Three Cases of Murder

1955 film by David Eady

15 March 1955 (1955-03-15) (US)
May 1955 (1955-05) (UK)

Running time

99 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishBudget£250,000^[1]

Three Cases of Murder is a 1955 British horror omnibus film comprising three stories: "The Picture," "You Killed Elizabeth," and "Lord Mountdrago." Eamonn Andrews introduces each. Alan Badel appears in all three.^[2]

Cast

Main cast

Orson Welles as Lord Mountdrago ("Lord Mountdrago" segment)
John Gregson as Edgar Curtain ("You Killed Elizabeth" segment)
Elizabeth Sellars as Elizabeth ("You Killed Elizabeth" segment)
Emrys Jones as George Wheeler ("You Killed Elizabeth" segment)
Alan Badel as Owen (segment "Lord Mountdrago") / Mr. X (segment "In the Picture") / Harry (segment "You Killed Elizabeth")
André Morell as Dr. Audlin ("Lord Mountdrago" segment)
Hugh Pryse as Jarvis ("In the Picture" segment)
Leueen MacGrath as Woman in the House ("In the Picture" segment)
Eddie Byrne as Snyder ("In the Picture" segment)
Helen Cherry as Lady Mountdrago ("Lord Mountdrago" segment)
Eamonn Andrews, Introductions

Supporting cast

Peter Burton as Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs (segment "Lord Mountdrago")
Philip Dale as Sgt. Mallot (segment "You Killed Elizabeth")
Christina Forrest as Susan (segment "You Killed Elizabeth")
Evelyn Hall as Lady Connemara (segment "Lord Mountdrago")
Ann Hanslip as The Girl (segment "In the Picture")
David Horne as Sir James (segment "Lord Mountdrago")
John Humphry as Private Secretary (segment "Lord Mountdrago")
Maurice Kaufmann as Pemberton (segment "You Killed Elizabeth")
Jack Lambert as Inspector Acheson ("You Killed Elizabeth" segment)
Zena Marshall as Beautiful Blonde (segment "Lord Mountdrago")
John Salew as Rooke ("In the Picture" segment)
Harry Welchman as Connoisseur (segment "In the Picture")
Colette Wilde as Jane (segment "You Killed Elizabeth")
Arthur Wontner as Leader of the House (segment "Lord Mountdrago")

Uncredited/cameo cast

Patrick Macnee as Guard Subaltern
Marc Sheldon as Man in Background

Production

The first and third stories deal with the supernatural. In the first, "In the Picture", a museum worker enters one of the pictures in a gallery. In the second, "You Killed Elizabeth", two friends fall in love with the same woman. In the third, "Lord Mountdrago", a dramatization of a short story by W. Somerset Maugham from his collection The Mixture as Before, a politician seeks revenge on a political opponent by entering his dreams.

Wendy Toye directed "In the Picture"; David Eady, "You Killed Elizabeth"; and George More O'Ferrall, "Lord Mountdrago."^[3]

Orson Welles received top billing, but he appears only in "Lord Mountdrago". According to Patrick Macnee, who had a supporting role, Welles began making suggestions to director George More O'Ferrall throughout the first day of filming, and by the third day he had taken over the direction of the entire segment.^[4]

Reception

The presence of Orson Welles in the cast meant the film was released in the US before the UK.^[2] The film was turned down for exhibition in the UK by both the Rank and Associated British chains.^[1] They claimed that the film was mediocre and that Welles was not a big enough box office draw to compensate for this.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b "Orson Welles film rejected". The Sun. No. 13, 890. New South Wales, Australia. 19 August 1954. p. 55 (LATE FINAL EXTRA). Retrieved 1 October 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
^ ^a ^b John Hamilton, The British Independent Horror Film 1951-70 Hemlock Books 2013 p 24-27
^ The Times, "Three Cases Of Murder" Film Short Stories 16 May 1955
^ Patrick Macnee, Blind in One Ear (London, 1988)
^ ""Wonder Boy" Welles". The Newcastle Sun. No. 11, 277. New South Wales, Australia. 19 August 1954. p. 27. Retrieved 1 October 2017 – via National Library of Australia.

External links

Three Cases of Murder at IMDb
Three Cases of Murder at AllMovie
Three Cases of Murder at Rotten Tomatoes

Orson Welles

Feature films

Citizen Kane (1941)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
The Stranger (1946)
The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Macbeth (1948)
Othello (1951)
Mr. Arkadin (1955)
Touch of Evil (1958)
The Trial (1962)
Chimes at Midnight (1965)
The Immortal Story (1968)
F for Fake (1973)
Filming Othello (1978)
The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

Shorts

Twelfth Night (1933)
The Hearts of Age (1934)
Citizen Kane trailer (1940)
Around the World (1946)
The Miracle of St. Anne (1950)
Magic Trick (1953)
The Dominici Affair (1955)
Portrait of Gina (1958)
An Evening with Orson Welles (1970)
Orson's Bag
- Vienna (1968)
- The Merchant of Venice (1969)
- One Man Band (1968–1971)
Moby Dick (1971)
Orson Welles' Magic Show (1976–1985)
The Spirit of Charles Lindbergh (1984)

Unfinished films

Too Much Johnson (1938)
It's All True (1942)
Don Quixote (1957–1969)
The Heroine (1967)
The Deep (1967–1970)
Filming 'The Trial' (1981)
The Dreamers (1980–1982)

Part directed

Journey into Fear (1943)
Follow the Boys (1944)
Black Magic (1949)
Three Cases of Murder (1955)
David and Goliath (1960)
The Southern Star (1969)

Produced

Citizen Kane (1941)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
It's All True (1942)
Journey into Fear (1943)
Jane Eyre (1943)
The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Macbeth (1948)
Othello (1951)
Mr. Arkadin (1955)
Don Quixote (1957–1969)
The Deep (1967–1970)
The Merchant of Venice (1969)
Filming 'The Trial' (1981)
The Dreamers (1980–1982)
The Spirit of Charles Lindbergh (1984)

Adaptations

Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Treasure Island (1972)
Cradle Will Rock (1999)
The Big Brass Ring (1999)

Television

Orson Welles' Sketch Book (1955)
Around the World with Orson Welles (1955)
Orson Welles and People (1956)
The Fountain of Youth (1958)
In the Land of Don Quixote (1964)
The Orson Welles Show (1979)

Theatre

Marching Song (1932)
Bright Lucifer
Voodoo Macbeth (1936)
Horse Eats Hat (1936)
The Cradle Will Rock (1937)
Caesar (1937–1938)
Too Much Johnson (1938)
Native Son (1941)
The Mercury Wonder Show (1943)
Around the World (1946)
Othello (1951)
The Lady in the Ice (1953)
Moby Dick—Rehearsed (1955)
Rhinoceros (1960)

Radio

Les Misérables (1937)
The Shadow (1937–1938)
The Mercury Theatre on the Air (1938)
"Dracula" (1938)
"The War of the Worlds" (1938)
The Campbell Playhouse (1938–1940)
The Orson Welles Show (1941–1942)
Ceiling Unlimited (1942–1943)
Hello Americans (1942–1943)
The Orson Welles Almanac (1944)
This Is My Best (1945)
Orson Welles Commentaries (1945–1946)
The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air (1946)
The Adventures of Harry Lime (1951–1952)
The Black Museum (1951–52)

Spoken-word

The Happy Prince (1946)
The Begatting of the President (1970)

Books

This is Orson Welles (1992)
Les Bravades (1996)

Mercury Theatre
Rita Hayworth (second wife)
Paola Mori (third wife)
Beatrice Welles (daughter)
Oja Kodar
Frozen Peas
Orson Welles Paul Masson advertisements
It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles (1993)
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014)
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead (2018)
Orson Welles (crater)

v t e Films by Alexander Korda
As director	Watchhouse in the Carpathians (1914) The Duped Journalist (1914) Tutyu and Totyo (1914) Lyon Lea (1915) The Officer's Swordknot (1915) White Nights (1916) The Grandmother (1916) Tales of the Typewriter (1916) The Man with Two Hearts (1916) The One Million Pound Note (1916) Cyclamen (1916) Struggling Hearts (1916) The Laughing Saskia (1916) Miska the Magnate (1916) St. Peter's Umbrella (1917) The Stork Caliph (1917) Magic (1917) Harrison and Barrison (1917) Faun (1918) The Man with the Golden Touch (1918) Mary Ann (1918) Ave Caesar! (1919) White Rose (1919) Yamata (1919) Man of Gold (1919) Neither at Home or Abroad (1919) Number 111 (1919) The Prince and the Pauper (1920) Masters of the Sea (1922) A Vanished World (1922) Samson and Delilah (1922) The Unknown Tomorrow (1923) Everybody's Woman (1924) Tragedy in the House of Habsburg (1924) Dancing Mad (1925) Madame Wants No Children (1926) A Modern Dubarry (1927) The Stolen Bride (1927) The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927) Yellow Lily (1928) Night Watch (1928) Love and the Devil (1929) The Squall (1929) Her Private Life (1929) Lilies of the Field (1930) Women Everywhere (1930) The Princess and the Plumber (1930) The Men Around Lucy (1931) Rive gauche (1931) Marius (1931) Longing for the Sea (1931) The Golden Anchor (1932) Service for Ladies (1932) Wedding Rehearsal (1932) The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) La dame de chez Maxim's (1933) The Girl from Maxim's (1933) The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) Rembrandt (1936) That Hamilton Woman (1941) Perfect Strangers (1945) An Ideal Husband (1947)
As producer only	Men of Tomorrow (1932) That Night in London (1932) Women Who Play (1932) Strange Evidence (1933) Counsel's Opinion (1933) Cash (1933) Catherine the Great (1934) The Private Life of the Gannets (1934) (short) The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) Things Are Looking Up (1935) Sanders of the River (1935) Wharves and Strays (1935) (short) The Ghost Goes West (1935) Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty (1936) (short) The Fox Hunt (1936) Things to Come (1936) I Stand Condemned (1936) Men Are Not Gods (1936) Forget Me Not (1936) The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936) Fire Over England (1937) I, Claudius (1937) (unfinished) Dark Journey (1937) Elephant Boy (1937) Farewell Again (1937) Storm in a Teacup (1937) Action for Slander (1937) Knight Without Armour (1937) The Squeaker (1937) The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937) Paradise for Two (1937) The Divorce of Lady X (1938) The Drum (1938) South Riding (1938) The Challenge (1938) Prison Without Bars (1938) Q Planes (1939) The Four Feathers (1939) The Rebel Son (1939) The Spy in Black (1939) The Lion Has Wings (1939) Over the Moon (1939) 21 Days (1940) Conquest of the Air (1940) The Thief of Bagdad (1940) Old Bill and Son (1941) Lydia (1941) To Be or Not to Be (1942) Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book (1942) The Biter Bit (1943) (short) The Shop at Sly Corner (1947) A Man About the House (1947) Mine Own Executioner (1947) Night Beat (1948) Anna Karenina (1948) The Winslow Boy (1948) The Fallen Idol (1948) Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948) That Dangerous Age (1949) The Last Days of Dolwyn (1949) Saints and Sinners (1949) The Third Man (1949) The Cure for Love (1950) The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) The Angel with the Trumpet (1950) The Bridge of Time (1950) (short documentary) My Daughter Joy (1950) State Secret (1950) The Wooden Horse (1950) Seven Days to Noon (1950) Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951) The Wonder Kid (1951) Mr. Denning Drives North (1952) Outcast of the Islands (1952) Home at Seven (1952) Who Goes There! (1952) Cry. the Beloved Country (1952) Edinburgh (1952) (short documentary) Road to Canterbury (1952) (short documentary) The Sound Barrier (1952) The Holly and the Ivy (1952) The Ringer (1953) Folly to Be Wise (1953) Twice Upon a Time (1953) The Captain's Paradise (1953) The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan (1953) The Man Between (1953) The Heart of the Matter (1954) Hobson's Choice (1954) The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954) The Teckman Mystery (1954) The Man Who Loved Redheads (1955) Three Cases of Murder (1955) A Kid for Two Farthings (1955) The Deep Blue Sea (1955) Summertime (1955) Storm Over the Nile (1955) Richard III (1955) Smiley (1956)

Films by Alexander Korda

As director