The Durant Affair

Ethel Durant, a renowned society hostess, dies leaving a vast estate, sparking a search for her heir, who was previously believed to have died childless, but her life was shrouded in mystery and controversy.

This was very good and an enjoyable watch.

Basically a courtroom drama, but it was very interesting how it all developed.

The ending was a bit cheesy.

It is generally assumed that 'the sixties' began on January 1, 1960, but that is incorrect. 'The sixties' as such began in the late summer and early autumn of 1963. Before that, the 1950s continued unabated and British B films such as this continued to be cranked out, which were pure 'fifties' in style and content, many of them directed by Godfrey Grayson, of whose 28 rather undistinguished films this was the last. This film has a mildly interesting story about a girl in her thirties who never knew who her mother was, and who is contacted by the solicitor of her mother, who had confessed on her deathbed that she had this illegitimate daughter whom she had abandoned as an infant. Jane Griffiths, who died at the age of only 46 in 1975, plays this daughter. Like all but one performer in this film (Nigel Green), Griffiths was not at all famous in her profession. Green plays a QC (Queen's Counsel, the highest level of British barrister) who ruthlessly cross-examines witnesses in the trial concerning the inheritance. Green in this role is the usual cold and steely-eyed character which he played to great effect in film after film. Apart from him, the entire cast have left little legacy to posterity and could be described as essentially 'unknowns', as were most of of the actors appearing in these low-budget B films, produced by Dantziger Productions, which ceased making films in this very year, after one last effort, having produced 84 unmemorable films in twelve years, not one of which is remembered today. I do not wish to be too unkind about this film. It is rather contrived and corny, and the performances are not scintillating, but the film still manages to be interesting enough not to turn it off.

Even by the standards of a British 'B' movie a drab and garrulous affair; set in a world which in defending counsel Conrad Phillips despite living in a modest little apartment can afford to maintain a butler.

As the plaintiff Jane Griffiths wears a pair of batwing spectacles in order to attest to her virtue; while Nigel Green provides bite as the opposing counsel in an enormous bushy beard.

The executor of a half-million-pound estate comes to Jane Griffiths. She is, he believes, the rightful heir to the estate. However, as the executor, he is bound to oppose her claim. He recommends Conrad Phillips, a very successful barrister and leaves. Phillips and the lady clash. She wants the money, but fears that embarrassing facts about her father will come out in court, and she wishes to avoid that at all costs. And so they go to trial.

It's an average second feature, filled with the cliches of the genre, with last-minute witnesses with incontrovertible documentation. Indeed, the primary interest of the movie is the sheer size of the estate, which in modern money is $15,000,000. Otherwise it's stuffy courtroom procedure, with the lawyers all more interested in the truth than the results. With Francis De Wolf and Tony Quinn.

As a Probate practitioner for many years I never was involved in anything so dramatic.Fine performances all round add to a very intruiging courtroom drama,certainly amongst the best of the Danziger productions.