The Stranger's Hand

1954 film

  • 20 January 1954 (1954-01-20)
Running time
85 minutesCountriesItaly
United KingdomLanguageEnglishBudget£164,200[1]

The Stranger's Hand (Italian: La mano dello straniero) is a 1954 British-Italian thriller drama film directed by Mario Soldati and starring Trevor Howard, Alida Valli and Richard Basehart. An international co-production, it is based on the draft novel with the same name written by Graham Greene.[2] The plot follows the son of a British MI5 agent kidnapped in Venice by agents of Yugoslavia as he searches for his father.

The first two chapters of The Stranger's Hand had been entered by Greene anonymously under a pseudonym to a competition in the New Statesman to write a book in the style of Graham Greene – a competition in which Greene was amused to win second prize. Soldati had seen the chapters and persuaded Greene to complete the novella to make the basis for a film. Greene expanded it to 30 pages of a "film story", on which Giorgio Bassani and Guy Elmes completed the screenplay.[3]

Cast

  • Trevor Howard as Major Roger Court
  • Alida Valli as Roberta Gleukovitch
  • Richard Basehart as Joe Hamstringer
  • Richard O'Sullivan as Roger Court
  • Eduardo Ciannelli as Dr. Vivaldi
  • Arnoldo Foà as Commissioner
  • Stephen Murray as British Consul in Venice
  • Guido Celano as Chief Constable
  • Nerio Bernardi as Vincenzo
  • Giorgio Costantini as Pescovitch
  • Angelo Cecchelin as Luza
  • Nino Vechina as First Killer
  • Armando Papette as Second Killer
  • Giovanni Karuz as Third Killer
  • Joan Butterfield as Mrs. Harrington
  • Alessandro Paulon as Morgan
  • Remington Olmsted as Ramondo

References

  1. ^ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 359. The British budget was £77,525, with the balance provided in lira by the Italian co-production partner. The certified sterling cost came to £92,235.
  2. ^ Roberto Chiti; Roberto Poppi; Enrico Lancia. Dizionario del cinema italiano: I film. Gremese, 1991. ISBN 8876055487.
  3. ^ The Guardian [1]

Bibliography

  • Spicer, Andrew. Historical Dictionary of Film Noir. Scarecrow Press, 2010.

External links

  • The Stranger's Hand at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
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Films directed by Mario Soldati
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Works by Graham Greene and their adaptations
Novels
Travel books
Autobiography
  • A Sort of Life (1971)
  • Ways of Escape (1980)
  • Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvement (1984)
  • A World of My Own: A Dream Diary (1992)
Plays
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Films
  • Orient Express (1934)
  • The Future's in the Air (1937)
  • The New Britain (1940)
  • 21 Days (1940)
  • This Gun for Hire (1942)
  • Went the Day Well? (1942)
  • Ministry of Fear (1944)
  • Brighton Rock (1947)
  • The Fallen Idol (1948)
  • The Third Man (1949)
  • The Heart of the Matter (1953)
  • The End of the Affair (1955)
  • Loser Takes All (1956)
  • Saint Joan (1957)
  • The Quiet American (1958)
  • Our Man in Havana (1959)
  • The Comedians (1967)
  • Travels with My Aunt (1972)
  • The Human Factor (1979)
  • The Honorary Consul (1983)
  • Monsignor Quixote (1985)
  • The End of the Affair (1999)
  • The Quiet American (2002)
  • Brighton Rock (2010)
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