James Neville (Dane Clark), the MD of Amalgamated Industries, is double crossed on a business deal by the archaeologist Cyrus McGowan (Howard Marion Crawford) leaving his firm on the brink of bankruptcy. He arranges to have himself killed so that his wife Andrea (Thea Gregory) can claim his substantial life insurance. He blackmails his friend Paul Kirby (Paul Carpenter) into committing the crime over a murder he undertook some years ago. Neville testified at his trial that it was self defence and was acquitted as a result, but the deceased's widow has since sent him some letters proving that it was actually murder one. Neville has put them into a sealed envelope with instructions that they are to be delivered to the police should he still be alive within forty eight hours. Naturally, he has arranged what should be a watertight alibi for his would be assassin. However, in a strange twist of fate, McGowan announces that their deal is back on and Neville is now faced with the dilemma of finding his killer before he can kill him. The trouble is, he has vanished. Aided by his loyal secretary, Joan Peterson (Cecile Chevreau), who is madly in love with him, he sets out to find Kirby. Several attempts are made on Neville's life before he visits his girlfriend at a Soho pub where she works and he learns that he has skipped the country as a result of getting cold feet over their contract. So who is using the contract for their own ends and who else could have known about it?...
A British crime noir with a fanciful yet undeniably ingenious plot. On the downside, you will not have too much trouble in working out who Dane Clark's would be assassin is, but this is a very rewarding entertainment nonetheless. It quite convincingly recreates the style and atmosphere of American film noir thanks to the solid and sympathetic direction of Montgomery Tully, the excellent b/w camerawork of veteran Walter Harvey and strong performances from the leads - especially Dane Clark.
* Caution - very large spoilers in the next paragraph.*
He plays his part with a real depth of feeling alternating between ruthless brutality in the way he blackmails and bullies his friend into committing his own murder and his loving devotion towards his wife. Despite being a workaholic and letting his high powered job take him over, which means he seldom ever gets time to spend with her, he worships the ground she treads on and, so it seems, vice versa. She sticks with him through thick and thin and the reason Neville devised his elaborate plot was so that he could leave her well provided for and spare her the damage of the scandal and embarrassment that would have surely resulted had the company gone under as a result of him. When he finally finds out that his beloved wife has betrayed him and has a new lover in the form of one of his business partners Peter Glanville (Anthony Forwood) who both plot to kill him using his own contract he refuses to believe it. In the climatic shoot out in which Andrea is accidentally shot dead, he looks down at her and is deeply devastated. He gently picks up her body off of the floor and carries her back into the house saying "I mustn't leave her here, its dark, its not right" suggesting that he will still miss her and love her deeply in spite of everything. Cecile Chevreau is quite good as Joan, although her stern, bossy and schoolteachery character risks becoming off putting, and the look of envy and despair on her face as Neville picks up his wife's body and lovingly caressing it as he takes it indoors is priceless. Indeed, as the film ends we are invited to think that Joan probably did get her man, and that in the best film noir tradition, probably lived a disastrous relationship since she would have been overshadowed by Andrea even though she is dead. Room for a sequel? No, the fact that it is left for the audience to ponder the futures of the main protagonists is more fun and adds to the film's overall impact. Thea Gregory also offers a fine performance as Clark's wife and makes the perfect femme fatale.
All in all, the film succeeds as an atmospheric and diverting triangle of love, deceit, treachery and murder that comes off a whole lot better than I was expecting it to. I am a follower of veteran British 'B' picture director Montgomery Tully's work and this, I think, stands as one of his better offerings. It makes us regret that after his 'A' film career faltered in the late forties that he would remain within the quota quickie industry for the remainder of his career. This is actually an early Hammer film (made in their Exclusive days) and, from the films from this era of their history that I have been able to see, it seemed they tried for quality even when making b-pics and more often than not got it.
A British crime noir with a fanciful yet undeniably ingenious plot. On the downside, you will not have too much trouble in working out who Dane Clark's would be assassin is, but this is a very rewarding entertainment nonetheless. It quite convincingly recreates the style and atmosphere of American film noir thanks to the solid and sympathetic direction of Montgomery Tully, the excellent b/w camerawork of veteran Walter Harvey and strong performances from the leads - especially Dane Clark.
* Caution - very large spoilers in the next paragraph.*
He plays his part with a real depth of feeling alternating between ruthless brutality in the way he blackmails and bullies his friend into committing his own murder and his loving devotion towards his wife. Despite being a workaholic and letting his high powered job take him over, which means he seldom ever gets time to spend with her, he worships the ground she treads on and, so it seems, vice versa. She sticks with him through thick and thin and the reason Neville devised his elaborate plot was so that he could leave her well provided for and spare her the damage of the scandal and embarrassment that would have surely resulted had the company gone under as a result of him. When he finally finds out that his beloved wife has betrayed him and has a new lover in the form of one of his business partners Peter Glanville (Anthony Forwood) who both plot to kill him using his own contract he refuses to believe it. In the climatic shoot out in which Andrea is accidentally shot dead, he looks down at her and is deeply devastated. He gently picks up her body off of the floor and carries her back into the house saying "I mustn't leave her here, its dark, its not right" suggesting that he will still miss her and love her deeply in spite of everything. Cecile Chevreau is quite good as Joan, although her stern, bossy and schoolteachery character risks becoming off putting, and the look of envy and despair on her face as Neville picks up his wife's body and lovingly caressing it as he takes it indoors is priceless. Indeed, as the film ends we are invited to think that Joan probably did get her man, and that in the best film noir tradition, probably lived a disastrous relationship since she would have been overshadowed by Andrea even though she is dead. Room for a sequel? No, the fact that it is left for the audience to ponder the futures of the main protagonists is more fun and adds to the film's overall impact. Thea Gregory also offers a fine performance as Clark's wife and makes the perfect femme fatale.
All in all, the film succeeds as an atmospheric and diverting triangle of love, deceit, treachery and murder that comes off a whole lot better than I was expecting it to. I am a follower of veteran British 'B' picture director Montgomery Tully's work and this, I think, stands as one of his better offerings. It makes us regret that after his 'A' film career faltered in the late forties that he would remain within the quota quickie industry for the remainder of his career. This is actually an early Hammer film (made in their Exclusive days) and, from the films from this era of their history that I have been able to see, it seemed they tried for quality even when making b-pics and more often than not got it.