Stolen Hours (1963)

November 2nd, 2024
Author: Meredith Taylor

Dir: Daniel Petrie | Cast: Susan Howard, Michael Craig, Diane Baker, Edward Judd | UK Drama 97’

That rarest thing, a remake that improves upon the original.

Prefaced by an elegant title sequence by Maurice Binder to the accompaniment of Mort Lindsay’s melancholy score, the treatment throughout is much more subtle than it was in ‘Dark Victory’

Susan Hayward is a more robust presence as the heroine, and at the ending isn’t required to compete with the music as Bette Davis had had to with Max Steiner.

Being made in Britain probably contributed to it being more understated, where shot in sumptuous colour it makes good use of Cornish locations and gains added poignancy from the fact that Hayward herself also later died in eerily similar circumstances. @RichardChatten

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