Time Without Pity

Time Without Pity
File:Time Without Pity FilmPoster.jpeg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joseph Losey
Produced by	John Arnold Anthony Simmons
Written by	Ben Barzman
Based on	Someone Waiting (play) by Emlyn Williams
Starring	Michael Redgrave Ann Todd Leo McKern
Music by	Tristram Cary
Cinematography	Freddie Francis
Edited by	Alan Osbiston
Production company	Harlequin Productions
Distributed by	Astor Pictures
Release dates	March 1957
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Time Without Pity is a 1957 British film noir thriller about a father trying to save his son from execution for murder.

Directed by expatriate American Joseph Losey, after he was blacklisted in America due to McCarthyism, Time Without Pity was his second film in Britain and his first under his own name. The film stars Michael Redgrave, Ann Todd, and Leo McKern. It is also the second film of British cinematographer Freddie Francis, as director of photography (the British credit is simply "photography"). Joan Plowright appears briefly as a feisty chorus girl and Lois Maxwell, the original Miss Moneypenny of 14 James Bond films, also has a stand-out scene as a girl who can be bought.

The screenplay was written by fellow blacklisted writer Ben Barzman, adapted from the play Someone Waiting by Emlyn Williams.

Plot

David Graham, a recovering alcoholic, returns to England with only 24 hours to save his son, Alec, from hanging for the murder of Alec's girlfriend, Jenny Cole. A neglectful, absentee father who has missed the entire trial while he was in rehab in Canada, Graham discovers his son, awaiting execution, at first refuses to even see him and when he does, to evince any hope for his case, let alone affection for his father.

His sobriety in constant jeopardy, Graham, for all his failings, never for a moment doubts his son's innocence, and begins a frantic last-minute effort to find the evidence that will save his son's life, if not redeem himself as a father. With the help of his son's steadfast lawyer, Graham desperately, and often bungling, investigates the circumstances surrounding the girl's murder, visiting first her furious sister who's onstage in a chorus line, then the home of wealthy car magnate Robert Stanford, where the girlfriend was killed and whose family have been the only real support his son has ever known. Graham ricochets between potential allies, foes and new leads in order to learn who the real murderer could be, including Stanford's beautiful young wife, Honor, his even-younger secretary, Vickie Harker, and his adopted son, and Alec's best friend Brian, who allows Graham to see what his own misspent life looked like through his son's eyes.

With the Home Office on standby to receive any overwhelming evidence proving Alec's innocence, Graham is forced to extreme measures to try to establish the real killer's guilt.

Cast

• Michael Redgrave as David Graham
• Ann Todd as Honor Stanford
• Leo McKern as Robert Stanford
• Paul Daneman as Brian Stanford
• Peter Cushing as Jeremy Clayton
• Alec McCowen as Alec Graham
• Renée Houston as Mrs. Harker
• Lois Maxwell as Vickie Harker
• Richard Wordsworth as Maxwell
• George Devine as Barnes
• Joan Plowright as Agnes Cole
• Ernest Clark as Undersecretary, Home Office
• Peter Copley as Prison chaplain
• Hugh Moxey as Prison governor
• Dickie Henderson as Comedian
• John Chandos as First journalist
• Vernon Greeves as Second journalist
• Arnold Diamond as Third journalist
• Julian Somers as First warder
• Aubrey Richards as Prison gatekeeper

External links

• Time Without Pity at the TCM Movie Database
• Time Without Pity at IMDb