Dance With A Stranger

Dark, haunting kichen-sink noir, deftly done; the life and death of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged for murder in England in 1955. The screenplay by Shelagh Delaney takes a few liberties for the sake of dramatic license but by and large keeps close to the real account. Miranda Richardson (playing Ellis), a divorcee and ex-hooker, now a "hostess" in a tawdry nightclub in Soho. Though she lives with Holm, he is more of a pal than a lover and also the surrogate father to her son, Carroll. Richardson falls obsessively in love with upper-class Everett, an immature cad. But the more she wants to be with Everett, the more he pushes her aside, both mentally and phy...