The Stranger's Hand

{{Short description|1954 film}} {{about||the album by Jerry Goodman, Steve Smith, Howard Levy, and Oteil Burbridge|The Stranger's Hand (album)}} {{Use British English|date=May 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}} {{Infobox film | name = The Stranger's Hand | image = The Stranger's Hand.jpg | caption = | director = Mario Soldati | producer = Angelo Rizzoli Graham Greene Peter Moore John Stafford | writer = Giorgio Bassani Guy Elmes |based_on = ''The Stranger's Hand'' by Graham Greene | starring = Trevor Howard Alida Valli Richard Basehart | music = Nino Rota Alessandro Cicognini | cinematography = Enzo Serafin | editing = Tom Simpson Leslie Hogdson Leo Catozzo | studio = Milo Film Rizzoli Film Independent Film Producers | distributor = British Lion Films | released = {{Film date|1954|01|20|df=yes}} | runtime = 85 minutes |budget=£164,200<ref name="money">Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 359. The British budget was £77,525, with the balance provided in lira by the Italian co-production partner. The certified sterling cost came to £92,235.</ref> | country = Italy United Kingdom | language = English }}

'''''The Stranger's Hand''''' ({{langx|it|La mano dello straniero}}) is a 1954 British-Italian thriller drama film directed by Mario Soldati and starring Trevor Howard, Alida Valli and Richard Basehart. An international co-production, it is based on the draft novel with the same name written by Graham Greene.<ref name="45-59">{{cite book|author1=Roberto Chiti |author2=Roberto Poppi |author3=Enrico Lancia |title=Dizionario del cinema italiano: I film|date=1991 |publisher=Gremese, 1991|isbn=8876055487}}</ref> The plot follows the son of a British MI5 agent kidnapped in Venice by agents of Yugoslavia as he searches for his father.

The first two chapters of ''The Stranger's Hand'' had been entered by Greene anonymously under a pseudonym to a competition in the ''New Statesman'' to write a book in the style of Graham Greene – a competition in which Greene was amused to win second prize. Soldati had seen the chapters and persuaded Greene to complete the novella to make the basis for a film. Greene expanded it to 30 pages of a "film story", on which Giorgio Bassani and Guy Elmes completed the screenplay.<ref>The Guardian [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/dec/24/fiction.film ]</ref>

==Cast== * Trevor Howard as Major Roger Court * Alida Valli as Roberta Gleukovitch * Richard Basehart as Joe Hamstringer * Richard O'Sullivan as Roger Court * Eduardo Ciannelli as Dr. Vivaldi * Arnoldo Foà as Commissioner * Stephen Murray as British Consul in Venice * Guido Celano as Chief Constable * Nerio Bernardi as Vincenzo * Giorgio Costantini as Pescovitch * Angelo Cecchelin as Luza * Nino Vechina as First Killer * Armando Papette as Second Killer * Giovanni Karuz as Third Killer * Joan Butterfield as Mrs. Harrington * Alessandro Paulon as Morgan * Remington Olmsted as Ramondo

==References== {{reflist}}

==Bibliography== * Spicer, Andrew. ''Historical Dictionary of Film Noir''. Scarecrow Press, 2010.

==External links== *{{IMDb title|id=0045202}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stranger's Hand}} Category:1954 films Category:1954 thriller films Category:Films directed by Mario Soldati Category:Films scored by Nino Rota Category:Films based on works by Graham Greene Category:British thriller films Category:Films produced by Angelo Rizzoli Category:Novels by Graham Greene Category:Films shot in Venice Category:1950 British novels Category:1950 English-language novels Category:Italian thriller films Category:1954 drama films Category:Films scored by Alessandro Cicognini Category:English-language Italian films Category:1954 Italian-language films Category:British black-and-white films Category:Italian black-and-white films Category:British Lion Films films Category:1954 English-language films Category:1954 British films Category:1954 Italian films Category:English-language thriller films