The Godfather: Peter Corris on ‘What film was that?’

Tags: Alfred Hitchcock/ Patricia Highsmith/ Strangers on a Train

Do you ever lie awake thinking, Who was that actor in that film? or What was the name of that film? I do, mostly as an anti-Alzheimer’s exercise, so it’s not an entirely trivial pursuit. I sometimes work at these puzzles for days before cracking them and occasionally have to give up and go to the web.

But one film title has eluded me for a long time and this is a cry for help.

Some years ago I watched on television a British film whose name I forget. I’ve also forgotten or never registered the names of the leading actors. I imagine it was a small budget picture, fairly obscure. I enjoyed it very much although I knew it was derivative. The story involved two women who had served as WAFS in World War II. A few years after the war they meet by chance in a London street.

They had been friends when in the service but now present very differently. One is smartly dressed, sophisticated, chirpy. The other is drab, seemingly despondent though keeping a stiff upper lip, and short of money.

They reminisce about their good times during the war and recall being pursued by airmen. The sophisticate recalls an objectionable flirt named Barry Bell and wonders what happened to him.

‘I married him,’ the other replies.

In subsequent discussions it is revealed that former Wing Commander and air ace Bell now holds down a boring civil service job, drinks too much and abuses his wife mentally and occasionally physically.

Her friend, by contrast, has married an Italian businessman who has become very successful catering to the needs of the post-war consumerist society. They live in comfort but she is bored by him. A divorce, however, would net her nothing as a result of a legal arrangement. She proposes that she kills her friend’s unsatisfactory and abusive partner and her friend remove her doting but boring husband.

People familiar with popular films will immediately see the resemblance between this plot and that of the Alfred Hitchcock classic Strangers on a Train (1951), based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, in which a similar scenario is played out. But the settings were different and the stories diverged in various ways. This later film had a harder edge.

I’ve searched the web but, with no idea of the title or a single name of the actors or director associated with the film to work with, I’ve found nothing. I’ve sketched the plot to several cinema buffs without success. As I recall the film was a graphic depiction of post-WWII London and the chemistry between the two female characters was potent. Disintegrating marriages are inherently interesting and some scenes and snatches of dialogue are clear in my memory. I’d very much like to see it again

If any NRB reader can help I’d be very grateful and I offer a signed copy of my 40th Cliff Hardy book, due out in February next year, as a reward to the first person who supplies the correct film in the comments box. Then of course I’ll have to find a way to access it, but I have experts to help me with that.