Dancing With Crime / The Green Cockatoo

Two more early Brit Noirs from Cohen Film Collection, digitized in association with the British Film Institute. In DANCING WITH CRIME (1947), Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim, married in real life at the time, put themselves in harms way when they go undercover to investigate the murder of a friend with ties to black market racketeers. Watch for Dirk Bogarde and Diana Dors in uncredited roles. A true rarity, William Cameron Menzies’ THE GREEN COCKATOO was completed in 1937, but not released until 1940. It is often cited as one of the earliest of the British Noirs and helped set the stage for the classical period of Brit Noir which flourished in the years following WWII. It’s a taut little thriller based on a Graham Greene story, directed by the American William Cameron Menzies, and featuring a stellar cast and crew. After witnessing the murder of a racketeer, a young woman is pursued by both gangsters and the police. She is aided by a Soho entertainer, who is the brother of the victim.