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Johnny Nobody
Johnny Nobody
	British quad poster
Directed by	Nigel Patrick
Screenplay by	Patrick Kirwan
Based on	story The Trial of Johnny Nobody by Albert Z. Carr
Produced by	John R. Sloan
Starring	Nigel Patrick; Yvonne Mitchell; William Bendix; Aldo Ray
Cinematography	Ted Moore
Edited by	Geoffrey Foot
Music by	Ron Goodwin
Production; companies	Viceroy Films Ltd.; Warwick Film Productions
Distributed by	Eros Films (UK)
Release date	October 1961;
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Johnny Nobody is a 1961 British drama film made in Ireland and directed by Nigel Patrick, starring Yvonne Mitchell, William Bendix and Aldo Ray.^[1] It was written by Patrick Kirwan based on the story The Trial of Johnny Nobody by Albert Z. Carr. It was produced John R. Sloan for Viceroy Films, with Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli as executive producers.^[2] A man arrested for murder claims to be suffering from amnesia. Father Carey investigates the case, and looks for the killer's motive.

Story

Irish American writer James Ronald Mulcahy is murdered moments after he has dared God to strike him dead. His murderer looks for help from the man who must decide his fate, the local priest, Father Carey. The killer is tagged "Johnny Nobody" by the press because of his claim to have total amnesia, but further investigation by Carey leads him to question whether or not "Johnny" was acting for God or, as seems more likely, a woman known as Miss Floyd who turns out to be his wife.

Cast

Nigel Patrick as Father Carey
Yvonne Mitchell as Miss Floyd
William Bendix as James Ronald Mulcahy
Aldo Ray as Johnny Nobody
Cyril Cusack as Prosecuting Counsel O'Brien
Bernie Winters as photographer
Niall MacGinnis as Defending Counsel Sullivan
Noel Purcell as Brother Timothy
Eddie Byrne as Landlord O'Connor
John Welsh as Judge
Joe Lynch as Tinker
Jimmy O'Dea as postman Tim
Frank O'Donovan as Garda
T P McKenna as Garda
May Craig as Tinker's mother
Norman Rodway as Father Healey
Michael Brennan as Supt. Lynch

Production

The film was shot at Ardmore Studios in Bray, Ireland.^[3]^[4]

Critical reception

Monthly Film Bulletin said "The combination of religion (or at any rate Providence) and an Irish setting has produced a story even more fantastic than The Singer Not The Song [1961], though the film itself is disappointing on any level. The plot resembles nothing so much as a cosy murder mystery, moving in the convulsive jerks of a lesser British Thirties thriller, while the unreal dialogue has a compulsive predictability. Intriguing films have been made from equally bizarre material. Unfortunately this is not one of them. ... The more one thinks of it, the more one is amazed that anyone should have thought a plot and players as uniformly unlikely as these could have worked out satisfactorily."^[5]

Variety wrote "Imported suspenser run-of-the-mill programmer despite stroger than usual casting. [The film] has a cast that compares for talent with many bigger-budgeted and more ambitious efforts. And that's about the only thing it has going for it."^[6]

Boxoffice said "An engrossing display of histrionic talents by an internationally known and respected cast. ... Nigel Patrick's delineation is at once sentimental and suave, penetrating and philiosophic."^[7]

Leslie Halliwell said: "A mysterious rigmarole which irritates more than entertains."^[8]

References

^ "Johnny Nobody". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
^ "Johnny Nobody". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
^ "Johnny Nobody (1960)". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012.
^ Irish, T. R. (17 May 1960). "Ardmore to Make Two More Films". The Irish Times. ProQuest 523557996.
^ "Johnny Nobody". Monthly Film Bulletin. 28 (324): 166. 1 January 1961. ProQuest 1305828652 – via ProQuest.
^ "Johnny Nobody". Variety. 241 (2): 6. 1 December 1965. ProQuest 1017123165 – via ProQuest.
^ "Johnny Nobody". Boxoffice. 88 (9–10): a11. 20 December 1965. ProQuest 1476006645 – via ProQuest.
^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 541. ISBN 0586088946.