The greatest movie ever made..!

not as good as all the hype

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

*Possible Spoilers*A successful businessman called Lee Warren (Eric Portman) arrives home from a business trip in New York and discovers that his wife Vivien (Greta Gynt) has been having an affair with the barrister Richard Fenton (Dennis Price). Insanely jealous, Warren confronts Fenton and forces him to write a letter to Vivien terminating the affair before killing him by putting his head in the gas oven and arranging it to look like suicide. But, immediately afterwards, Warren learns that the affair had been over for sometime and his bid to make his crime appear to be suicide on account of that will seem ludicrous to the police. Vivien is a habitually unfaithful wife, however, and quickly found a new lover in Jimmy Martin (Maxwell Reed) so Warren frames him for the crime - killing two birds with one stone, you might say - removing suspicion from himself and getting rid of his wife's latest fancy man. Inspector Pembury (Jack Warner) promptly arrests Martin for the murder, but Vivien begs her husband to intercede on his behalf promising to be loyal to him from now on. Warren, an extremely intelligent and cunning man, devises a scheme to exonerate Martin and divert suspicion away from himself, but Pembury believes that Warren is the real killer only he cannot make anything stick against him unlike Martin who is awaiting trial and would likely be found guilty and face the gallows. However, Warren proves to be too clever for his own good when he underestimates his wife who, apart from being unfaithful is also extremely despising and devious, turns his own ingenious murder method against him. But, will a twist of fate also see her come unstuck?Elegantly mounted Gainsborough-produced murder thriller, which features a clever plot that succeeds in sustaining an audience's interest from beginning to end even though it does betray its stage origins from time to time. The screenplay co-authored by producer and executive producers Betty Box and Sidney Box and Peter Rogers (who would later produce the Carry On series) is well structured and enables the film's director, Arthur Crabtree, to generate some edge of seat suspense as we know that Eric Portman will eventually come unstuck, but we can never quite figure out how and the denouement when it comes is sufficiently satisfying and what has been a good build up hasn't lead to a big let down as too often happens in thrillers. Eric Portman has fun in the leading role as the husband displaying his character's pathological jealously as well as his arrogance and cunning with considerable gusto. Meanwhile, Greta Gynt offers a good performance as his unfaithful, despising but equally cunning wife who brings about his downfall as well as her own. She provides a vivid essay of a sociopath and the look on her face when she learns of Fenton's death and delights in the fact that she believes he committed suicide for her is priceless. It cannot be said that Portman and Gynt offer realistic portrayals as a couple trapped in a marriage from hell, however, since they are both over the top, but they sure are fun! The rest of the cast is no less impressive with Maxwell Reed, who is best known today because he was once married to Joan Collins, offering a better performance than one usually associates with him - he was often inclined to woodenness - as Gynt's lover accused of murder and Jack Warner offers the first of many portrayals as a police inspector, something that would bring him great fame as Dixon of Dock Green. The film benefits from the b/w cinematography of Stephen Dade, which gives the production a noirish feel that suits this kind of plot very well and a good sense of atmosphere and place as well.

Would you really do anything for the one you love? She's beautiful, your wife and you've just found out that she's been having an affair while you've been away. You've come up with an idea of the "perfect murder". It's going to plan... or is it? This is a really clever plot, you the murderer are getting a two for one deal because you've just found out your wife has been two timing her lover. The police will never suspect you or if they do what are the chances of proving that you did it. There is a great sub-plot which I never saw coming; my evil mind was not focused.

Dear Murderer is directed by Arthur Crabtree and collectively adapted to screenplay by Muriel Box, Sydney Box and Peter Rogers from the play by St. John Leigh Clowes. It stars Eric Portman, Greta Gynt, Dennis Price, Maxwell Reed, Jack Warner, Hazel Court and Jane Hylton. Out of Gainsborough Pictures, music is by Benjamin Frankel and cinematography by Stephen Dade.Lee Warren (Portman), consumed by jealousy over his wife's unfaithfulness, believes he has executed the perfect murder, however, he hadn't bargained on another one of his wife's lovers entering the fray. But sensing a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, he executes another cunning plan…Perhaps he's Adolf Hitler in disguise? He's about the right height.A wonderfully twisty British thriller, Dear Murderer enjoys giving off a whiff of unpleasantness as it enthrals from the get go. Classic Brit staples are in place for this type of thriller, a vengeful man, harlot woman, intrepid copper and male suitors caught in a trap. Construction is as such, that it's initially hard to actually get on side with any of the principal characters, but one of the film's many delights is in how it constantly alters the trajectory of sympathy towards the actual murderer! It helps as well that the story doesn't rest on its laurels, this is not merely about one murder, and about one man trying to get away with that murder, it's about more than that. There's a lot of talking going on, but it's all relevant to actions that are soon to follow, so when the flip-flops arrive, we are fully prepared and immersed in the devilish goings on.Arthur Crabtree (Madonna of the Seven Moons) is something of an unsung director from the British classic era, where often he has been termed workmanlike and steady. Yet he was able to make much suspense and atmosphere from the most basic of set-ups. He also was a good director of actors, as evidenced here with the performances he gets out of Portman (calm, calculated and cunning) and Gynt (a wonderful slinky femme fatale dressed up to the nines). While in conjunction with photographer Dade (Zulu), he puts period Gothic noir tints on proceedings, especially on the exteriors where darkness, shadows and gaslights imbues murky machinations of plot. There's a big leap of faith required to accept one critical turn of events entering the home straight, but ultimately the finale is not damaged by it, for here a black heart beats strong. Splendid. 8/10

A day or so ago I commented on the film (made only a few years after wards) that somehow resembles this one: FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG. The basic story is of two ill-matched people who are in a marriage from hell. FOOTSTEPS was about a Victorian gentleman who murders his first wife, only to be blackmailed into marrying his socially ambitious maid, and how he starts conspiring to get rid of her as well. The problem with FOOTSTEPS was a lack of decently spirited direction. It lacked spark and pace, and gets boring. The cast tries, but it does not help enough. Not so with DEAR MURDERER. Unlike FOOTSTEPS (which was a Hollywood product - so it had to be burdened by larger budgets, and needed vervier directing), DEAR MURDERER is typical of the success story of British cinema - how with a concentration on minimal effect their films are sharper than bloated productions like FOOTSTEPS . The plot is also more devious.In FOOTSTEPS Jean Simmons' ambitions help destroy her and Steward Granger. But one can easily understand where she is coming from, as we tend to sympathize with people trying to pull themselves out of lower classes into upper classes. But this is dented because she is a blackmailer (though Granger's misdeed deserves such a punishment). Here, Eric Portman is married to a perpetual flirt (Greta Gynt) who despises him. She has been carrying on with Dennis Price, and Portman decides to kill Price. Yet, even in the process of doing just that, Portman gets to know his victim, and realizes that if he had not been sleeping with his wife Price could have been a good friend of his. So his guilt is increased when he discovers that Gynt and Price had broken up their relationship shortly before the murder.See: the story is still melodramatic, but the characterization is more interesting. So is the difference regarding Gynt's personae, as opposed to her opposite number in FOOTSTEPS. Simmons is socially ambitions, but the audience can accept that. Gynt is sluttish and also unlikeable. She is tired about the marriage to Portman (who does, misguidedly, love Gynt), and eventually wonders how she can end it - quickly. The film speeds to it's conclusion. If one dislikes Portman's Nazi in 49TH PARALLEL (his best remembered performance), his performance here certainly makes up for his totally unsympathetic villainy there. I have no problem recommending this film to the readers of these reviews. And of recommending it over FOOTSTEP IN THE FOG to them as well.