Dance With a Stranger is directed by Mike Newell and written by Shelagh Delaney. It stars Miranda Richardson, Rupert Everett, Ian Holm, Stratford Johns and Joanne Whalley. Theme song is by Mari Wilson and cinematography by Peter Hannan.On Easter Sunday 1955, Ruth Ellis shot and killed her lover David Blakely. Wednesday 13th July 1955, Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be executed in Great Britain.Dance With a Stranger is a beautifully delicate film, producing what could have been a thorny issue movie, director Newell and his team stay clear of moralising or judgemental narrative smarts. They instead unspool an insightful film about a tragic crime of passion, a crossed classes love affair that ultimately spelt doom for both of the ill equipped parties.Sticking mostly to the real facts, with only some dramatic license inevitably taken, pic harnesses themes of lust, jealousy, dark passion and obsession, played out to a 50s London backdrop of underworld movers and club dwelling shakers. It's a sad story, even sordid at times, but it never once reaches for the sensationalist option.Though we are deprived of the court case and execution closure; and in fact the aftermath of the hanging which gnawed away at the conscience of a post-war Britain, it's a film that shows all that it needs to show. This wants us to look at the human beings involved, and then it asks us to draw our own conclusions about the principal players.Excellently performed by Richardson and Holm, and superbly mounted by Newell and his technical crew, this is cinema for grown ups and one of the best British movies of the decade. 9/10

A grim slice of 1950s Britain is expertly recreated in Mike Newell's film 'Dance with a Stranger'. Miranda Richardson gives an expertly judged performance as Ruth Ellis, an ageing nightclub hostess whose desire to keep a little glamour in her life, coupled with a powerful mutual sexual attraction, led her into a relationship with a man who, while not exactly evil, was utterly self-absorbed and prone to intermittent violence. The story ends in murder, and Ellis is now famous as the last woman to be executed in Great Britain. Obviously, the film is sympathetic to her, and while her victim scarcely deserves death, the tale is compelling; and it makes one wonder how many of those killed by the state may have done a terrible thing, but may also have had a tale of their own. Some will argue that in cases such as these, there is no alternative in judgement but to assign absolute individual responsibility; personally, I think it's a more civilised country that retains the capacity to forgive.

Miranda Richardson is her usual brilliant self in "Dance with a Stranger," a 1985 film telling the true story of Ruth Ellis and David Blakeley. Blakeley was a rich young race car driver who becomes involved in a obsessive, passionate, and often violent relationship with night club hostess Ellis. It leads to tragedy.The scandal took place in the '50s, and the atmosphere of the time is captured beautifully here, and the film is well directed by Mike Newell. The acting is beyond flawless, with perfect performances by Ian Holm as the passive man who supported Ruth, Desmond Cussen, Rupert Everett as the self-centered Blakeley, and Richardson, one of the truly great actresses of our time, as Ruth. I'm not certain why Richardson's name isn't uttered along with that of Helen Mirren's or Meryl Streep's. She's a true chameleon. No one can ever equal her supporting performance in "Damage" - I don't really care that someone else won the Oscar! Here she gives a fully fleshed-out portrait of the unapologetic, tough, sexy Ellis.The script has some disappointments - one of which is, we don't get to the real story until the last minutes of the film - it's not really told, in fact - so obviously, that wasn't considered the real story by screenwriter Shelagh Delaney. The problem is that Ellis' situation was very controversial, and if you know it, you sit through the movie waiting for that part to begin. If you don't, well, then I guess you won't miss it.The purpose of "Dance with a Stranger" is to show what led up to the tragedy, which includes the class-consciousness of British society. In doing so, it leaves out the possible involvement of the Ian Holm character, Cussen, in what actually happened. Still, thanks to the strong acting, the story is fascinating, and these real characters come to life.

Understandably, most of the attention went to Miranda Richardson's virtuoso performance as Ruth when this film first appeared, and time has done nothing to dim what must be one of the truly great female performances. Richardson's brilliance is in never taking a quick shortcut to sympathy for Ellis: she makes her selfish, vulgar and cruel, as well as vulnerable, haunted and uncertain. It's a stunning performance. It's worth noting though, that both Ian Holm and Rupert Everett are also excellent as the two men between whom Ruth vacillates. The design is inch-perfect: no love letter to the past, but a visceral recreation of a glamorous world with an unpleasant "backstage" and the script is magnificent: suggesting that Ruth's real crime is not murder, but not knowing - and sticking to - her place in 1950s British society. A cracking film.