Sapphire

Sapphire

2/11/1959 1h 32m 7.0/10

Overview

Two Scotland Yard detectives investigate the murder of a young woman of mixed race who had been passing for white. As they interview a spate of suspects -- including the girl's white boyfriend and his disapproving parents -- the detectives wade through a stubbornly entrenched sludge of racism and bigotry.

Director

Basil Dearden

Top Billed Cast

Paul Massie

Paul Massie

David Harris

Bernard Miles

Bernard Miles

Ted Harris

Michael Craig

Michael Craig

Inspector Phil Learoyd

Olga Lindo

Olga Lindo

Mrs. Harris

Nigel Patrick

Nigel Patrick

Superintendent Robert Hazard

Yvonne Mitchell

Yvonne Mitchell

Mildred

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

11/13/2022

7/10

When the eponymous girl is found murdered, it falls to "Supt. Hazard" (Nigel Patrick) and his sidekick "Learoyd" (Michael Craig) to get to the bottom of things. There seems a genuine sense of shock amongst her friends, her landlady and her fiancée "David" (Paul Massie) and his family but when her brother, a doctor, arrives the whole investigation takes on an whole new complexion. What now ensues in a rather unsophisticated police drama, admittedly, but the social and racial aspects of life in London in the late 1950s are writ large - a poignant and frankly rather shameful indictment of attitudes amongst people of various social classes who allow bigotry to remain an accepted part of day-to-day life - even amongst those looking into the crime. Patrick is solid here, as is the victim's would-be father-in-law Bernard Miles ("Ted") and though the denouement has shades of Agatha Christie to it, it's still quite a well paced, compelling and uncomfortable, watch.

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