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Uneasy Terms

1948 film by Vernon Sewell

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ7884160 ↗
Source-derived summary

Uneasy Terms is a 1948 British crime thriller film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Michael Rennie, Moira Lister and Faith Brook. It was written by Peter Cheyney based on his 1946 novel of the same title.

Premise

Slim Callaghan is a private eye whose client Colonel Stenhurst, is murdered, leaving behind a trail of suspects. Viola, the eldest of the Colonel's three stepdaughters, is the prime suspect, but after wading through clues and romance, Callaghan corners the real culprit.

Cast

Michael Rennie as Slim Callaghan

Moira Lister as Corinne Alardyse

Faith Brook as Viola Alardyse

Joy Shelton as Effie

Patricia Goddard as Patricia Alardyse

Barry Jones as Inspector Gringall

Marie Ney as Honoria Wymering

Paul Carpenter as Windy Nicholls

Nigel Patrick as Lucien Donnelly

Sydney Tafler as Maysin

J.H. Roberts as Sallins

Joan Carroll as Matron

Production

Cheyney was a best selling author at the time. Vernon Sewell wanted to make a film of Cheyney's Dark Duet but was assigned Uneasy Terms instead, the first in the Slim Callahan novels.

Sewell said Cheyney "had complete charge of casting and costumes, and script of course. He had choice of the world's stars." According to Sewell Cheyney insisted on Michael Rennie who the director thought "wasn't right for it". Swell also said that Cheyney also did not write the script. "I'm left on the, sometimes on the set with no script at all!

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Uneasy Terms” is 1948 film by Vernon Sewell. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Uneasy, Terms and film, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1948, 1946—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1948-01-01. For this dossier, Uneasy, Terms and film is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1948 film by Vernon Sewell” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7884160. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948 and 1946.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Tracing reception history
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Uneasy Terms”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Uneasy Terms primary sources, Uneasy Terms archive and Uneasy research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Uneasy Terms”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Uneasy Terms” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.