The Silent Passenger
Director: Reginald
Denham
Year: 1935
Rating: 5.0
This is the first Peter Wimsey story put on to
the screen. It was actually not based on one of Dorothy Sayer's novels but
was written by her for the film. Sayer was another one of the cozy English
mystery writers in the Golden Age with her amateur detective character of
Lord Peter Wimsey and his manservant Bunter. She said that her character
was inspired by Fred Astaire and Bertie Wooster of Jeeves and Wooster fame
from author P.G. Wodehouse. You can see the Bertie part in this portrayal
and later that of Ian Carmichael in the series of Wimsey murders for TV.
The Astaire part is less visible. Sayer was to write eleven novels and a
number of short stories about Wimsey and though she also wrote poetry and
other fiction it is Wimsey that she is still remembered for.
Played here by Peter Haddon as a dithering,
goofy, all teeth upper class twit who behind that exterior has a brilliant
mind and a detective's instincts. A blackmailer that he had been keeping
tabs on is murdered and stuffed into a trunk and sent on a boat to France.
Customs discovers the body and the suspicion falls on John Ryder (John Loder)
whose wife was having an affair with the dead man. There isn't much of a
mystery though since we saw him being murdered by another man and it is only
a matter of time before Wimsey figures it out and makes the police look rather
stupid. A well constructed ending in the train yards. Gordon McLeod plays
the Commissioner - he was to play Inspector Teal in a few of the Saint films.
Fairly creaky and low budget but an interesting curiosity for being one of
the few Wimsey theatrical films. If anyone thinks about watching it - the
YouTube version is cut by 15 minutes - but there is full version out there.
