Cloudburst (1951)

Directed by Francis Searle; produced by Alexander Paal

In 1946 England, government cryptographer and war-veteran John Graham (Robert Preston) is looking forward to the birth of his son, and, with his wife, Carol (Elizabeth Sellars), watching him grow, attend Graham’s old school and play sports. These dreams are crushed when Carol is killed by a fleeing couple of murderers (Harold Lang, Sheila Burrell). Hiding evidence from the police to use for himself, Graham embarks on a hunt for the killers, to do to them what they did to his wife.

With a bit of a twist on the usual vigilante-out-for-revenge premise, Cloudburst has promise, but doesn’t really fulfill it. Much is made of Graham’s job in making and breaking codes but, except for a gimmick of a dropped clue, which is unnecessary, it merely uses up time. It doesn’t contribute to the story. If Carol had been killed in connection with her husband’s work, and breaking codes was integral to the plot, there would have been more interest to it.

The story itself tends to diminish the urgency or, perhaps, even the necessity of the plot. The murderers, already wanted for the death of a watchman, could be clearly identified by Graham. With what he sees and hears during the incident, he has information that would lead the police relatively swiftly to the culprits. He chooses to withhold what he knows in order to utilise it himself. The motivation is understandable - based on what Carol had said earlier, Graham is determined to find the killers himself - but it nonetheless makes his hunt for them almost a luxury, in terms of plot.

The script is co-written by the director and Leo Marks, who wrote the play from which the movie came. Marks was involved in the sort of intelligence and special operations work with which John Graham is involved, so the expertise is there, it’s just not well used. As well, the movie doesn’t take advantage of the dialogue: one scene features a character speaking of rage overcoming her like a cloudburst (the source of the title, no doubt); would it not have been entertaining to have the climax occur during such a meteorological event, giving both excitement and appropriateness?

The acting is fine. Preston, playing a Canadian, so that he doesn’t have to attempt an English accent, does a good job as the driven man. Sellars performs well in what is rather a small rôle, and the other actors offer the usual solid support found in British films, especially of the 1940s and ‘50s.

Francis Searle directed many films (though his last decade of productivity appears to have been given over to shorts), but none was particularly distinguished; Cloudburst was one of his more critically successful efforts. The direction seen in it, however, gives an indication of why Searle isn’t better known: there are some effective scenes, but nothing memorable. He does manage to break the story away from its stage origins.

While a moderately enjoyable film, Cloudburst leaves undone much that could have made it better, missing opportunities that would have given it characteristics different than many in its genre.