Silent Dust – 1948 | 82 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

This tense family drama adapted from the successful play ‘The Paragon’ by Michael and Roland Pertwee is an absorbing yarn well knitted together that belies its small budget. Lance Comfort directs snappily and maintains a high level of noirish tension throughout to the climatic ending. There are first-class performances throughout and particularly excellent characterizations from Nigel Patrick as a nasty piece of work. Stephen Murray plays a father who believes his son has died in battle and plans a special memorial service.

Sir Robert Rawley (Stephen Murray) is a wealthy blind man, obsessed with the memory of his dead son who died during WWII; he plans to build a cricket pavilion as a memorial to him – despite objections from Lord Clandon (Seymour Hicks) that it should be dedicated to all those young men that fell in battle. Shortly before the opening service is due to take place, the supposed dead son, Simon (Nigel Patrick), returns during nightfall. Instead of dying in battle, he has deserted the army and become a blackmailer and a murderer but now returns home purportedly to collect some money and start a new life abroad. Angela (Sally Gray), his former wife, is afraid to tell him that she has remarried to Maxwell Oliver (Derek Farr), and when Simon learns this he demands £5,000 to depart. Sir Robert gradually pieces together that the strange goings-on in the house can only suggest one thing – his son is alive and well, and hiding somewhere in the house. Sir Robert sets out to confront his son.