The Stranger's Hand

The Stranger's Hand
Directed byMario Soldati
Written byGiorgio Bassani
Guy Elmes
Based onThe Stranger's Hand by Graham Greene
Produced byAngelo Rizzoli
Graham Greene
Peter Moore
John Stafford
StarringTrevor Howard
Alida Valli
Richard Basehart
CinematographyEnzo Serafin
Edited byTom Simpson
Leslie Hogdson
Leo Catozzo
Music byNino Rota
Alessandro Cicognini
Production
companies
Milo Film
Rizzoli Film
Independent Film Producers
Distributed byBritish Lion Films
Release date
  • 20 January 1954 (1954-01-20)
Running time
85 minutes
CountriesItaly
United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£164,200[1]

The Stranger's Hand (Italian: La mano dello straniero) is a 1954 British-Italian thriller drama film directed by Mario Soldati and starring Trevor Howard, Alida Valli and Richard Basehart. An international co-production, it is based on the draft novel with the same name written by Graham Greene.[2] The plot follows the son of a British MI5 agent kidnapped in Venice by agents of Yugoslavia as he searches for his father.

The first two chapters of The Stranger's Hand had been entered by Greene anonymously under a pseudonym to a competition in the New Statesman to write a book in the style of Graham Greene – a competition in which Greene was amused to win second prize. Soldati had seen the chapters and persuaded Greene to complete the novella to make the basis for a film. Greene expanded it to 30 pages of a "film story", on which Giorgio Bassani and Guy Elmes completed the screenplay.[3]

  1. ^ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 359. The British budget was £77,525, with the balance provided in lira by the Italian co-production partner. The certified sterling cost came to £92,235.
  2. ^ Roberto Chiti; Roberto Poppi; Enrico Lancia. Dizionario del cinema italiano: I film. Gremese, 1991. ISBN 8876055487.
  3. ^ The Guardian [1]