{{Short description|1954 British film by Charles Saunders}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox film | name = The Scarlet Web | image =File:The Scarlet Web.jpg | caption = | director = Charles Saunders | producer = Frank Bevis | writer = Doreen Montgomery | narrator = | starring = {{ubl|Griffith Jones|Hazel Court|Zena Marshall}} | music = | cinematography = Hone Glendinning | editing = Jack Slade | studio = Fortress Film Productions | distributor = Eros Films | released = {{Film date|1954|06|}} | runtime = 63 minutes | country = United Kingdom | language = English | budget = | gross = }} '''''The Scarlet Web''''' is a 1954 British second feature second feature ('B')<ref name="Chibnall2">{{Cite book |last1=Chibnall |first1=Steve |title=''The British 'B' Film'' |last2=McFarlane |first2=Brian |publisher=BFI/Bloomsbury |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-8445-7319-6 |location=London |pages=128}}</ref> crime film directed by Charles Saunders and starring Griffith Jones, Hazel Court and Zena Marshall.<ref name="BFIsearch">{{Cite web |title=The Scarlet Web |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150054689 |access-date=16 November 2023 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}}</ref> It was written by Doreen Montgomery.

==Plot== Jake Winter is just released from prison, where he has been working undercover for an insurance company, in cooperation with the police. He is approached by Laura Vane who asks him to steal a letter from a blackmailer who has targeted her husband. At her apartment Winter is drugged, and on waking finds himself alone with the body of a woman. The police suspect him of murder. Winter's boss at the insurance company, Susan Honeywell, believes he is innocent. They find a connection between Vane and the dead woman's husband Charles Dexter. Honeywell visits Dexter but is drugged and left in a kitchen with the gas on. The police and Winter arrive just in time to rescue her and arrest Vane and Dexter.

==Cast== {{cast listing| * Griffith Jones as Jake Winter * Hazel Court as Susan Honeywell * Zena Marshall as Laura Vane * Robert Percival as Charles Dexter * Molly Raynor as Miss Riggs * Ronnie Stevens as Simpson * John Fitzgerald as Bert * Stuart Douglass as Cyril * Michael Balfour as barman * David Stoll as Alphonse, the hairdresser }}

== Production == The film was made at Walton Studios with some location shooting in London. Its sets were designed by the art director John Stoll.

== Critical reception == ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' said "Formula detective story, made with modest competence. The basic fact that the police will believe Winter murdered an unknown woman for £50 seems improbable; this apart, however, the story is credible and no loose ends are left."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1954 |title=The Scarlet Web |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1305818855 |journal=Monthly Film Bulletin |volume=21 |issue=240 |pages=106 |id={{ProQuest|1305818855}}}}</ref>

''Kine Weekly'' wrote "Compact, disarmingly inconsequential romantic comedy crime melodrama.&nbsp;... The picture never takes itself too seriously, and its strong sense of humour, cultivated by Hazel Court and Griffith Jones, who make an engaging team as Susan and Jake, effectively cloaks its incredibilities without robbing it of penultimate suspense."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=20 May 1954 |title=The Scarlet Web |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2732607944 |journal=Kine Weekly |volume=446 |issue=2447 |pages=21 |id={{ProQuest|2732607944}} }}</ref>

''British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959'' David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Very familiar story but more professionally put together than most of its kind."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Quinlan |first=David |title=British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 |publisher=B.T. Batsford Ltd. |year=1984 |isbn=0-7134-1874-5 |location=London |page=369}}</ref>

Chibnall and McFarlane in ''The British 'B' Film'' wrote: "Leavened with touches of wry, wise-cracking humour, nothing in the film would have been out of place in a hardboiled flick from America except the English accents and the backgrounds."<ref name="Chibnall">{{Cite book |last1=Chibnall |first1=Steve |title=''The British 'B' Film'' |last2=McFarlane |first2=Brian |publisher=BFI/Bloomsbury |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-8445-7319-6 |location=London |pages=128}}</ref>

== References == <references/>

==External links== * {{IMDb title|0163195}}

{{Films by Charles Saunders|state=collapsed}} {{Portalbar|1950s|Film|London}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scarlet Web, The}} Category:1954 films Category:British crime films Category:1954 crime films Category:Films directed by Charles Saunders Category:Films shot at Nettlefold Studios Category:British black-and-white films Category:Films shot in London Category:1954 English-language films Category:1954 British films Category:English-language crime films