Nigel Patrick stars as Gerald Coates; a racehorse owner/trainer/breeder, whose wife, Babs (Moira Lister), is a drunken party-loving "hellcat". Maybe not his "latest and greatest screen role" as it said in the publicity blurb, but it's not a bad vehicle for a star who does enough here to keep it interesting, if not exactly intriguing with what must have been a fairly limited budget.

Nigel Patrick gives a good performance in his role as Gerald Coates, the owner who is thrilled about winning the greatest steeplechase in the world, but then does something he really shouldn’t have. noel purcell and beatrice campbell do some sterling support and colin gordon is the wonderfully name buns darling. The black and white print is mostly good, but to my eyes some of the scenes had a slightly bleached quality, with vertical lines occasionally appearing on the right-hand side of the screen. she insists on taking his pregnant mare out for a ride, which eventually causes the horse to go into labour prematurely. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

A solid thriller, directed by George Minter, in which we watch the authorities try to catch the killer, knowing "whodunnit". Racehorse trainer Gerald Coates argues with his alcoholic wife Babs on the evening after his horse has won the Grand National. Nigel Patrick is assured and convincing in the central role of a gentlemen horse trainer who becomes involved in a game of cat-and-mouse with a Scotland Yard inspector who suspects him of murder. Despite part of the plot of this thriller making use of a journey by train, all this appears as studio sets and model work.

But then he has a violent argument with his wife (Moira Lister), which results in her accidental murder.Nigel and his staff and friends are sad at the tragedy, which was caused by his thoughtless wife's cruel behaviour. Lister features but sparingly, but her characterisation of "Babs" does rather get under your fingernails, so as the police work proceeded I did start to feel just a bit of sympathy for her rather idiotic, but good natured, husband - and Patrick is on decent form in that role here. A racehorse owner (Nigel Patrick) who accidentally killed his wife (Moira Lister) matches wits with a detective. It is not known where exactly this scene was filmed, and it seems rather out of sync with the rest of the film, which is set in Liverpool. By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. After race horse trainer Gerald Coates' horse wins the Grand National, his wife come home drunk, and the two of them have a violent argument, and she is accidentally killed. Filmed at the old Nettlefold Studios and starring oily Nigel Patrick as a racing horse trainer, this keeps its momentum up in that traditional cap-doffing British way.Coates insists that she didn't come home after the big race, but the police begin to suspect him, after a train ticket is found in his coat.

He drives her to Liverpool to try and get her medical attention, but he discovers that she had died and leaves her in the car which belongs to a friend of hers. Grand National Night is a 1953 British thriller film brought to the screen by George Minter, produced by Phil C. In this British crime thriller directed by Bob McNaught, adapted from the play by Dorothy and Campbell Christie, a British racehorse owner (Nigel Patrick) manages to win the Grand National with his horse. It premiered at the New Theatre, Oxford before transferring to the Apollo Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 268 performances between 12 June 1946 and 1 February 1947.

The film was based on Campbell and Dorothy Christie’s 1945 play, which was also presented as a BBC Radio serial in 1946. The crime element of the story isn't particularly gripping, but the acting, rural setting and old-fashioned drawing room atmosphere add up to an enjoyable film - more of a melodrama with a mystery element than a thriller. It skips along nicely and engagingly for eighty minutes with a solid contribution from the usually reliable Noel Purcell and a soupçon of glamour from the underused Beatrice Campbell too. Other members of the supporting cast include Noel Purcell as the vet, Betty Ann Davis as 'Pinkie' (a posh version of Dora Bryan) and Colin Gordon as Patrick's scrounging friend, 'Buns'.