''Three Silent Men'' is a 1940 British

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

Thomas Bentley Thomas Bentley (23 February 1884 – 23 December 1966) was a British film director. He directed 68 films between 1912 and 1941. He directed three films in the early DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process, ''The Man in the Street'' (1926), '' ...

and starring Sebastian Shaw,

Derrick De Marney Derrick Raoul Edouard Alfred De Marney (21 September 1906 – 18 February 1978) was an English stage and film actor and producer, of French and Irish ancestry. Actor The son of Violet Eileen Concanen and Arthur De Marney, and the grandson of ...

Patricia Roc Patricia Roc (born Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold; 7 June 1915 – 30 December 2003) was an English film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as ''Madonna of the Seven Moons'' (1945) and '' The Wicked Lady'' (1945), though she only ...

and

Arthur Hambling Arthur Hambling (14 March 1888 – 6 December 1952) was a British actor, on stage from 1912, and best known for appearances in the films ''Henry V'' (1944) and ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' (1951). In 1939 he appeared in the West End in N.C. Hunter ...

. The screenplay concerns a pacifist surgeon who must operate to save the life of the inventor of a deadly weapon of war. When the inventor dies the surgeon becomes prime suspect.

Plot

Pacifist surgeon Sir James Quentin (Sebastian Shaw) operates on Zaroff (Meinhart Maur), the inventor of a lethal weapon to be used against the Allies in the war. When Zaroff is discovered dead from an excess of ether, Quentin is immediately suspected. To clear her father's name, Quentin's daughter Pat (Patricia Roc), and her boyfriend Captain Mellish (Derrick De Marney), search for the real murderer.

Cast

* Sebastian Shaw as Sir James Quentin *

as Captain John Mellish *

as Pat Quentin *

as Ginger Brown *

Meinhart Maur Meinhart Maur ( hu, Grünbaum Menyhért, 18 August 1891 – 27 November 1964) was a Hungarian-German film actor. He appeared in more than 40 films between 1919 and 1954. He was born in Hajdúnánás, Hungary and died in London, England. Select ...

as Karl Zaroff * John Turnbull as Inspector Gill *

Peter Gawthorne Peter Gawthorne (1 September 1884 – 17 March 1962) was an Anglo-Irish actor, probably best known for his roles in the films of Will Hay and other popular British comedians of the 1930s and 1940s. Gawthorne was one of Britain's most called-upo ...

as General Bullington *

André Morell Cecil André Mesritz (20 August 1909 – 28 November 1978), known professionally as André Morell, was an English actor. He appeared frequently in theatre, film and on television from the 1930s to the 1970s. His best known screen roles were as ...

as Klein * Charles Oliver as Johnson * Jack Vyvian as Sergeant Wells * Billy Watts as Fernald * Charles Paton as Mr. Gibbs * Basil Cunard as Dr. Fairlie *

Hugh Dempster Hugh Dempster (3 August 1900 – 30 April 1987) was a British theatre and film actor. Born in London, Dempster made his stage debut in 1920, and began his screen career in the silent film era. His credits included ''Vice Versa'', ''Anna Karenin ...

as Nelson *

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...

as Pennington * Cameron Hall as Badger Wood * Scott Harrold as Ted Blacklock * F.B.J. Sharp as Coroner *

Bill Shine William Shine (born July 4, 1963) is a former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. He spent most of his career as a producer and executive at Fox News. Most recently, he was c ...

as Bystander at accident * Cynthia Stock as Matron

Critical reception

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' gave the film two out of five stars, calling it, "Badly written, though the suspense makes it entertaining."

References

External links

* 1940 films 1940 crime films British crime films 1940s English-language films Films directed by Thomas Bentley Films based on British novels British black-and-white films 1940s British films {{1940s-crime-film-stub