Maddyclassicfilms 23 Paces to Baker Street is directed by Henry Hathaway, has a screenplay by Nigel Balchin and is based on the novel by Philip MacDonald. The film stars Van Johnson, Vera Miles, Cecil Parker and Estelle Winwood.Phillip Hannon(Van Johnson)is a playwright who is extremely bitter having recently become permanently blind. Hannon lives in London, in a Thames side apartment with his loyal manservant Bob(Cecil Parker). Hannon's bad temper isn't helped when his former fiancé Jean(Vera Miles)stops by to see him, he doesn't want her to feel sorry for him and cannot understand that he can still have romance and be happy despite his loss of sight.One night in a pub, Hannon overhears a conversation that troubles him, he believes the two people were talking about kidnapping a child. Reporting what he heard to the police he is annoyed when they say they don't have enough evidence to do anything. Hannon, Bob and Jean do some investigating of their own. On the streets of a foggy London the trio try and find the couple from the pub and try and prevent a kidnapping.This film has a good spooky atmosphere, aided greatly by the London setting. Johnson does quite a good job as the bitter Hannon who can't let his suspicions go. Vera Miles is good as the loyal Jean, she is still in love with Hannon and is happy to be a part of Hannon's life, even if she can only be his friend and assistant. Cecil Parker steals every scene he's in as the loyal Bob.It is a good film even if the plot is somewhat far fetched. I always wonder what this story would have been like had Hitchcock directed it. The plot is one that would have made a perfect film for him and it would no doubt have become much more suspenseful than it is.

blanche-2 "23 Paces to Baker Street" from 1956 is an excellent film starring Van Johnson, Vera Miles, Cecil Barker, and Estelle Winwood.Filmed in London in color, and taking advantage of blocked funds (money earned in England that must be spent there), this is a somewhat Hitchkockian mystery directed by Henry Hathaway. It also has shades of the later "Wait Until Dark." Philip Hannon is a successful playwright living in London. Due to an accident, he is now blind and embittered -- so much so that he broke up with his fiancée, Jean (Vera Miles). Jean hasn't given up and shows up to say hello, and as a result, becomes involved in the mystery.While Hannon was in a local pub one night, he overhears a man and a woman talking. It sounds to him like the woman is being forced to commit a crime that is to take place on the tenth. When Philip returns home, he repeats the conversation into his tape recorder and then calls the authorities. They're not interested. Frustrated, with the help of Jean and his butler Bob (Cecil Barker), he endeavors to solve it himself.Really good film filled with suspense and true mystery. Some of the end will remind you a bit of "Wait Until Dark," and I wouldn't be surprised if the playwright had seen this film. It's basically the same premise: an innocent blind person caught in a web of terror.Van Johnson was always one of those actors I never paid a bit of attention to, on my Fred MacMurray list, as one of those bland actors who replaced the real stars during the war. I was wrong about both men. Johnson in fact had a genuine likability, charm, and warmth, and was a very good actor. I saw him in an interview once and he named all the actors of his type at MGM that tested for roles along with him, and how he always got the part and the others were ready to kill him. A somewhat troubled individual in his private life, it never showed on the screen. I thought he was wonderful in this.Vera Miles is lovely as Jean, the ex-fiancée who doesn't want Philip to give up on life.Highly recommended as one of those cozy British films to watch on a Sunday afternoon.

bkoganbing Van Johnson's highly developed senses of sound and odor go a long way in 23 Paces To Baker Street. Although there's no reference at all to Baker Street's most famous resident in literature, Johnson turns out to be quite the detective himself although he had two premises initially wrong. The blind Johnson is an American author living in London and keeping company with fellow expatriate Vera Miles. His only living companion is his valet Cecil Parker. While enjoying a drink at a nearby pub, he overhears what sounds like a criminal plot of kidnapping. Of course when he takes his suspicions to Scotland Yard they are understandably dubious.Without sight and not being able to write apparently even braille, Johnson records the conversation on his tape recorder and goes over and over it. What I liked about 23 Paces To Baker Street and Johnson's performance in it is that it shows Johnson making use of his other senses which in turn give him a kind of mission in life as opposed to being bitter about his fate. On the other hand he certainly has obvious vulnerabilities which the bad guys take advantage of. There is a harrowing scene in a bombed out building from the Blitz in which Johnson is nearly killed.Young Natalie Norwood as an unwilling participant in the plot is also a standout here. And Patricia Laffan who was both Poppaea in Quo Vadis and the Devil Girl From Mars is equally villainous here.Nice job all around with director Henry Hathaway getting great performances from Johnson, Miles, and the British cast supporting them.

grantch Now I will go to great trouble to avoid entering a spoiler like an earlier commenter. I give this film such a high rating because of the cleverness of toe concept: a blind man overhearing a conversation which indicates a crime is afoot. A tip of toe hat to the commentator who noticed the similarity between this movie and Argento's Cat O' Nine Tails ... a similarity that immediately crossed my mind the first time I saw the Argento flick. Anyway, 23 Paces to Baker Street could easily be an Argento giallo with the clever plot twists, but it lacks the gore most Argento fans want. I enjoyed 23P in 1956 when it was new and I was my voice had not changed. The plot twists and surprises have remained vividly in my memory for 50 years. Oddly I didn't notice a resemblance to Rear Window but I was very young then. I heartily recommend 23P to Baker Street. It's most suspenseful!