Wanted for Murder

+ intro by Simon McCallum, BFI curator

A serial killer stalks post-war London in this underseen noir, co-written by Emeric Pressburger.

  • Director

    Lawrence Huntington

  • With

    Eric Portman, Dulcie Gray, Derek Farr, Roland Culver, Stanley Holloway

  • UK 1946. 102min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    PG

London, 1945: a strangler is on the loose, roaming the hot summer nights from Hampstead Heath to Regent’s Park. Eric Portman is on frighteningly icy form as a businessman ‘possessed’ by the evil spirit of his father, a notorious Victorian hangman immortalised in Madame Tussauds. Co-written by Emeric Pressburger in 1938 and belatedly shot at Welwyn Studios, with vibrant location scenes offering glimpses of a capital resuming normal life, this post-war British psycho-noir is executed with considerable panache.

Simon McCallum

Joint ticket available with Library Talk: The Glass Pearls event on Monday 4 December £14, concessions £11 (non-Members pay £2 more). Book in person at the box office or by phone on 020 7928 3232.