Alias John Preston

Alias John Preston
Directed byDavid MacDonald
Written byPaul Tabori
Produced byEdward J. Danziger
Harry Lee Danziger
Sidney Stone (as Sid Stone)
StarringChristopher Lee
Alexander Knox
Betta St. John
CinematographyJack E. Cox (as Jack Cox)
Edited byJack Baldwin
Cynthia Moody
Music byEdwin Astley
Albert Elms
Production
company
Danziger Productions (as Danziger Photoplays)
Distributed byBritish Lion Film Corporation (UK)
Release date
  • 1955 (1955)
Running time
66 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Alias John Preston is a 1955 British 'B'[1] thriller film directed by David MacDonald and starring Christopher Lee, Betta St. John and Alexander Knox.[2][3] A mysterious and wealthy man moves to a small village where he outwardly appears to be a friendly figure but nurses a dangerous secret.[4]

Cast

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This static and stagey melodrama is unimaginatively handled, finishing with a trick ending which explains remarkably little. Alexander Knox, as the psychiatrist, brings some degree of plausibility to the proceedings, but the playing generally is characterless."[5]

Chibnall and McFarlane in The British 'B' Film wrote: "It was a pretty botched job, over-played and under-plotted."[1]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Watchable second feature."[6]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "poor", writing: "Dreary, turgid drama: seems much longer than it is."[7]

TV Guide called the film "a poorly developed psychological drama",[8] while Allmovie described it as "an average psychological mystery worth watching for the good performances."[9]

In Offbeat: British Cinema's Curiosities, Obscurities and Forgotten Items, Jennifer Wallis wrote: "The Danzingers' high speed production accounts for the short running time. ...In the context of such whistle-stop production, Alias John Preston is an impressive feat, and in no way a bad film per se. Its tightly compacted plot and self-conscious intensity, though, tire the viewer before becoming somewhat infuriating in their transparency."[10]

References

  1. ^ a b Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-8445-7319-6.
  2. ^ "Alias John Preston". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  3. ^ "Alias John Preston (1955)". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 January 2009.
  4. ^ "Alias John Preston (1956)". rotten tomatoes. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  5. ^ "Alias John Preston". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 23 (264): 102. 1 January 1956 – via ProQuest.
  6. ^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 21. ISBN 0586088946.
  7. ^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 277. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
  8. ^ "Alias John Preston". TVGuide.com.
  9. ^ Michael P. Rogers. "Alias John Preston (1956) - David MacDonald - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  10. ^ Wallis, Jennifer (2022). "Alias John Preston". In Upton, Julian (ed.). Offbeat: British Cinema's Curiosities, Obscurities and Forgotten Items (2nd ed.). Headpress. pp. 21–22. ISBN 9781909394933.