Review for Silent Dust

‘Silent Dust’ is a superb example of what can be achieved on a very low budget if you have a good script, a convincing cast, tight direction and top-notch cinematography. Adapted from an excellent play (‘The Paragon’) by Michael and Roland Pertwee, brothers of John Pertwee no less, and adapted for film by Michael, this a brilliant post-war melodrama which really digs into the emotional fall-out of losing so many men in a just war which had finally ended some four years before this film’s release.


Despite its limited budget and scope (it’s set pretty much in a single house with the exception of a couple of exteriors) it packs a real emotional punch and is utterly compelling from the off.

Directed by Lance Comfort (jobbing but highly able B-picture director responsible for the excellent ‘Bang! You’re Dead’ and the comedy ‘Make Mine a Million’ among many others) it features really impressive performances from Sally Gray (‘Obsession’) , Stephen Murray (The Magnet), Nigel Patrick (‘League of Gentlemen’) and the aged Seymour Hicks (‘Fame is the Spur’). It also features a deeply emotive score from French composer Georges Auric (‘Hue and Cry’, ‘Passport to Pimlico’, ‘Dead of Night’).


Stephen Murray plays the part of an imposing but wealthy patriarch (Sir Robert Rawley); very brusque and ‘northern’ who has moved to a country pile in the South of England just after the war. Having lost his son during the war, a brave member of the Royal Air Force, he is donating a cricket pavilion to the local residents of the village in honour of his son. Naturally the locals are grateful but there is a seething resentment about why his son should be so honoured when many local young men also dies defending their country.


Rawley is also blind, literally, and his stubbornness knows no bounds. His obsession with his son’s memory is extreme – the house is full of paintings and photographs as reminders. So when his son Simon (played superbly by Nigel Patrick) returns to the house in search of money, everyone who ‘sees’ protects Rawley from the horrible realisation that the son was no hero.


Having faked his own death and deserted his comrades, we learn that he also thieved, lied and cheated his way across Europe. He doesn’t care a jot for his family and his only interest is in getting his hands on some of his Father’s money so he can escape the country. In fact, when realising that his supposedly bereaved wife has re-married a doctor who, by coincidence, is the daughter of the neighbouring Lord of the Manor, he turns his initial demands into full scale blackmail.


With his stepmother and wife attempting to keep his return secret from his unknowing father, and with the local police searching the countryside for him (he has earlier assaulted a motorist and stolen the man's car), the scene is set for a tense and unlikely family reunion.




We soon learn that a local driver has been attacked by a man with a scar who commandeered his car. It’s clearly the handiwork of Simon and when the man eventually dies, the crime escalates to murder, a hanging crime at the time.


This is a multi-layered and tense drama with Rawley eventually putting together all the pieces of the jigsaw to face the realisation that his son has returned. I won’t spoil the outcome suffice to say it’s played for maximum emotional impact.


Nigel Patrick and Stephen Murray are the real shining stars here, both turning in  powerhouse performances. Patrick as a slimy spiv who is completely devoid of a moral compass and Murray as the blind Father – played with astonishing conviction. Both are a pleasure to watch.
It’s a very fine film and the transfer is superb – almost flawless with rich blacks, great detail and high contrast. In short, a very satisfying film to watch; one well worth picking up.