Morning Call (U.S. title: The Strange Case of Dr. Manning) is a 1957 British thriller film, directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Greta Gynt and Ron Randell.
The rich and successful Dr. Manning is called out in the middle of the night to visit a private patient. He never returns and the next morning his wife Annette (Gynt) finds him missing. Soon after, she receives a ransom note demanding £5,000 for his release. The police are alerted and soon Annette is trying to deliver the money to various drop-off points specified by the kidnapper in telephone calls to her. The police keep watch, hoping to catch the kidnapper in the act of retrieving the money, but every attempts ends in failure as he fails to show up, realising the locations are being watched. Annette hires a private detective Nick Logan (Randell) to make his own investigations.
Manning is found dead, and the police decide to use Annette as bait to catch his killer. They publicise that she has heard his voice in the phone calls and will be able to identify it if she hears it again, hoping that the threat will flush him out in order to try to get her out of the way. Logan and the police finally succeed in cornering the killer, and a surprising personal motive for his actions is discovered.
The film was originally cast with George Raft and Bella Darvi as the leads, but Raft reportedly pulled out, citing dissatisfaction with the script. The producers claimed that Raft was insistent on his character having a romantic involvement with the leading lady, which they could not accept as they felt it would unbalance the plot and be seen as incongruous by audiences. For undisclosed reasons, they also decided to let Darvi go.[1]
Strange Case of Dr Manning (Morning Call) at Leterbox DVD
April 09, 2024
morning, call, film, morning, call, title, strange, case, manning, 1957, british, thriller, film, directed, arthur, crabtree, starring, greta, gynt, randell, morning, callu, theatrical, release, posterdirected, byarthur, crabtreewritten, bybill, luckwellpaul, . Morning Call U S title The Strange Case of Dr Manning is a 1957 British thriller film directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Greta Gynt and Ron Randell Morning CallU S theatrical release posterDirected byArthur CrabtreeWritten byBill LuckwellPaul TaboriStory byLeo TownsendProduced byJohn BashStarringGreta GyntRon RandellCinematographyWalter J HarveyMusic byJohn BathProductioncompanyWinwellDistributed byRepublic Pictures US Release date1957Running time75 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishUnder its American title it was distributed in the U S by Republic Pictures Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 References 5 External linksPlot editThe rich and successful Dr Manning is called out in the middle of the night to visit a private patient He never returns and the next morning his wife Annette Gynt finds him missing Soon after she receives a ransom note demanding 5 000 for his release The police are alerted and soon Annette is trying to deliver the money to various drop off points specified by the kidnapper in telephone calls to her The police keep watch hoping to catch the kidnapper in the act of retrieving the money but every attempts ends in failure as he fails to show up realising the locations are being watched Annette hires a private detective Nick Logan Randell to make his own investigations Manning is found dead and the police decide to use Annette as bait to catch his killer They publicise that she has heard his voice in the phone calls and will be able to identify it if she hears it again hoping that the threat will flush him out in order to try to get her out of the way Logan and the police finally succeed in cornering the killer and a surprising personal motive for his actions is discovered Cast editGreta Gynt as Annette Manning Ron Randell as Nick Logan Garard Green as Gil Stevens Bruce Seton as Inspector Brown Peter Fontaine as Fred Barnes Virginia Keiley as Vera Clark Robert Raglan as Plainclothesman John Watson as Plainclothesman Brian Sunners as Freddie Wally Patch as Wally David Lander as Dr George Manning Charles Farrell as John Karver Fred Griffiths actor Taxi Driver Uncredited Production editThe film was originally cast with George Raft and Bella Darvi as the leads but Raft reportedly pulled out citing dissatisfaction with the script The producers claimed that Raft was insistent on his character having a romantic involvement with the leading lady which they could not accept as they felt it would unbalance the plot and be seen as incongruous by audiences For undisclosed reasons they also decided to let Darvi go 1 References edit Raft dislikes script leaves British film Spokane Daily Chronicle 20 02 1957 Retrieved 14 10 2010External links editMorning Call at IMDb nbsp Morning Call at BFI Film amp TV Database Strange Case of Dr Manning Morning Call at Leterbox DVD Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Morning Call film amp oldid 1217334919, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
