Crown v. Stevens

Beatrix Thomson, who made no more than three or four films, steals the show in Michael Powell’s Crown v. Stevens as Doris Stevens, the selfish, sneaky femme fatale who ultimately comes unraveled in a manner that resembles Ida Lupino’s performance on the stand in They Drive By Night (1940) four years later. Doris is the dissatisfied wife of Arthur Stevens (Frederick Piper) whose employee Chris Jensen (Patric Knowles) enters a moneylender’s shop just after the man has been shot dead, the smoking gun still in Doris’ grasp behind a curtain. Having owed the lender a large sum himself, and unaware at this point that Doris is his employer’s wife, Jensen agrees not to alert the police, which keep Doris free to kill again. Glennis Lorimer plays Molly Hobbes, Jensen’s love interest, while a young Googie Withers plays society girl Ella Levine. Powell, who would go on to direct some of Britain’s greatest films with his directing partner Emeric Pressburger, helms this little proto-noir with gusto, utilizing several elaborate sets (the Art Deco nightclub and Stevens bathroom are highlights) and creating shadowy atmosphere which offers an early taste of what noir would become.