British film actor.
Filmography
* ''A Yank at Oxford'' (1938)
* '' The Body Vanished'' (1939)
* ''The Frozen Limits'' (1939)
* ''They Came by Night'' (1940)
* '' Laugh It Off'' (1940)
* '' For Freedom'' (1940)
* ...
as Paul Temple. John Bentley then took over the role in ''Calling Paul Temple'', continuing for two further films: ''
Paul Temple's Triumph
''Paul Temple's Triumph'' is a 1950 British crime film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring John Bentley, Dinah Sheridan and Jack Livesey. It was the third in the series of four Paul Temple films made at Nettlefold Studios, and was an adaptat ...
'' (1950) and ''
Paul Temple Returns
''Paul Temple Returns'' is a 1952 British crime film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring John Bentley, Patricia Dainton and Peter Gawthorne. Known in the U.S. as ''Bombay Waterfront'', it was the fourth and last in the series of Paul Templ ...
'' (1952).
[Paul Temple on Film](_blank)
/ref> It was produced by Ernest G. Roy
Ernest G. Roy (1892–1977) was a British film producer who was managing director of Kay (West End) Laboratories, Kay Carlton Hill Studios Ltd and Nettlefold Studios.
Roy was born in Clerkenwell, London, in 1892, son of Charles (1857–1932) and ...
at the Nettlefold Film Studios in Walton On Thames.
Plot
A woman is found dead on a train, and the name "Rex" has been written on the pull-down blind. It is the third in a mysterious string of "Rex" murders, all carried out on trains. And soon there's a fourth murder. All the victims are discovered to have been the wealthy patients of a doctor who specialises in nervous disorders. The detective novelist Paul Temple and his wife Steve are called in to help Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...
's Sir Graham Forbes solve the case before the serial killer strikes again. While at a nightclub, they receive a message from singer Norma Rice concerning the murders. But before Sir Graham has the chance to speak to her she dies, falling down the stairs in the middle of her second number, ''What's Cooking in Cabaret''?. The suspects include the Egyptian therapist Dr Kohima, his mysterious secretary Mrs Trevelyan, and a salesman, Hugh Pryse of the Quick Boil Kettle Company (in the next carriage when one of the murders takes place).
Production
''Calling Paul Temple'' was based on the Francis Durbridge
Francis Henry Durbridge (; 25 November 1912 – 11 April 1998) was an English dramatist and author, best known for the creation of the character Paul Temple, the gentlemanly detective who appeared in 16 BBC multi-part radio serials from 1 ...
radio serial ''Send for Paul Temple Again'', broadcast in September 1945. Writing credits for the film are Francis Durbridge, A.R. Rawlinson & Kathleen Butler. Steve Race
Stephen Russell "Steve" Race OBE (1 April 192122 June 2009) was a British composer, pianist and radio and television presenter.
Biography
Born in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, the son of a lawyer, Race learned the piano from the age of five.Spencer L ...
(with Sid Colin) wrote the two songs performed by Celia Lipton, and appeared himself as the bandleader in the nightclub section.Credits and the song 'Lady on the Loose' by Steve Race and Sid Colin, from ''Calling Paul Temple'' (1948)
/ref> The footage includes evocative shots of gothic Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour.
...
in the 1940s.
Cast
References
External links
*
{{Maclean Rogers
1948 films
British crime films
1948 crime films
1940s serial killer films
Films directed by Maclean Rogers
Films set in Kent
Films shot in Kent
British black-and-white films
Films based on radio series
Films produced by Ernest G. Roy
1940s English-language films
1940s British films