A TOUCH OF LARCENY

GB / US
1959
1hr 33mins
Dir: Guy Hamilton
Starring: James Mason and Vera Miles

A naval commander deliberately disappears so that he can be branded a traitor and then sue for libel

This Anglo-American comedy is based on the 1956 novel The Megstone Plot by Paul Winterton, and it features a couple of the ubiquitous stock shots of streamlined LMS ‘Duchess’ Class 4-6-2’s filmed for the original Brief Encounter of 1945 (qv). They appear in this film ten years after the last streamlined ‘Duchess’ ran in service, and in this case it is the same shot twice only in reverse!! More significant perhaps are the railway wagons that are seen in some of the sequences filmed on the quayside of Empress Dock, Southampton.

An air-smoothed ‘Duchess’ steams through Carnforth at night in this much used stock shot from David Lean’s Brief Encounter from 1945
A little while later we see the same shot again, only this time in reverse!!
James Mason begins to wander around the quaysides associated with Empress Dock in Southampton. Note the very large rail-mounted steam crane creeping into shot on the right.
Here, James Mason is just visible between the legs of the overhead crane. More visible is the rake of open wagons behind him.
An assorted mix of wagons and a boat are visible in the background of this shot of a bowler hatted James Mason
Dodging from view, James Mason hides between some open wagons