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September 1950
Something in the City is a 1950 British comedy film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Richard Hearne, Garry Marsh and Ellen Pollock. It includes an early uncredited performance by Stanley Baker as a police constable.
Storyline[]
Mr. Ningle has been living a lie for seven years by pretending to still be commuting to his financial services job in the City of London from which he had been sacked. Every day, he journeys in and changes into the disguise of his alter ego: an artist who sells paintings on the pavement in Trafalgar Square.
His life is thrown into turmoil when his deception is nearly discovered by Mr. Holley, the father of his daughter Beryl's new fiancé, Richard. The father happens to be the managing editor of the Evening Courier newspaper, and worried about his prospective in-laws. A series of misunderstandings lead to the mistaken belief that Ningle has been murdered by "Arty the artist", leading to a massive police manhunt. Ningle manages to stage a fake suicide for Arty, while he reappears and pretends he had amnesia for the past 48 hours.
When Holley publishes an offer of a large sum to Arty by way of apology (having heard that he committed suicide), Ningle cannot resist "resurrecting" the artist, but Holley now suspects the truth. Ningle manages to outmanoeuvre him, however, and presents the money to Beryl and Richard, enabling them to marry despite the opposition of Richard's parents.