Green for Danger is a 1946 British thriller film, based on the 1944 detective novel of the same name by Christianna Brand. It was directed by Sidney Gilliat and stars Alastair Sim, Trevor Howard, Sally Gray and Rosamund John. The film was shot at Pinewood Studios in England. The title is a reference to the colour-coding used on the gas canisters used by anaesthetists.
Plot
In August 1944, during the V-1 "doodlebug" offensive on London, patient Joseph Higgins (Moore Marriott) dies on the operating table in a rural British hospital in the southeast of England. The anaesthetist, Dr Barney Barnes (Trevor Howard), has had a patient die previously in somewhat similar circumstances, and the hospital manager, Dr White (Ronald Adam), asks him to voluntarily suspend himself from duty, but Barnes angrily refuses.
Later, Sister Bates (Judy Campbell) claims to have evidence that Higgins was murdered, but before she can show anyone, she is stabbed to death by someone in a surgical gown. Scotland Yard Inspector Cockrill (Alistair Sim) is assigned to investigate. Maintaining a cheerful attitude about the serious business at hand, he declares happily that there are just five obvious suspects: Barnes; the surgeon, Mr Eden (Leo Genn); and three nurses, Freddi Linley (Sally Gray), Esther Sanson (Rosamund John), and Woods (Megs Jenkins). His investigation is hampered by the conflict between Barnes and Eden because of their competition for the affections of Linley. Then some pills are revealed to be missing.
Linley also mentions having an idea about the murders, but the others advise her to wait until she can talk to Cockrill about it. She goes to bed and someone puts a shilling in the coin-operated gas meter without lighting the gas fire in her room. Before she is killed by the carbon monoxide in the coal gas, Sanson smells the gas, calls out, and breaks the window, but while being removed from the room, Linley falls down stairs. The inspector takes her away without allowing Barnes to examine her.
It turns out that Linley has a depressed skull fracture and craniotomy surgery is required. Cockrill demands that this be done by the remaining suspects themselves, re-enacting as far as possible the operation that killed Higgins. When Eden objects, Cockrill agrees to have him replaced, but insists he assist. The anaesthesia machine is discussed: it can dispense oxygen, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide from colour-coded bottles into the patient's mask. Woods puts in a new oxygen bottle, as was done with Higgins.
As Linley is anaesthetised, she quickly shows signs of distress; put on pure oxygen, she still does not respond, all just as happened to Higgins. But this time the reserve oxygen bottle is put into use, and she recovers. Cockrill then scratches paint off the "oxygen" bottle that was being used, revealing the green of a carbon dioxide bottle. As Linley awakens, he reveals that she had no head injury but was participating to help trap the murderer. Linley tells what she had noticed about the gown Bates was wearing when she was stabbed: a piece of it had been cut out, and the knife carefully placed through the hole to disguise it. And Cockrill now points to a mark on Woods's gown from still-wet paint on the "oxygen" bottle she put in.
The murderer is Sanson. Some time ago her mother had died after being buried in an air raid, and Higgins had worked on freeing her; but Sanson thinks he took too long and she blames him for her death. She killed him over this, as well as Bates to protect herself. She staged the gas "attack" and rescue of Linley to put herself above suspicion, but then decided to kill her anyway. While Sanson is confessing, Eden quietly loads a syringe. Sanson then flees from the room and Eden runs after her, but Cockrill stops him from injecting her. Sanson collapses and dies; she had poisoned herself with the missing pills, and Eden was trying to give her the antidote.
As Cockrill leaves, he resumes the voiceover from the start of the film, which is his letter to his superior about the case. He remarks that it was "not one of my most successful cases" and offers his resignation—in the hope that it will not be accepted.
Cast
Sally Gray as Nurse Frederica "Freddi" Linley
Trevor Howard as Dr. Barney Barnes
Rosamund John as Nurse Esther Sanson
Alastair Sim as Inspector Cockrill
Leo Genn as Dr. Eden
Judy Campbell as Sister Marion Bates
Megs Jenkins as Nurse Woods
Moore Marriott as Joseph Higgins (the postman) Henry Edwards as Mr. Purdy Ronald Adam as Dr. White George Woodbridge as Detective Sergeant Hendricks Wendy Thompson as Sister Carter John Rae as the porter Frank Ling as rescue worker