fiction.wikisort.org - Movie

The Silent Playground is a 1963 British thriller film written and directed by Stanley Goulder.[2][3]

The Silent Playground
Directed by	Stanley Goulder
Written by	Stanley Goulder
Produced by	George Mills
Starring	Roland Curram Bernard Archard Jean Anderson Ellen McIntosh
Cinematography	Martin Curtis
Edited by	Peter Musgrave
Music by	Tristram Cary
Production company	Focus Film Productions
Distributed by	British Lion (UK)
Release date	31 December 1963 (1963-12-31) (UK)
Running time	75 minutes[1]
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Production

The film was shot on location in 24 days for $75,000 by debut feature director Goulder, who had previously made documentaries.[1][4]

Plot premise

In London's Greenwich, just before Christmas, Mavis Nugent (Ellen McIntosh), a young widow, drops her children outside the cinema for Saturday morning pictures so she can go to work at a local haberdashers. A man approaches the queue and gives out handfuls of what the children take to be sweets. At the end of the performance, staff find several of the children unconscious with barbiturate poisoning. A police investigation begins, led by Inspector Duffy (Bernard Archard.) When one of the children blacks out in the street later, his friend is able to show the police two types of capsules. At the hospital, Dr Green (Desmond Llewelyn) and his nurses fight to save the children. After his mother realises her adult son does not have all of the mental health medication that had been dispensed to him that morning, the hunt shifts to a nervous and vulnerable hospital outpatient, Simon Lacey (Roland Curram), who had been unwittingly handing out the pills. The police are able to apprehend the man, but not before he has thrown away the rest of the drugs in a playground where small children are playing. Meanwhile police search for Mrs Nugent and her three children.

Cast

Reception

It was a commercial disappointment.[5]

Critical

Variety wrote "this is quality production...[Goulder's] screenplay is taut, economic and natural in dialog and his direction is unfussy and alert."[1] and TV Guide wrote "The story never panders to its more-sensational elements but is, instead, an intelligent and sensitive thriller."[6]

References

External links

• Review at Variety
• Silent Playground at IMDb

---