The Clouded Yellow

The Clouded Yellow (1950)

Tense, exciting, unusual !

After leaving the British Secret Service, David Somers finds work catalouging butterflies at the country house of Nicholas and Jess Fenton. After the murder of a local gamekeeper, suspicion falls on their niece, Sophie Malraux. Somers helps Sophie to escape arrest and they go on the run together.

Date of release
1950-11-21
TMDB
6.3 / 10 (22)
Runtime
1h 35m
Genres
Mystery, Thriller
Director
Ralph Thomas

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Pinewood Studios

The Clouded Yellow is a 1950 British mystery film directed by Ralph Thomas, written by Janet Green, produced by Betty E. Box and starring Jean Simmons and Trevor Howard.

Production

Ralph Thomas and Betty Box had both worked for her brother, Sydney Box, first collaborating when Thomas did the trailer for Miranda (1948). They found they had a rapport, so when Shepherd's Bush Studio shut down, and Thomas left Sydney Box to go under contract to the Rank Organisation, Betty Box came with him. Their first film together was The Clouded Yellow. It was made for Betty Box's company, Carillon Films.

The Clouded Yellow was based on an original script by Janet Green. It was developed by Sydney Box but he had decided to take a year long absence and gave the project to Box and Thomas. Green was paid £1,000. They wanted further work done on the script but Janet Green was unavailable and Eric Ambler was hired to do work on it.

Jean Simmons, who had made So Long at the Fair with Box, agreed to play the lead. Trevor Howard was borrowed from Herbert Wilcox, who had him under contract, to play the male lead. Kenneth More was cast in a minor role; it was the first of several films he would make for Box and Thomas.

Production coincided with a crisis in the British film industry – Betty Box says it was the only film being made in England in the first half of 1950. She managed to secure a distribution contract with Rank, which enabled her to borrow enough money to finance 70% of the budget. Box managed to raise the rest from Rank and the National Film Finance Corporation, each putting up fifty per cent.

Shooting took place in Newcastle, Liverpool and the Lake District. A significant proportion of the action was shot on location in Newcastle upon Tyne, featuring scenes on the quayside, around the Castle Keep and the Central Station, and the suburb of Jesmond. Some scenes were filmed in Liverpool's Chinatown, Toxteth, Liverpool Docks and on the Liverpool Overhead Railway, closed in 1956 and later dismantled.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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