Tread Softly Stranger

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}}

{{Use British English|date=June 2016}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Tread Softly Stranger

| image = Treadsoftlystranger.jpg

| caption = UK release poster

| director = Gordon Parry

| writer = George Minter

| based_on = play Blind Alley by Jack Popplewell

| producer = Denis O'Dell

| starring = Diana Dors
George Baker
Terence Morgan

| cinematography = Douglas Slocombe

| editing = Anthony Harvey

| music = Tristram Cary

| studio = Alderdale
George Minter Productions

| distributor = Renown Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1958|08}}

| runtime = 90 minutes

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| budget =

}}

Tread Softly Stranger is a 1958 British crime drama film directed by Gordon Parry and starring Diana Dors, George Baker and Terence Morgan. The screenplay was written by George Minter adapted from the stage play Blind Alley (1953) by Jack Popplewell.{{Cite web |title=Tread Softly Stranger |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150044050 |access-date=8 November 2023 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}}{{cite news|title=TREAD SOFTLY, STRANGER|work=Monthly Film Bulletin|location=London|volume=25|issue=288|date=Jan 1, 1958|page=92}} The film was shot in black-and-white in film noir style, and its setting in an industrial town in northern England mirrors the kitchen sink realism movement coming into vogue in English drama and film at the time.

Plot

Johnny Mansell has fled to the Yorkshire steel town of Rawborough, his home town, after racking up large gambling debts in London. He moves into a cramped flat with his brother Dave, a clerk in a local steel mill. Dave's girlfriend Calico, a hostess in a local nightclub, lives close by and their flats have neighbouring flat roof spaces which they often use. Calico comes up with a plan for the brothers to rob the payroll at Dave's workplace to steal enough money to cover Dave's fraud and Johnny's debts.

Cast

{{castlist|

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Production

The film was shot at Walton Studios in Walton-on-Thames{{cite news|title=Round the British Studios|author=Nepean, Edith|work=Picture Show|location=London|volume=70|issue=1828|date=Apr 12, 1958|page=11}} and on location in Parkgate, Rotherham.

The eponymous theme tune was sung by Jim Dale.

Box office

Kinematograph Weekly listed it as being "in the money" at the British box office in 1958.{{cite magazine|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|date=18 December 1958|first=Josh|last=Billings|page=7|title=Others in the Money}}

Critical reception

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan wrote: Thriller has silly dialogue, fails to make use of Rotheram backgrounds.{{Cite book |last=Quinlan |first=David |title=British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 |publisher=B.T. Batsford Ltd. |year=1984 |isbn=0-7134-1874-5 |location=London |pages=392}}

Leslie Halliwell wrote: "Hilarious murky melodrama full of glum faces, with a well-worn trick ending; rather well photographed."{{Cite book |last=Halliwell |first=Leslie |title=Halliwell's Film Guide |publisher=Paladin |year=1989 |isbn=0-586-08894-6 |edition=7th |location=London |pages=1048}}

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "The big question here is, what on earth were Diana Dors, Terence Morgan and George Baker doing in such a dreary little film? Director Gordon Parry was capable of making involving pictures, but here he insists on his cast delivering each line as if it had the dramatic weight of a Russian novel, which is more than a little preposterous for a petty melodrama about criminal brothers falling for the same girl."{{Cite book |title=Radio Times Guide to Films |publisher=Immediate Media Company |year=2017 |isbn=9780992936440 |edition=18th |location=London |pages=957}}

Release

Tread Softly Stranger received its first DVD release in the UK in 2008.

References