Dance with a Stranger

Dance with a Stranger

Film poster
Directed by Mike Newell
Produced by Roger Randall-Cutler
Written by Shelagh Delaney
Starring Miranda Richardson
Rupert Everett
Music by Richard Hartley
Theme song by Mari Wilson
Distributed by 20th Century Fox (UK)
The Samuel Goldwyn Company (USA)
Release dates
 1 March 1985 (UK)
Running time
 102 min.
Language English
Budget £1,360,000[1]
Box office £850,000 (UK)
$3 million (US)
$1 million (other territories)[1]

Dance with a Stranger is a 1985 British drama film, directed by Mike Newell. Telling the story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain in the 1950s, this moving biographical British film won critical acclaim, and brought particular notice to the careers of both Miranda Richardson and Rupert Everett. The screenplay was by Shelagh Delaney, author of A Taste of Honey, and her third major screenplay. The story of Ellis, which this film dramatises, has very considerable resonance in Britain since it provided part of the background to the long-term national debates which eventually led to the effective abolition of capital punishment in 1965.

The theme song "Would You Dance With a Stranger" was performed by Mari Wilson, and provided her with a hit single in the same year.

Cast

Reception

The film made a comfortable profit.[1]

Awards

Mike Newell won Award of the Youth at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival for Dance with a Stranger. Miranda Richardson won Best Actress at the Evening Standard British Film Awards, while Ian Holm won Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 1985 for this and other films.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Borne, Nigel. "Little film little profit." Sunday Times [London, England] 26 Jan. 1986: 31. The Sunday Times Digital Archive. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.

External links