Wow! Such a good movie.

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

MURDER AT 3AM is a short and cheap British crime film, directed by the one and only Francis Searle - a man who made more low budget films than any other, seemingly. I wonder what he would have done with a real budget? This stolid little film is notable only for featuring a lead role for Dennis Price, one of the biggest name stars to appear in one of Searle's films.The story is about a serial killer on the loose who makes a habit of murdering women on the street at precisely 3 am. The police desperately search for patterns and soon discover links to a local shipyard and gradually - very gradually - they work to bringing the murderer to justice.Sadly, MURDER AT 3AM just isn't very good as a crime film. The crime aspects are kept limited and the police procedural stuff is by rote. Price can do nothing with his part and only Leonard Sharp shines as the booze-addled old skipper who helps to solve the crime. The finale features a silly plot twist which is impossible to take seriously.

Scotland Yard is baffled (aren't they always??) by a series of attacks on wealthy women, each of the victims are seen leaving exclusive clubs, they are tracked to their homes where they are then left for dead after being robbed of their valuables. This nifty little crime drama throws the viewer in at the deep end instantly, a woman is murdered, the clock strikes 3 am and a rather nervous man is trying to explain why he was late again to his annoyed girl friend. He goes home when, in the shadowy room, a girl's arm is seen draped over a chair!! Conventionality kicks in and the man is revealed as a policeman and the girl, his sister, who has stayed up to tell him of her engagement to a moody crime writer.Quota quickies had been around since the 1930s as part of a British drive to boost the flagging film industry but after the war, ticket prices dropped in an effort to once again get people back to the cinemas. But the public wanted more and the question was asked "What's on with it"!! A lot of the time cheap films looked exactly what they were but occasionally terrific little movies came along and "Murder at 3am" was one of them.Whilst the cast is a small one, everyone looms as a suspect. Teddy, Joan's fiancé, being a crime writer hits upon a novel approach and the police are willing to listen to any lead!! With each woman seen leaving a different club, by spelling out the first letters of each club, it begins to give the police a clue as to where the killer will strike next - the only trouble is he doesn't!! Inspector Peter Lawton (who is still a suspect in the viewer's eyes as played by a debonair Dennis Price) is wondering - could it be Teddy or even an inside job!! Suddenly one of the survivors identifies a photo slipped into an identikit by an over-zealous constable and the action accelerates.The big surprise for me is that this was Peggy Evan's last film. She was not only in the almost cult "quota quickie" "Penny and the Pownall Case"(1947) but was memorable as Dirk Bogarde's increasingly anxious girl friend in "The Blue Lamp" (1950). These two should have given her a reasonable career but she only made 10 movies. She did live a long life but retired way too early!

Inspector Lawton (Dennis Price) and Sgt Todd (Rex Garner) investigate a series of murders, in which well off young women are being attacked and robbed after leaving London's trendy nightclubs in the wee small hours. Lawton's younger sister, Joan (Peggy Evans) is engaged to be married to a hard up novelist called Teddy King (Philip Saville) and Lawton is shocked when the evidence points to him as being the killer. However, in a showdown at the docks, it transpires that Teddy has a twin brother who turns out to be the culprit.Overall, Murder At 3AM is a competent British b-pic that more than served its purpose at the time - to fill the lower half of the double bill and to enable British studios to fill their quota of movies, which The Cinematograph Act of 1927 passed by parliament stated they had to produce. Films like this became known as quota-quickies for that reason and the greater majority of them had a reputation for being awful but from time to time you did get the odd gem that sometimes outshone the main feature. This particular film was released as the supporting feature to Genevieve in 1953. I remember reading a review for this film somewhere stating that it was among the worst of these films made at that time but having seen it I would say that it was competent and entertaining if only in an undemanding way. Mainly because the story is simply your run-of-the-mill murder mystery and there is nothing for which the film can claim any originality and the motive behind the crimes when it comes leaves you thinking "Yeah so what?" I was attracted to it because of the presence of the late but great Dennis Price who sadly gets very little to do here in the role of a Scotland Yard detective but then again the film did not really demand much. The film's best performance comes from Leonard Sharp in a light comedy relief role as an elderly sailor who assists Lawton in tracking down the killer's hideout on the docks. But Old Skip is only willing to help when he is bribed with brandy from Sgt Lawton's hip flask who is annoyed when at the end of it he has none left for himself. The film was directed by quota-quickie specialist, Francis Searle, who keeps the proceedings moving along at a brisk pace ensuring that the audience was kept mildly entertained for the hour and it does not looked as rushed as a number of these pictures all too often did.

A nice little British thriller with an interesting plot and a good cast but a bit rough round the edges. Look out for (well you can't really miss) the super-sized calendar on the wall in Inspector Lawton's (Dennis Price's) office displaying the date - NOV 11. It was obviously made that way to draw attention to the date, but it's a big TOO big, suggesting that Scotland Yard were all short-sighted. Character actor Leonard Sharp overdoes it somewhat as brandy-guzzling 'Old Skip' who despite his boast that he operates and lives on a boat appears to reside in an old shed. Philip Savile gets to play two parts who are supposed to be half-brothers (not twins) but look exactly the same, except one (the villain) wears a beret - so he must be up to no good! The ending is somewhat rushed, and a bit bizarre, where the bad brother is overpowered the other (even though the brother is wearing handcuffs) and then falls through a window and lands in The Thames but no one bothers to go after him. Perhaps they were planning a sequel?