Green for Danger

Aside from all the surgical masks, Sidney Galliat’s Green for Danger offers a classic whodunit set-up in which a handful of murder suspects confined to a remote location are visited by a smug detective who unravels the motives of each while the unknown killer continues to wreak havoc. Set in a suburban London hospital during the final days of World War II, the film’s visiting sleuth is Scotland Yard Inspector Cockrill (Alastair Slim), who is called in after two murders in the surgical theater, one subtle (“accidental” administration of carbon dioxide during an operation) and one aggressive (a woman stabbed in the dark by a masked figure wearing scrubs), the latter filmed like a scene out of a horror film. Cockrill connects the murders and gathers the five obvious suspects: two surgeons, Barnes (Trevor Howard) and Mr Eden (Leo Genn), and three nurses, Freddi Linley (Sally Gray), Esther Sanson (Rosamund John), and Woods (Megs Jenkins). Galliat maintains excellent pacing, balancing character development, suspense, and revelation, while the occasional V-1 bombings from German planes ground the mystery in stark reality (the silence before each strike is a nice touch for verisimilitude). Cooper’s cinematography adds thick atmospherics, especially during the protracted sequence in which Sister Bates (Judy Campbell) flees the dance and meets her fate. (Note: some online sources inexplicably tag this film as a comedy, but that is incorrect.)