Uneasy Terms

Uneasy Terms is a 1948 British crime thriller film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Michael Rennie, Moira Lister and Faith Brook. It is based on the 1946 novel of the same name by Peter Cheyney.

Premise
Slim Callaghan is a private eye whose client, Colonel Stenhurst, is murdered, leaving behind a trail of suspects. Viola, the eldest of the Colonel's three stepdaughters, is the prime suspect, but after wading through clues and romance, Callaghan corners the real culprit.

Cast

 * Michael Rennie as Slim Callaghan
 * Moira Lister as Corinne Alardyse
 * Faith Brook as Viola Alardyse
 * Joy Shelton as Effie
 * Patricia Goddard as Patricia Alardyse
 * Barry Jones as Inspector Gringall
 * Marie Ney as Honoria Wymering
 * Paul Carpenter as Windy Nicholls
 * Nigel Patrick as Lucien Donnelly
 * Sydney Tafler as Maysin
 * J.H. Roberts as Sallins
 * Joan Carroll as Matron

Production
Cheyney was a best selling author at the time. Vernon Sewell wanted to make a film of Cheyney's Dark Duet but was assigned this instead. He said Cheyney " had complete charge of casting and costumes, and script of course. He had choice of the world's stars." Sewell says Cheyney insisted on Michael Rennie who the director thought "wasn't right for it". He said Cheyney also did not write the script. "I'm left on the, sometimes on the set with no script at all! Michael Rennie and I had to sit down and write the very next day's work! The film was pretty awful."

Reception
Sewell said when the film opened Cheyney insisted it would get good reviews "because the press daren't knock me!" but the reviews were bad. "And then he died! So we never made any more. That was the one Peter Cheyney film ever made. No one has made one since. Poor old Peter."

Critical reception

 * Allmovie wrote, "Uneasy Terms is a scrambled British attempt at American-style hard boil."
 * Sky Movies wrote, "Peter Cheyney's detective Slim Callaghan has rarely translated well to the screen, But this Vernon Sewell-directed thriller is one of the better efforts, thanks largely to a quality cast that also includes Barry Jones, Joy Shelton and Paul Carpenter."