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.
At Heron's Park Hospital, the operating theatre staff face not only the horrors of World War II but also their own personal dramas. Amidst the chaos, tensions rise as jealousies, rivalries, and unrequited loves simmer within the hospital. When a courageous nurse bravely announces that a recent death in the operating theatre was, in fact, a murder, her life takes a sinister turn. Enter Inspector Cockrill, an unconventional detective from Scotland Yard, who arrives at the hospital to investigate the suspicious death. As he delves deeper into the case, he encounters a complex network of bitter cross-currents among the hospital staff, each with their own motives and secrets.
Tropes:
- And Starring: "'And presenting' Alastair Sim as Inspector Cockrill".
- Better to Die than Be Killed: After being exposed as the murderer, Esther Sanson secretly swallows the four poison pills stolen when Bates was killed, and expires before Inspector Cockrill can affect the arrest.
- The Casanova: Surgeon Mr. Eden. He has a reputation as a womaniser; has had a relationship with Sister Bates in the past (and she is still pining for him); is currently putting the moves on Freddi Linley, despite her being engaged to Dr. Barnes; and Nurse Woods pointedly warns him that things are different in the hospital and won't be like they were in his private practice before the war, with female patients coming to him with "fluttering eyelashes and bosoms".
- Chekhov's Classroom: When introduced, Dr. White is giving a lecture to the doctors about the new efficiency measures he has introduced since taking over as hospital administrator, including repainting the bins marked 'WASTE' to say 'SALVAGE'. This is an Establishing Character Moment, but later becomes significant because it explains where the murderer got the paint they used to disguise the carbon dioxide cylinder as an oxygen cylinder.
- Dead-Hand Shot: When Freddi is sleeping in her room that is slowly filling with coal gas, there is a shot her hand falling limply over the side of her bed, although she turns out to be merely unconscious and Sanson arrives in time to save her.
- Deadly Doctor: The murderer has to be one of the medical personnel present in the operating theatre when Higgins died. When the killer confronts Sister Bates in the empty operating theatre, they are dressed in a full set of surgical scrubs including cap, mask and gloves: completely obscuring their identity and even their sex. The killer is ultimately revealed to be Nurse Esther Sanson.
- Deadly Gas: Higgins is murdered on the operating table, and the murderer later tries to to do the same to Freddi Linley. In both cases the method is the same: disguising a cylinder of carbon dioxide as a cylinder of oxygen, so that when the anaesthetist Dr. Barnes administers oxygen to bring the patient round, he is actually giving them pure carbon dioxide, causing them to asphyxiate.
- During the War: A murder mystery set in a British rural hospital during the last years of World War II.
- Engineered Heroics: Sanson staged the gas "attack" and rescue of Linley to put herself above suspicion.
- Gas Chamber: After Linley mentions having an idea about the murders, 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.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: After Inspector Cockrill warns the suspects not to trust any of the others as one of them is the murderer, the highly strung Esther Sanson breaks out into hysterical laughter and keeps laughing until Nurse Woods slaps her across the face.
- Medication Tampering: The murderer paints a green cylinder of carbon dioxide to disguise it as a black-and-white cylinder of oxygen, so that when the anaesthetist Dr. Barnes administers oxygen to bring the patient round, he is actually giving them pure carbon dioxide, causing them to asphyxiate.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: 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 then collapses and dies; she had poisoned herself with the missing pills, and Eden was trying to give her the antidote.
- Obfuscating Postmortem Wounds: Esther Sanson catches Sister Bates with Sanson's paint-stained surgical gown which will prove she murdered Higgins and murders Bates. Realising that someone else is approaching and that she does not have to hide or destroy the gown, Sanson cuts out the incriminating stain and then dresses Bates in the gown and knife carefully stabs the knife through the hole and into Bates' body to disguise the missing piece of fabric.
- Repetitive Name: The anaesthetist, Dr. Barney Barnes.
- She Knows Too Much: Sister Bates claims to have evidence that Higgins was murdered, but before she can show anyone, she is stabbed to death herself by someone in a surgical gown.
- Sickbed Slaying: Higgins is murdered on the operating table, and the murderer later tries to to do the same to Freddi Linley. In both cases the method is the same: disguising a cylinder of carbon dioxide as a cylinder of oxygen, so that when the anaesthetist Dr. Barnes administers oxygen to bring the patient round, he is actually giving them pure carbon dioxide, causing them to asphyxiate.
- Spill Stain Sabotage: Esther Sanson catches Sister Bates with Sanson's paint-stained surgical gown which will prove she murdered Higgins and murders Bates. Realising that someone else is approaching and that she does not have to hide or destroy the gown, Sanson cuts out the incriminating stain and then dresses Bates in the gown and knife carefully places the knife through the hole to disguise it.
- Stab the Scorpion: Inspector Cockrill sees Mr. Eden secretly loading a syringe while Sanson is confessing. When Sanson flees the room, Eden follows them and tries to inject them with the syringe. Cockrill stops him from injecting her. Sanson then collapses and dies; she had poisoned herself with the missing pills, and Eden was trying to give her the antidote.
- Tokyo Rose: After the doodlebug blows up the warden station, the radio survives the explosion and is heard broadcasting Germany Calling where the female announcer is telling the British about the invincibility of Germany's V-1 rockets. The announcer is actually Nurse Woods twin sister.
- You Killed My Father: Esther Sanson's motive for murdering Higgins. Higgins had been the leader of the rescue team who searched the ruins of her mother's bombed house for three days before giving up. The day after, her mother was fiund alive, but died shortly after, and Sanson blamed Higgins for her death.
