The Hangman Waits
The Hangman Waits is a 1947 British thriller made as a low-budget B feature. It was written, directed, and produced by A. Barr Smith and stars Beatrice Campbell and John Turnbull. Filmed in a documentary-like style, the story follows a cinema organist who murders an usherette and hides her body in a trunk at London's Victoria Station. The News of the World newspaper runs a big campaign to find the killer. While on the run, he commits another murder and, at the end, he throws himself from the top floor of the newspaper building.
Critical notes at the time described the film as an interesting but grim look at how crime news is reported, with some tense scenes and London locations that avoided glamorous lighting. Some reviewers found it an average, straightforward study of a killer, while others saw it as a gruesome, Grand Guignol-type piece. The promotional posters claimed it showed how crime news is gathered and presented, though some critics were not convinced.
The Hangman Waits was released on 25 August 1947, runs 63 minutes, and is a UK English-language production from Five Star Films, distributed by Butcher's Film Service. It was later released on DVD by Renown Pictures in 2011.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 21:36 (CET).