23 Paces to Baker Street (1956)

★ 6.7 1h 43m IMDb

Philip Hannon, a blind playwright living in London, overhears part of a conversation , that leads him into a desperate race, to find a kidnapped child. When he gets no help from the police, he along with his butler, and his ex fiancée, attempt to track down the crooks.

23 Paces to Baker Street

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Cast

Van Johnson
Van Johnson as Phillip Hannon Died 2008 · Newport, Rhode Island, USA Van Johnson (1916–2008) was an American film, television theatre and radio actor, singer, and dancer. He was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during and after World War II..
Vera Miles
Vera Miles as Jean Lennox Age 95 · Boise City, Oklahoma, USA Vera June Miles (born August 23, 1929) is an American actress. Born in Boise City, Oklahoma, Vera Miles attended school in Pratt, Kansas and Wichita, Kansas. The patrician beauty of Miss Miles won he...
Cecil Parker
Cecil Parker as Bob Matthews Died 1971 · Hastings, Sussex, England, UK Cecil Parker (3 September 1897 – 20 April 1971) was an English character and comedy actor with a distinctive husky voice, who usually played supporting roles in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969...
Patricia Laffan
Patricia Laffan as Miss Alice MacDonald Died 2014 · London, England, UK Patricia Alice Laffan (19 March 1919 – 10 March 2014) was an English stage, film, television and radio actress, and also, after her retirement from acting, an international fashion impresario. She was...
Maurice Denham
Maurice Denham as Inspector Grovening Died 2002 · Beckenham, Kent, England, UK Maurice Denham OBE (23 December 1909 – 24 July 2002) was an English character actor who appeared in over 100 television programmes and films throughout his long career. From Wikipedia, the free encyc...
Estelle Winwood
Estelle Winwood as Barmaid Died 1984 · Lee, Kent, England, UK Estelle Winwood (born Estelle Ruth Goodwin, 24 January 1883 – 20 June 1984) was an English stage and film actress who moved to the United States in mid-career and became celebrated for her wit and lon...

Audience Reviews

John Chard 7/10 Mar 22, 2020
A truly pleasant surprise.

Philip Hannon is a blind playwright residing in London, during one of his R&R moments at the local public house, he overhears part of a conversation that suggests the vile kidnapping of a child. Getting the police force to take him seriously proves hard to achieve, so with the help of his trusty butler and his ex fiancée, Jean Lennox, he hopes to avert a dastardly crime.

Well well well, sometimes you can tune into a film not expecting much more than a B movie rush, yet just occasionally you get submarined and get a mysterious treat that deserves far better support than it actually gets. I have been delighted to log on to this films page and see that others have been entertained by this picture as much as myself. This is not ground breaking or even remotely original, in fact it does play out as some sort of cheap knock off idea that Hitchcock turned down in his sleep, but you know what? Sometimes a film can be great just for having an honest will to entertain the viewers with suspense and mystery being its main fortitudes.

Henry Hathaway directs and it's just another film to prove that as up and down as his career was, he was never afraid to tackle different genres, here, with the London location totally interesting, he manages to knit it all together with impressive results. Van Johnson has his critics, and it would be foolish of me to not concur that at times he has been wooden, but here as the blind Phillip Hannon, he shows that if given good enough roles he was more than able to rise to the challenge. Not one to revisit often for sure, but seriously recommended to those who like the genre and are stuck for a good film to watch. 7/10

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