Rent Small Town Story (1953)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
This British thriller, thought lost for decades, stars Donald Houston, Alan Wheatley and Susan Shaw in a gripping story of love and deception in the world of British association football. 'Small Town Story' includes appearances from sporting legend Denis Compton along with players from Millwall, Arsenal and Hayes football clubs. Though there is noticeable film damage in the first reel, this is the only copy known to exist. Canadian ex-serviceman Bob Regan (Kent Walton) returns to the English town where he was posted during the war. He discovers that the local football club stand to inherit £25,000 from recently deceased supporter Wallace Hammond if they make the Third Division - a situation that Hammond's devious nephew finds intolerable... - Actors:
- Donald Houston, Susan Shaw, Alan Wheatley, Kent Walton, George Merritt, Margaret Harrison, Norman Williams, Arthur Rigby, Michael Balfour, Denis Compton, Raymond Glendenning, Billy Milne, Johnnie Schofield, Jack Sharp, Richard Wattis, Molly Weir
- Directors:
- Montgomery Tully
- Producers:
- Otto Kreisler
- Writers:
- George Fisher, Franz Marischka, Donald Houston, Maurice Weissberger
- Studio:
- Network
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Sports & Sport Films, Thrillers
- Collections:
- inema Paradiso's 2023 Centenary Club: Part 2, A Brief History of Film...
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 09/09/2019
- Run Time:
- 68 minutes
- Languages:
- English Dolby Digital 1.0, English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Image Gallery
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Reviews (1) of Small Town Story
Not Offside - Small Town Story review by CH
Lost for many years, this film has resurfaced. Although it cannot be called a hidden gem, it is diverting enough with a suave Donald Houston who has returned from Canada in hopes of picking up the thread of a wartime encounter with a pleasingly malevolent Susan Shaw whose eyes are forever trained upon the main chance.
The twist in all this is that Houston is an adept footballer, the ideal new member for a town's faltering football team - as he proves to be. His place is all the more vital as a will reveals that the team will inherit £25,000 if it gets into the third Division; should it not do so, then the money goes to a chiseller who also runs a night club (that staple scene of Fifties British thrillers).
That remains a secret (which surely goes against wills being public documents). Events move briskly. Even those without a taste for football can enjoy the fast editing of various matches (one of which takes place at Arsenal's old ground) - and marvel at the less-than-thermodynamic shorts with which players contended.
In some ways, it could be an installment in the Edgar Wallace Presents... series. As such, it is enjoyable - and makes one lament that Susan Shaw did not make it to fifty, a career undermined by grim events.