Web of Evidence (1959) User Reviews

"M" Wrongly Accused of Murder

[howardmorley · 7/10 · 27 November 2014]

Polite note to user Robert J Maxwell of New Mexico.No sir, Bernard Lee was not "Q" but "M" from the first Bond film "Dr No" of 1962."Q" was played by Welsh actor Desmond Llewlynn.Now that's cleared up, I too received this DVD from an internet site I recently discovered and which I can heartily recommend: "myrarefilms.co.uk".

During the film I was mentally running through the mathematics of the age of Van Johnson's character.In the segment set during the Liverpool blitz of 1941 he was 10 years old.Move forward to 1959 (after he had been shipped off to the States to explain his American accent) which is 18 years later (the date of this film) and he would therefore be 28.There is no way Van Johnson looked this age, at best more like 35.Maybe his character aged prematurely!That said this is a good suspense film that keeps you guessing until segment 20/20 when the real murderer is revealed and I rated it worthy of 7/10.

Plod, Then Leap: No Way To Make A Good Movie

[boblipton · 5/10 · 28 April 2019]

Van Johnson was evacuated from Liverpool to the United States during the Second World War. His mother died young and he is working his way around the world before he settles down to a career in electronics. He doesn't know what became of his father, so he makes enquiries. He discovers he has been in prison for sixteen years for strangling a young girl. He investigates and finds cracks in the official story, even as officials make it difficult for him to find out anything.

Something has gone awry in this production. Van Johnson, at 43, was too old for his role, and the scriptwriters, working from an A.J. Cronin novel, put a lot of English usage in his mouth, instead of American. The pace is erratic, and the subplot involving Vera Miles, with whom he has fallen in love, seems like to be added to the story, without contributing to it.

That is not to say that there are not some strengths to this move. Bernard Miles, everyone's favorite M from the James Bond series, is brilliant as Johnson's father, brutalized by years of prison. Emlyn Williams is also around, playing a creepy man to perfection. Anthony Newlands as a newspaperman who gets the investigation moving and connects the dots, is a godsend to this movie. It's too bad they can't make this obviously good story into a good movie.

Plodding Thriller

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 25 April 2015]

Two mismatched American actors are parachuted into this disappointing thriller set in Liverpool.When this was made Johnson was on the way down and aged 43.He has absolutely no chemistry with his co star,Vera Miles,about to find fame in Psycho.The plot is familiar but leaves some unresolved questions.Why was the distinguished barrister so unhelpful,and why did the police do their best to prevent Johnson uncovering the truth.They were threatening him with deportation yet since he was born in the UK,he would have had every right to remain for as long as he liked.There are some very good shots of Liverpool as it was in the fifties and in particular of the docks,now an area full of excellent museums.Bernard Lee in a small part acts everyone off the screen.The ending is predictable

A father he hardly knows, a verdict he knows is wrong.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 21 June 2018]

The opening sequence of a young man and his son having an outing goes awry quickly, giving the wrong impression of the type of film you are about to see. It is 1941 and with the blitz, Bernard Lee decides to send his son to America. Twenty years pass, and Lee is in prison for murder, having been accused of killing a woman he had a liaison with who revealed she was pregnant. Son Van Johnson returns to Liverpool while his ship is being prepared to turn around and goes to see his father but is denied access. Several other incidents keep Johnson detained, and before long, he's on the run from the local law, hidden by skittish librarian Vera Miles and finding obstacles at every turn, as it appears that the law is hiding something and seems to know more about the murder than they are letting on. There's a floozy femme fatale (Jean Kent) who is holding onto an important piece of evidence, a picture postcard, as well as some influential members of society who seem to be being protected, all at the expense of the embittered Lee who when released plans to drink himself into a permanent stupor.

A gloomy story with some gloomy settings makes this British film noir a rather dour film to enjoy, but it is a good film nevertheless, building up in suspense after a rather slow start. The characters are all dark and moody, with one of the key witnesses (Emlyn Williams) a drunken lout who seems to know that Johnson's cause is a loosing battle and is just along the ride for free drinks wherever he can get them. The backstory involving the overly sensitive Miles takes forever to unravel, but the sequence involving the loose living Kent is deliciously sordid. This isn't a film that I'm likely to revisit because as good as it is, it's a rather nasty view of society at its worst, but there are some truly chilling moments that make it worth seeing for students of the noir genre. Johnson seems wrong for the part he's playing, obviously 10 years old, and doesn't seem remotely British, even if he was pulled away from his place of birth at a young age. The conclusion seems to leave some unanswered questions, but considering the situation, that is quite realistic.

I like poodles!

[hitchcockthelegend · 6/10 · 4 September 2015]

Beyond This Place (AKA: Web of Evidence) is directed by Jack Cardiff and adapted to screenplay by Ken Taylor from the A.J. Cronin novel. It stars Van Johnson, Vera Miles, Emlyn Williams, Bernard Lee and Jean Kent. Music is by Douglas Gamley and cinematography by Wilkie Cooper.

Paul Mathry (Johnson) was evacuated from Liverpool to America during WWII. Twenty years later he is back in Liverpool believing his father had died a hero during the conflict. The reality is that his father, Patrick (Lee), has been serving a prison sentence for the murder of his pregnant mistress. But something doesn't seem right about the trial, so Paul does a little digging...

Not a great deal to get excited about here, it's a routine mystery - cum - thriller, that is based in Liverpool (not London as some reviewers elsewhere seem to think) but drafts in two American name actors to supposedly perk things up. It never really gets off the ground for dramatic impact, sending Johnson on a mission of truth and justice without ever really putting him in jeopardy. While his relationship with Miles' troubled Lena Anderson is a subplot of no consequence, as is her back story which is sad but isn't given any dramatic heft.

On the plus side is oodles of noirish atmosphere, various camera workings of substance and scene staging that lift proceedings. Night scenes are suitably cloaked with an air of unease, be it blinking pelican lights or spinning shadow lamps, Cardiff and Cooper get the most out of the meagre budget. Other sequences see a shot through distorted glass and one excellent one that has Kent framed in striped surroundings - while she is wearing a leopard skin coat, the contrast of which suits her character perfectly.

Value here for noir visualists, but instantly forgettable once the berserker finale has played itself out. 6/10

Tidbid: James Bond fans will note that it sees Lee and Geoffrey Keen together, they both would later feature in a number of Bond movies.

Not bad but nothing else.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 20 July 2013]

I received it from a rare stuff batch of movies. Directed by the great Jack Cardiff, I couldn't miss it. Van Johnson is always worth too. But the story itself brings really nothing unusual. Everything is predictable, so shame. It remains nevertheless a good standard drama from UK. I have never liked all those falsely accused of murder tales, with the close friend or relative trying to prove the innocence of the accused. You may watch this kind of features, but I feel boredom. That doesn't mean this is boring. What I say is my own opinion.

I am surprised that no one has commented it yet.

In resume, one film among many others of this kind. Nothing else.

My Dad: The Convict.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 18 August 2014]

The film opens in war-time Liverpool during an air raid. Bernard Lee, evidently a happily married man with a child, visits a young girl, with whom he may or may not have been playing doctor. In any case she asks him for a lot of money because she's going to have a baby. Lee's face falls.

Dissolve, and we see Lee at home, playing with his child, and being arrested for the girl's murder. Lee winds up in the Crowbar Hotel, while his wife takes their little boy to America, where he grows up to be Van Johnson. Johnson discovers for the first time that his father had been convicted of murder. He delves into old newspapers to find out what happened. At the library, he runs into Vera Miles, who arranges a room for him at her landlady's house. Then he sets about trying to prove his Dad's innocence. As is usual in private eye films, his search leads from one slightly odd character to another.

This is the second film that Johnson made with Miles in England, isn't it? There was at least one more that featured the unforgettable name of "Janet Murch." Could have come from Dickens. Where do the Brits get these names and locations from? Names like Doris Buckle and places like Upper Mulch? At any rate, the principal performances are fine. This is 1959 and a quarter of a century after Van Johnson was a heart throb for the mass of teen-aged girls. Vera Miles, ex Miss Oklahoma, is lovely and very appealing. It's a little difficult to swallow Bernard Lee as a murderer. He's "Q" in the James Bond movies, and when he's not being "Q", he's being the cheerful sergeant who gets shot at the end of "The Third Man." No, I don't see him as a killer.

It's not an uninteresting film. It's well directed by Jack Cardiff, usually a better photographer ("African Queen", "Black Narcissus") than a director. There are weaknesses in the screenplay. Johnson and Miles fall desperately in love after three conversations. And Johnson, despite his obsession, has no real reason to believe his father was innocent except the obstinacy of the police and the local politician. At times he seems half crazed. I'm not sure whether that's a weakness, because most of the characters in this story have multiple dimensions, even the murderer and Lee himself, a coarse ex inmate devoting himself to debauchery.

On the whole, not bad except for that loose-limbed plot.

"He used to boast he could spot a criminal a mile away"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 20 April 2023]

Unfortunately the American actors imported into this British movie as the leads, Van Johnson and Vera Miles, don't make much of an impact in the film and their romantic sub-plot is time-wastingly boring. The main plot of the sailor coming to Liverpool to find his father and discovering he was in prison wrongly for murder and thus trying to clear his name is rather routine. The identity of the real murderer comes out of nowhere. The film does have a great British cast though especially Bernard Lee as the father, Anthony Newlands as the newspaper reporter, Emlyn Williams as the Bible quoting businessman and Jean Kent as the perjuring witness. All were effective and deserved more screen time than they got. The location cinematography of the city Liverpool is well done and adds greatly to the atmosphere. Overall the ingredients were there for a fine film but it doesn't quite get the mix right. Not bad though.

Murky potboiler with an ageing American star

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 24 September 2017]

WEB OF EVIDENCE is a murky British potboiler and a vehicle for ageing American star Van Johnson, here unconvincingly playing a guy in his 20s. He comes back to Britain after a break of 20 years to discover that his father currently resides in prison, accused of murder. Johnson knows he can't possibly be guilty, so he gets out to prove his dad's innocence.

This is one of those mystery-thriller combinations that fails to deliver much in the way of excitement. There's some good scene-setting and the like and lots of shots of lamp-lit streets but the plot is slow moving and the various ingredients rather predictable. Johnson also fails to impress as the lead, although an against-type Bernard Lee is better as his dad. Watch out for another American import, Vera Miles, as the pointless love interest, alongside smaller roles for the likes of Geoffrey Keen and Leo McKern.

The Sins of the Father

[richardchatten · 9/10 · 20 September 2022]

Jack Cardiff proved his Oscar-winning adaptation was no mere flash in the pan with this powerful drama based on a novel by A. J. Cronin atmospherically set in Liverpool. It pulls no punches in depicting the callousness and disregard of the establishment as they close ranks when they stand to lose political capital from the exposure of a miscarriage of justice.

Bernard Lee is unforgettable as the hero's father coarsened by nearly twenty years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, and Vera Miles has an offbeat role as a woman who befriends the hero but with an aversion to being touched which provides added complexity to an already tense tale.

Tense, emotional and very satisfying murder mystery drama.

[jamesraeburn2003 · 1 October 2018]

A grown up wartime evacuee called Paul Mathry (Van Johnson) arrives back in Liverpool from the States after being away for nearly twenty years. He discovers that his father, Patrick (Bernard Lee), has been in prison for all that time for killing a young woman, Mona Spirling, at her flat during an air raid. It seems that he had been having an affair with her and she had got pregnant supposedly with his child and had demanded money. Paul isn't convinced his father did it and begins his own inquiry aided by his new girlfriend, the librarian Lena Anderson (Vera Miles), but he finds that a number of people in high places are determined to stop him from snooping...

This tense, emotional and very satisfying murder mystery drama, adapted from AJ Cronin's novel, was only cinematographer turned director Jack Cardiff's second film in the latter capacity. Despite the reservations expressed by the reviewer in my Radio Times Film Guide who said that Cardiff "was still finding his feet " in the role and moaned that it is a "a rather turgid adaptation", I was gripped from first to last frame. He sustains the suspense throughout by creating an electric atmosphere of corruption in high places and you can sense that just about everyone has something to hide. For example, it transpires that the prosecutor at Mathry's trial, Sir Matthew Sprott (Ralph Truman), had doubts about the strength of the evidence against him, but he nevertheless employed his considerable skills as a barrister to ensure he got convicted because he didn't want the embarrassment of losing a case. It would have affected his career progression and, today, he is standing for parliament in a highly publicised by-election. When Paul pushes his way into his office asking a lot of awkward questions about his father, he puts pressure upon the police superintendent to have him confined to his ship until it sets sail for America again because he doesn't want the scandal and potential mud slinging from political opponents to cost him his election. But, are Sir Matthew's concerns really all about politics? The key witness at Mathry's trial, Louise Birt, the murdered woman's flat mate, has done very nicely since then owning her own nightclub and bar on New Brighton. Paul suspects that somebody paid her to perjure her testimony and set her up in business as a reward for shielding the real killer. Could that person be Sir Matthew? And why did Enoch Oswald (Emlyn Williams), the chairman of the local welfare committee and director of a successful shipping company, launch a petition at the time to prevent Mathry from being hanged? Guilty conscience, perhaps?

All of these twists and turns are sufficient to hold an audience's interest and the performances from the imported American leads are quite good too. Johnson displays the anguish and passion as Paul Mathry who finds himself battling the city's establishment to clear his dad's name and Miles is more than competent as his girlfriend. The pair are falling in love with each other, but the relationship is put in jeopardy as a result of an incident in her past that has left her emotionally scarred.

A web of troublesome destinies of murder, suicide, corruption, drunks and victims.

[clanciai · 9/10 · 12 February 2021]

A.J.Cronin has made a great novel out of some very difficult traumas, as an American comes home to Liverpool, where he was born, and finds his father in prison for life. Van Johnson as the son came home just to finally get to know something of what really happened to his father, and he immediately gets immersed in a mess of complications and worries. After recovery from the shock of finding his father having escaped hanging by a hair's breath, he gradually is more certainly convinced that his father was innocent, framed and sacrificed for other people's crimes, but his boat is sailing back to America in four days, and he has to be on it, which the local police superintendent is especially keen to make sure that he is. Naturally he stays to investigate the matter further. Jack Cardiff who directed this complicated film did not direct many films, but he was one of the most important cinematographers off British cinema and was the director of photography for all the major Powell-Pressburger films and also of "The Magic Box" among many others. This is not a film to appeal to the great multitude and make a big box office success, but it falls into a more singular kind of category of "human noirs" like all the early films of John and Roy Boulting. The acting though is superb, and when you see and enjoy Vera Miles as Lena in this very poignant drama you understand why Hitchcock wanted her for "Vertigo". She makes the deepest impression, Van Johnson is himself as usual as the perfect candidate for a tragic character, and as the old tragic lawyer who saved the victim's life from hanging, you find the old veteran Emlyn Williams in a very sensitive role. Bernard Lee as the father who almost gets hanged for nothing also provides perhaps the only shocking role of the film, as you first get to know him playing in the park jovially with his son and then after twenty years in prison, which life has made his character almost completely unrecognisable, - and yet the son finds him again, and this is the golden moment of truth of the book and the film.