Let’s start with two films directed by John Guillermin for which I provided booklet essays — one a new issue and one from a couple of years ago (both products of the excellent Indicator label). In Guillermin’s groundbreaking Town on Trial (1956), the seething eponymous British town sports a colourful array of simmering sexual transgressions, corporate corruption and individual bad faith. John Mills’ tough cop’s attempts to solve a crime open up unpleasant ramifications for many in the town, and his scattershot approach allows for a penetration of the various social strata (from the cheap bars to the snooty country clubs). Two years later, Guillermin once again showed his expertise with a beguiling thriller. The Whole Truth begins with producer Max Paulton (smoothly played by Stewart Granger) struggling to complete a film on the French Riviera, and finding it difficult to deal with his prima donna star Gina Bertini (Gianna Maria Canale), with whom he has had a now-terminated affair. After an encounter at a hotel (which we are not shown), Paulton’s wife (Donna Reed), unaware of her husband’s philandering, finds a bloodstain on his cuff. But then a man claiming to be an inspector from Scotland Yard (the ever-watchable George Sanders) arrives to tell Paulton that Gina has been murdered. The Whole Truth has a variety of surprises up its sleeve and keeps the viewer pleasurably wrongfooted. Apart from my contribution, the new Indicator disc also has a top-notch commentary with Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons.
THE WHOLE TRUTH, John Guillermin, director/Indicator
