Dir: Terence Young. Cast: Anthony Quayle, Andrew Ray, Sarah Churchill | UK Drama 91’
If you’re too young to remember Doris Day before she was a virgin you’re probably not old enough to remember Cliff Richard when he was a sneering Teddy Boy in a leather jacket in this further contradiction of the received wisdom that an ‘introducing’ credit means the kiss of death to any aspiring actor, since in ‘Serious Charge’ that dubious distinction belongs to our Cliff when he was modelling himself on Elvis Presley before he saw the light and brought Jesus into his life.
Made in the days when erring vicars where popular tabloid fodder, the scenes with the grown-ups are what gives the films its weight, particularly those involving Sarah Churchill, who movingly demonstrates the destructive passions a middle-aged woman is capable of.@RichardChatten
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