The Large Rope

1953 film by Wolf Rilla

December 1953 (1953-12) (UK)

Running time

72 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglish

The Large Rope (also known as The Long Rope) is a 1953 British crime film directed by Wolf Rilla and starring Donald Houston, Susan Shaw and Robert Brown.^[1]

Plot

Tom Penney returns to his village after serving three years in prison for an assault that he did not commit, determined to take his revenge on those who framed him. He meets hostility from most of the village including his father, but his mother is glad to see him, and his former girlfriend, Susan, who is about to be married that day, finds her old feelings for him resurface. Amy Jordan, the flirtatious married woman he is supposed to have assaulted three years ago, is found dead in nearby woods just as the wedding is due to begin, and Susan runs from the church when she hears the news. Tom is taken in by the police for questioning, but escapes, and both he and the police try to discover the killer, while most of the villagers, convinced that Tom is the murderer, form a lynch mob.

Cast

Donald Houston as Tom Penney
Susan Shaw as Susan Hamble
Robert Brown as Mick Jordan
Vanda Godsell as Amy Jordan
Peter Byrne as Jeff Stribling
Richard Warner as Inspector Harmer
Christine Finn as May
Thomas Heathcote as James Gore
Katie Johnson as Grandmother (uncredited)
Hilda Fenemore as Pub Landlady (uncredited)

Critical reception

The film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane describe The Large Rope as an "excellent thriller", adding that it has "an arresting narrative premise and an unsentimental view of the potential mean-spiritedness of village life".^[2]