Tonight’s offering for the Friday Night Movie slot is a film I would happily refer to as a neglected gem. Cloudburst made in 1951 but set in Britain in 1946 is one of those dramas that grip you from beginning to end.

Cloudburst, which stars Robert Preston as a former wartime Special Operations Executive officer John Graham has a very interesting and unusual plot. Graham is working as a cryptographic expert for the UK Foreign Office trying to gather evidence about Japanese war criminals from coded documents. Following his extensive wartime escapades he is settling down to what he hopes is a great and peaceful future with his wife Carol, played by Elizabeth Sellars.

Unfortunately his hoped for idyll is shattered when Carol is murdered. Following his wife’s death John Graham sets out to find those who murdered his wife and this, and evading the police, is what takes up the bulk of the film.

I will not give too much of the plot away as it would spoil the movie for potential viewers, but it is one with lots of twists and turns and one that involves Graham having to employ many of the skills he learned in SOE.

Apart from the gripping plot this movie is also a window onto a now vanished world. A world where ‘computer’ was a job title for maths geniuses and not as the word means today which is an electronic device for dealing with more data than many of the old style ‘computers’ could have imagined existing. Also, those interested in old vehicles and vehicle technology will be fascinated by one of the garage scenes where a motor engineer is shown making up old style white on black number plates using a gas torch and solder, which is something that is almost never done today.

I was really delighted to discover this movie and can’t think why I haven’t come across it before. I really enjoyed watching this film and I hope that you also enjoy watching it as well.