The Clouded Yellow: Uncut

When David Somers, a major in the British Secret Service, makes a mistake he is fired. In the harsh world of espionage, spies are not allowed to error and he made one too many. Encouraged by his boss to move on, David tries to get a job as a journalist, a profession in which he worked prior to becoming a spy. However, with no qualifications and no official documentation to explain what he has been doing for the last few years, he is unable to gain employment so asks the authorities for help. They look through a list of unfilled posts, the first of which has been turned down by everyone to whom it has been offered - cataloguing a butterfly collection in rural Hampshire. David decides that this change of environment and atmosphere might be the best thing for him so takes the job and drives his sports car south.

He meets up with Nicholas and Jess Fenton, the owners of a small country house and David's new employers. Nicholas is a butterfly collector who needs someone to help him with the menial task of making sure that each is filed away correctly and Jess is a housewife who keeps a close eye on David. They are the legal guardians of Jess' niece, Sophie, who found the bodies of her parents, who, when she was six, died in a murder/suicide. Sophie dislikes her guardians, particularly her aunt, who manipulates her behaviour, causing Sophie to become 'muddled' and repress childhood memories.

David is warned not to question Sophie, but they develop a mutual attraction and he is interested in her past. One morning, Hick, the uncouth handyman, who has bothered Sophie and seems to be having a relationship with Jess, turns up dead with Sophie's knife in his back. Sophie has memory problems and is unable to account for her whereabouts and actions during the night and, when her bloodstained coat is found at the scene, she becomes the prime suspect. With Jess seemingly manipulating both the evidence and Sophie, David doesn't believe that Sophie had anything to do with the murder and escapes with her to uncover the truth.

What follows is a trip round Britain as they are followed by both the police and secret service, who don't want to be in the news, whilst David uses all his espionage experience to avoid the authorities until he can determine who the real killer is.

The best way to describe The Clouded Yellow is as a Hitchcockian film, with the 'innocent man on the run' narrative device that worked so well in such films as The 39 Steps, North by Northwest and The Man Who Knew Too Much. This differs with the 'innocent man' as a young woman who is presumed guilty with all evidence pointing to her as a murderer and only David believes that she is innocent. As he has aided her escape, they are both fugitives from justice who have either definitely broken the law (in his case) or are presumed to have broken the law (in Sophie's case). You are meant to assume that she is innocent but the truth of the matter is only revealed in a final reel twist.


Lesley Howard and Jean Simmons have plausible on-screen chemistry and are both terrific, as is Sonia Dresdel as Jess Fenton. The film makes full use of the location shooting in Liverpool, Newcastle and the Lake District, to make an exciting thriller.

Eureka previously released the UK theatrical version, cut by the distributors in order to secure a U certificate by the British Board of Censors but this is the 'Uncut' edition, running some ten minutes longer. Unlike other films, such as Dawn of the Dead, The Exorcist or The Shining, I am not familiar enough with The Clouded Yellow to really tell where the new scenes are as the last time I watched it was almost two years ago. One scene on a train did seem to be of an inferior quality and looks to have been reinstated but I would have to watch the two versions simultaneously to really tell where the differences lie.

The Disc

The Picture
The Clouded Yellow is very well photographed and, though the picture doesn't detract too much from the film, the transfer doesn't quite have the contrast it perhaps deserves. The picture also suffers from some print damage, moiré and banding which hasn't been cleaned up since 2008.

The Sound
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack is clear enough, though it helps that everyone has fairly clipped tones, but there are the occasional pops and crackles and a slight hiss throughout, though these are not frequent nor annoying enough to spoil the film.

The score is very good and helps build the tension and tempo, though it can't match Bernard Herrmann's on Hitchcock's pictures for sheer class and quality.


Final Thoughts
This is a bare-bones package from Eureka, with no extra features or even subtitles - they haven't even changed the menu from the previously released version.

This doesn't work any better nor any worse in the longer version and the theatrical version never felt 'butchered' as some of the infamous 'video nasties' did. If you already own this on DVD then you will have to decide how much you like the film whether to splash out for another version which doesn't, at least to my untrained eye, feel overly different.

That all said, the film is a cracking watch and, as that's what's important, it's a DVD well worth picking up, especially if you like Hitchcock's early British films and didn't buy the 2008 release.