A Major Disappointment

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is one of the 369 films included in Micheal F Keaney's excellent British Film Noir Guide. He gives it three stars out of five. Originally made as theatrical B features, the Edgar Wallace titles, forty-seven in all, were sold as an anthology series to TV. If, like me, you were born in 1961 or thereabouts , they were a familiar late night treat back in pre-video days when there were only three channels. Not all of them, according to Keaney, qualify as noir. This one certainly does. John Carson plays the spurned lover of Justine Lord (who is given many close-ups by James Wilson's excellent camera) while Anthony Bate plays the justifiably wary husband. The plot is unusual, and the tension mounts, as Carson plays a dangerous psychological game. Twenty minutes in (the entire film is 62 minutes) you might think you know where this is going but the plot takes some interesting turns. Fans of British noir will enjoy it.