Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Julia Arnell, a high-priced model, is murdered when she accidentally interrupts a diamond heist while returning her dress to the fashion shop. The remainder of the movie is seeing if the bad guys are going to get caught and how Keith Andes, who has been falsely accused, will clear himself. Michael Gough and Edwin Richfield have great chemistry as the bad guys. Hazel Court and Jean Aubrey are cute as sisters helping Andes clear himself. The movie itself while having an interesting plot lacks suspense or tension. The musical score is horrible. Okay as a time waster.

An American comes to London to look for the girl friend of his dead brother.He finds her modeling in a haute culture salon.Unfortunately for her she interrupts thieves looting the safe of diamonds on behalf of the crooked boss of the salon.The American is knocked out trying to confront the thieves and to nobody's great surprise he is suspected by the police of having committed the murder.As is usual in these type of films he is at the forefront of bringing the gang to justice.Despite the best efforts of both Michael Gough and Hazel Court this film never raises the level of excitement above mediocre at best.Too much of this film seems to have been borrowed from similar films of the same era.

Cult stars of horror films, Hazel Court and Michael Gough, have leading roles in this thriller, set in the glamorous world of haute couture. Gough is Kingsley Beauchamp, head of a West End fashion house, who's planning to steal some valuable jewellery that's on loan to him. Keith Andes is the American Merchant Navy officer visiting the salon to meet his late brother's girlfriend, played by Julia Arnall. Returning an expensive dress, borrowed for her night out, she surprises the robbers in the act and is fatally stabbed by Beauchamp's chauffeur. Guess who's then fitted-up for the murder? For a thriller, this is acutely lacking in pace and tension and so doesn't really work. The cast are some compensation for this, however. Keith Andes gives a strong performance in the lead, bringing some credibility to the sort of character the script has lying shocked and injured in hospital, then immediately tearing around all over London, despite being a total stranger in the city. There's the poise, allure and glamour of Hazel Court and Julia Arnall; Patricia Jessel as Beauchamp's designer and associate, Madame Dupont, good old Edwin Richfield playing the murderous chauffeur, Alfred Burke as a crooked bod named Podd, and not least, Michael Gough himself in full villainous mode. Hence my slightly generous rating.

It's a movie among hundred of others that I have just seen. And I absolutely want to comment it before the story erases itself out of my mind.I had not this problem with such little master pieces such as PRIZE OF ARMS or ROBBERY; perhaps because they were both starring Stanley Baker?Yes, sir. This topic about an innocent bystander accused of both a jewel robbery and murder is flat, boring, tepid at the most. And so long...Even if the running time is only 73mn. And the great - and poor - Michael Gough can't save it. What a shame.But I won't argue any longer. I know that many UK thrillers from this decade are often in this scheme.And, whatever I tell about them, I'll continue to watch these movies.