{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}} {{Use British English|date=June 2016}} {{Infobox film | name = Tread Softly Stranger | image = Treadsoftlystranger.jpg | caption = UK release poster | director = Gordon Parry | writer = George Minter | based_on = play ''Blind Alley'' by Jack Popplewell | producer = Denis O'Dell | starring = Diana Dors<br />George Baker<br>Terence Morgan | cinematography = Douglas Slocombe | editing = Anthony Harvey | music = Tristram Cary | studio = Alderdale<br>George Minter Productions | distributor = Renown Pictures | released = {{Film date|1958|08}} | runtime = 87 minutes | country = United Kingdom | language = English | budget = }} '''''Tread Softly Stranger''''' is a 1958 British crime drama film directed by Gordon Parry and starring Diana Dors, George Baker and Terence Morgan. The screenplay was written by George Minter adapted from the stage play ''Blind Alley'' (1953) by Jack Popplewell.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tread Softly Stranger |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150044050 |access-date=8 November 2023 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=TREAD SOFTLY, STRANGER|work=Monthly Film Bulletin|location=London|volume=25|issue=288|date=Jan 1, 1958|page=92}}</ref> The film was shot in black-and-white in film noir style, and its setting in a fictional industrial town in northern England mirrors the kitchen sink realism movement coming into vogue in English drama and film at the time.
==Plot== Johnny Mansell has fled to the Yorkshire steel town of Rawborough, once his home town, after racking up large gambling debts in London. He moves into a cramped boarding house where his brother Dave, a clerk in a local steel mill, was already living; Dave has a girlfriend Calico, a hostess in a local nightclub, who lives close by and their flats have neighbouring flat roof spaces, which the three often use. Johnny discovers that Dave has been stealing money from the mill where he works, spending the money on Calico. While Johnny works on a scheme to get enough money to cover up Dave’s fraud and pay off his own debts with a win on the racetrack, Calico comes up with her own plan for the brothers to steal the payroll at Dave's workplace and pay off their debts with the proceeds. Although Johnny wins the money at the track, he is robbed by gangsters from London who recognise him there and instead, the brothers try to carry out Calico’s plan to steal the payroll but they mistakenly kill a night watchman, the father of their best friend in the town, with a gun that Calico lent Dave.
==Cast== {{castlist| * Diana Dors as Calico * George Baker as Johnny Mansell * Terence Morgan as Dave Mansell * Patrick Allen as Paddy Ryan * Jane Griffiths as Sylvia * Joseph Tomelty as Joe Ryan * Thomas Heathcote as Sgt. Lamb * Russell Napier as Potter * Norman MacOwan as Danny * Maureen Delany as Mrs. Finnegan * Betty Warren as Flo * Timothy Bateson as Fletcher * John Salew as Pawnbroker * Michael Golden as St. John's Ambulance Man * George Merritt as Timekeeper * Andrew Keir as Inspector Harris * Hal Osmond as Flatcap * Norman Pierce as Publican * Patrick Crean as Blue Blazer * Wilfrid Lawson as Holroyd (uncredited) * Jerold Wells as Constable at racecourse (uncredited) }}
==''Blind Alley''== {{Infobox play | name = Blind Alley | orig_title = | image = | alt = | caption = | writer = Jack Popplewell | based_on = <!-- {{based on|title of the original work|creator of the original work}} --> | director = Hulbert Gregg | music = | lyrics = | choreography = | chorus = | characters = | mute = | setting = | premiere = {{Start date|1953|01|20}} | place = Q Theatre, London | orig_lang = English | series = | subject = | genre = crime | web = }}
The movie was based on a 1953 play by Jack Popplewell called ''Blind Alley''. It was Popplewell's first play; when he wrote it he was better known as a songwriter and the success of the play launched him as a playwright.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Times|title=Jack Popplewell|url=https://archive.org/details/NewsUK1996UKEnglish/Dec%2005%201996%2C%20The%20Times%2C%20%2365753%2C%20UK%20%28en%29/page/n46/mode/1up?|date=5 December 1996|page=23}}</ref> The original production starred John Gregson and was directed by Hulbert Gregg. ''The Daily Telegraph'' called it "an original and accomplished thriller."<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=21 January 1953|page=8|title=Good thriller by new author}}</ref>
The play received numerous productions over the following years. George Minter, who wrote and produced the film, called the original play a "money maker".<ref>{{cite magazine|first=George|last=Minster|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_kinematograph-weekly_1958-06-19_494_2653/page/67/mode/1up|date=19 June 1958|title=Better films are here at just the right time|page=}}</ref> Jackie Collins appeared in a 1958 production in Manchester.<ref>{{cite news|title=Blind Alley|newspaper=The Guardian|date=23 September 1958|page=5}}</ref>
The play was adapted for Australian radio in 1961.<ref>{{cite news|title=Radio plays|newspaper=The Age |date=12 October 1961|page=24}}</ref>
==Production== In May 1957 it was announced the play would be turned into a film called ''Tread Softly Stranger'' by Renown Studios.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Comedy and drama in Renown pline up|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_kinematograph-weekly_1957-05-02_481_2594/page/n13/mode/1up?|date=2 May 1957|page=12}}</ref>
George Minter said he worked on the script for two years. Producer Denis O'Dell said "I don’t claim to be a creative writer or a wizard at writing marvellous dialogue, but I do claim to know what makes a script tick. And that is important, because you have nothing if your screenplay is badly constructed."<ref name="minter">{{cite magazine|title=Peter Evans' Studio Round Up|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_kinematograph-weekly_1958-01-16_489_2631/page/24/mode/1up|date=16 January 1958|page=24}}</ref>
The film was shot at Walton Studios in Walton-on-Thames<ref>{{cite news|title=Round the British Studios|author=Nepean, Edith|work=Picture Show|location=London|volume=70|issue=1828|date=Apr 12, 1958|page=11}}</ref> and on location in Parkgate, Rotherham. Gordon Parry said "This is the kind of off-beat, realistic subject that a director is always looking for."<ref name="minter"/>
The eponymous theme tune was sung by Jim Dale.
==Box office== ''Kinematograph Weekly'' listed it as being "in the money" at the British box office in 1958<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|date=18 December 1958|first=Josh|last=Billings|page=7|title=Others in the Money|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_kinematograph-weekly_1958-12-18_500_2679/page/7/mode/1up?q=tread|access-date=April 30, 2026|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> and had "scored" commercially.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|date=18 December 1958|first=Josh|last=Billings|page=7|title=Anglo provides smash hit of the year|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_kinematograph-weekly_1958-12-18_500_2679/page/8/mode/1up}}</ref>
== Critical reception == In ''British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959'' David Quinlan wrote: <nowiki>''</nowiki>Thriller has silly dialogue, fails to make use of Rotherham backgrounds.<nowiki>''</nowiki><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 |pages=392}}</ref>
Leslie Halliwell wrote: "Hilarious murky melodrama full of glum faces, with a well-worn trick ending; rather well photographed."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Halliwell |first=Leslie |title=Halliwell's Film Guide |publisher=Paladin |year=1989 |isbn=0-586-08894-6 |edition=7th |location=London |pages=1048}}</ref>
The ''Radio Times Guide to Films'' gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "The big question here is, what on earth were Diana Dors, Terence Morgan and George Baker doing in such a dreary little film? Director Gordon Parry was capable of making involving pictures, but here he insists on his cast delivering each line as if it had the dramatic weight of a Russian novel, which is more than a little preposterous for a petty melodrama about criminal brothers falling for the same girl."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Radio Times Guide to Films |publisher=Immediate Media Company |year=2017 |isbn=9780992936440 |edition=18th |location=London |pages=957}}</ref>
== Release == ''Tread Softly Stranger'' received its first DVD release in the UK in 2008.
== References == <references />
== External links == * {{IMDb title| 0052315 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20190120140920/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b8df62d ''Tread Softly Stranger''] at BFI *{{TCMDb title|93864}} * {{BritMovie title| Tread-Softly-Stranger }} *[http://www.british60scinema.net/films-of-the-50s/tread-softly-stranger/ ''Tread Softly Stranger''] at British 60s Cinema *[https://letterboxd.com/film/tread-softly-stranger/ ''Tread Softly Stranger''] at Letterbox DVD *{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100204042628/http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2010/01/tread-softly-stranger-1958.html ''Tread Softly Stranger'']}} at Noir of the Week {{Gordon Parry}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tread Softly Stranger}} Category:1958 British films Category:1958 English-language films Category:1958 crime drama films Category:1958 films Category:British black-and-white films Category:British crime drama films Category:British heist films Category:English-language crime drama films Category:Film noir Category:Films about brothers Category:Films about murderers Category:Films directed by Gordon Parry Category:Films scored by Tristram Cary Category:Films set in Yorkshire Category:Films shot in Yorkshire