The Small Voice

The Small Voice surprised me. I only watched it out of curiosity as I saw it was Howard Keel's first movie that he was offered while in Britain appearing in London in Oklahoma! This was in 1948 when he was 29. I've been a fan since I was a child as my earliest memory of the movies is seeing Annie Get Your Gun when I was about 5 or 6. Here, Keel is one of three escaped convicts from Dartmoor prison who invade the home of James Donald and Valerie Hobson after an offer to help after their car crashes. The couple have been having marital problems, possibly caused by Donald's war experiences which has left him with an injured leg and bad memories. Hobson can't stand his self pity any more and threatens to leave him. To add to the trouble, two small children, also involved in the crash are rescued by one of the crooks and brought back to the house. The film noir feel is apparent throughout the picture and really felt authentic for a British film. Howard Keel is the dominant personality and very impressive in his first role as a brutal thug although watch out for redeeming qualities. This film proves, rather like his musical rival, Gordon MacRae who I thought was very good in The Return of the Frontiersman in 1950, that these two big voiced singers could have been fine actors had they been given good roles like Frank Sinatra was in From Here To Eternity.

Taut little British suspense feature sees Howard Keel in his film debut (billed as Harold Keel). Boke (Keel) is having a bad day he's broken out of Dartmoor Prison, shot a cop, been in a car crash and now is in a hostage situation with unhappily married couple James Donald and Valerie Hobson. He has Donald who writes plays about crooks trying to get into his psyche, Hobson looking at him like he's trash, the kid upstairs screaming from meningitis and two useless fellow escapees plus its hot inside and we've got no electric fan (James Donald didn't think it worthwhile buying one). Howard Keel looks lean and imposing and every inch his over 6ft height. American born Keel was in England starring on stage in 'Oklahoma'. You can hear him singing 'the hangman song' on the record James Donald plays. His next film was the big budget MGM musical ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. Oddly enough Keel played another escaped prisoner in the British made FLOODS OF FEAR. Valerie Hobson was married to the film's producer Anthony Havelock-Allan and later married politician John Profumo but that's a whole other story !!!

Have always gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this sort of film, being someone who loves films with tension and suspense and mystery/crime driven stories. 'The Small Voice' was most notable hearing of it through family friends, fellow classic/golden age film fans, for seeing Howard Keel in his film debut. In a role very different from the musical/hunky roles he specialised and was typically typecast in later on, so it was interesting to see how he would fare.

'The Small Voice' to me was well executed and more than served its main objectives well. It is not quite a great film and there was room for it to be even better than it turned out. Flaws though are few and are not that major, and while the tension and suspense may not be fever pitch exactly 'The Small Voice' is far from devoid of it. Keel was one of my main reasons for seeing the film in the first place and he is also one of the main reasons for why it works.

It is a bit of a slow starter. The early portions are a little slow and take a little too long to set up the story.

Also found the film at times more talk-heavy than it needed to be, when parts could have benefitted from more show and less tell.

For all those personal nit-picks, 'The Small Voice' does so much right. James Donald and Valerie Hobson successfully allow the viewer to root for their characters, they are in a dire situation and they play the roles appealingly that it is not hard to root for them to get out of it. Michael Balfour steals all his scenes and David Greene suitably unsettles. Best of all is Keel in a most credible debut, here credited by his actual real name Harold Keel, he is imposing and poses a genuine threat. One doesn't want to mess with him, as said very against type but effectively so (seeing a more menacing side to such a likeable performer was one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises of all my recent film viewings). The film is slickly directed.

Visually 'The Small Voice' is full of atmosphere, in a way that's both beautiful and eerie. Something present also in the not too obvious scoring. While the script and story are not always perfect, they are solidly done on the whole. The script is thought-provoking and generally tight. The story when it gets going is very compelling with enough urgency and tension to satisfy, helped largely by that Keel is so good.

Summing up, very worthwhile and well executed. 7/10

I've just see this worthy film on Talking Pictures, Channel 81- and there appears to be a two-part version on YouTube. (Incidentally, IMDB puts the film's length at 67 minutes, but the YouTube offering runs to some 82 minutes, which is confirmed by other listings.)

At first the film was a bit talky and slow, but soon picked up and flowed along reasonably well. Like another IMBD reviewer, I was puzzled about how the three bad guys got guns (and how they'd got out of Dartmoor Prison). As to their getting different number plates, I'd assumed they were stolen from another vehicle.

Low budget, small cast, and most of the film took place inside the married couple's house. Harold/Howard Keel portrayed a chilling character, in contrast to the cheerful ones he often played as his career developed. Michael Balfour all but stole some scenes, playing to type as a criminal of limited intelligence. And Michael Hordern has a few lines to say on his way to become a recognizable face in so many British films.

The Small Voice never quite descends into 'so bad it's good' territory, but seldom amounts to anything more than routine, run of the mill noir by numbers.

James Donald is part of a valiant generation for whom peace has been achieved at a high personal cost. A potential career in professional cricket ruined by a serious leg injury at the hands of the Nazis, he has enjoyed success as a playwright, but is resentful, condescending and prickly as an individual. Long suffering wife, Valerie Hobson, exasperated by his self pitying dirges and monotonous, in-depth diatribes on the workings of the criminal mind, has concluded that their marriage has run its course.

With meticulous attention to detail we are informed that the story begins 'on a road near Dartmoor Prison'. Even the newspaper headline revealing that three soldiers are on the run, would leave most readers turning to the back page for the football results. Needless to say, the lives of the escaped convicts and the unhappy couple become inextricably intertwined in what plays out as a minor league blueprint for The Desperate Hours. The three crooks can be categorized as hard nut (replete with American brogue), cheeky chappie and dumb guy. David Greene battles gamely to combine slow on the uptake with West Country, occasionally slipping into Cockney and even a touch of psuedo Yorkshire.

There appears to have been a deliberate attempt to minimize any worthwhile action. The road accident and shootings occur off camera. The only real animation being a woman's horrified facial expression upon discovering that washing had been stolen from her line. She must have thought that Arnold Layne had paid her a visit!

Much of The Small Voice comes off as simply laboured and plodding, with Hobson and Keel's professionalism just about carrying this largely listless affair.

Ah...this Boke bloke. Keel credited under his real name, Harold and making his screen debut, prior to finding success in musicals like Showboat and Calamity Jane. His only involvement with music here occurs when he recklessly wrecks a record which he finds objectionable. Now, if he EVER contemplated doing that to any of my Frank Zappa albums......