Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

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.

Blistering performances.

Paul Decker (Peter Van Eyck) has come up with a unique way to murder his wife. He drugs her drink, seals the room she's in from the inside, and turns on the gas. Decker then puts on a snorkel connected to fresh air and hides in a crawlspace under the floor. Once his wife's body is found and the police complete their investigation, he climbs from his hiding spot and goes on as if nothing happened. Everything seems to be going perfectly for Decker until his stepdaughter, Candy Brown (Mandy Miller), starts to question Decker's role in her mother's death. Everyone tells Candy she's imagining things, but she's certain Decker is a killer. Can she prove it in time?Hammer is known for their vibrant color films, but when they did black and white (Paranoiac, Scream of Fear, and Nightmare for example), the results were just as solid. The Snorkel is an excellent little thriller. While there's no question as to whether or not Decker killed his wife, the fun comes in watching Candy try to prove it before Decker does her in. van Eyck is amazing. He does more with a look than most actors can with a page of dialogue. You can just see how bad he wants to kill Candy without ever having to say a word. I also enjoyed the supporting performance of Betta St. John. I'm really surprised to see she didn't do more with her career. Technically, the film is also rock solid. The cinematography is stunning. Guy Green's direction is what I'd call professional. He keeps the film moving at a nice pace. And the locations are beautiful. Most Hammer films seem so much more stage-bound than The Snorkel. Finally, I love the film's finale. I won't spoil it, but it's brilliant. Overall, it's a terrific film. My biggest complaint comes from the lack of thoroughness displayed by the police. Had the police spent more than five minutes at the crime scene, they absolutely would have found Decker hiding under the floor. It's a real lack of logic that hurts the overall movie. Still, a solid 7/10 from me.

In 1968, when I was nine years old, I was about 10 minutes from the end of this gripping Hammer psycho-thriller on Anglia Television when my father amused himself by suddenly packing me off to bed. It's taken me forty-nine years, but tonight I finally got to see the ending of this film.Hammer's psychological thrillers of the early sixties are usually deemed sub-Hitchcock copies of 'Psycho'; but since 'The Snorkel' was released a full two years before 'Psycho' their inspiration is more obviously Henri-Georges Clouzot's 'Les Diaboliques' (1955), from the mystery novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narjejac, who also wrote the book on which 'Vertigo' was based. (Peter van Eyck, the evil stepfather in 'The Snorkel', actually starred in Clouzot's previous film, 'Le Salaire de la Peur'.) 'The Snorkel' was the last film lead played by the unique Mandy Miller, then 13, whose dramatically arched eyebrows and full lips render her still recognisable as the pretty little deaf & dumb girl from Ealing Studio's classic 'Mandy' (1952). Already convinced that her mother is simply the second of her two parents to be murdered by Van Eyck, a poster of Cousteau's 'Le Monde du Silence' provides her with the clue she needs as to how he did it, and she enters with gusto into a game of cat and mouse with her wicked stepfather. Thus provoked, Van Eyck puts on his striped jersey and rubber gloves again, slips her a Mickey Finn, seals off all the windows and doors and turns on the gas, and then...It's taken me nearly fifty years to find out what happened next, but it's a beaut!

Poor Candy Brown (Mandy Miller). She cannot get anybody to believe her. She's 100% certain that her cold blooded stepfather Paul Decker (Peter van Eyck) has murdered her mother, despite the evidence seeming to indicate that the woman committed suicide. Mandy, who also believes in her heart that Paul had similarly murdered her father once upon a time, sticks to her guns. But the adults around her keep stubbornly insisting that she *must* be making all of this up.It's easy to be on Candy's side here. With so many thick headed adult characters, you truly feel her frustration and desperation. Will she ever obtain the proof she needs that Paul is a creep? People like her chaperone Jean Edwards (Betta St. John, "The City of the Dead"), Mr. Wilson (William Franklyn), or the hearty police inspector (Gregoire Aslan) refuse to take her seriously, even though she doesn't seem to be the sort of girl who'd be prone to flights of fancy.The suspense lies not in a "did he or didn't he" scenario - we see Paul murder Candy's mother in the quiet, ingenious opening set piece. The title object plays a pivotal role. Rather, the tension arises in Candy's predicament, and whether or not she'll be vindicated before the evil Paul strikes again. And we know it's possible. The looks he keeps giving her show that he thinks that he'll have to kill her just to shut her up.Efficient direction by Oscar winning cinematographer Guy Green ("Great Expectations", 1946) and sharp black & white photography make this a fine entertainment, as well as strong performances from all concerned. Miller makes Candy a sympathetic character, and with his facial features van Eyck was obviously a natural for screen villainy.This viewer would suggest that fans of Hammer horror give features like this a try, just to show that the famed British studio wasn't just a one trick pony.Seven out of 10.

Sensitive Mandy Miller was Britain's top child star of the 1950s (until Hayley Mills came along) and really dazzled critics in her (almost) first film "Mandy". While she never again gave such an outstanding performance and left films while still a teenager, "The Snorkel" (suprisingly her last feature film) will always be remembered as a career highlight if only for it's gimmicky slant on the old "locked door" murder mystery. Anthony Dawson, well known for his villainous roles (especially as Ray Milland's former school fellow in "Dial M For Murder") provided the story and some really nice locations were used at the Villa della Pergola and Savona and Liguria, along the Italian Riviera.Candy is convinced her step father Paul (Van Eyck) has killed her mother, just as she believes he killed her father but no one believes her. She is right though, as viewers see in a gripping start to the movie - he does it by making it look like suicide by being able to stay in the room via a trap door under the rug and by being able to breath through a snorkel. And that is what the police can't get past - if he did somehow manage to kill Candy's mother, how did he breathe? Smart Candy starts to figure it out immediately, especially when she sees a poster advertising the joys of snorkeling.This is an excellent "why won't anyone believe me?" story really helped by the main character's (Candy) resourcefulness and determination. Candy realises she will have to dig up proof on her own - starting with Paul's passport, if, as he claims, he was in France at the time, his passport would be stamped right??? Actually Toto, Candy's little cocker spaniel is right on to things - finding the trap door and back at the hotel ferreting out Paul's snorkel. It seems wherever Paul hides it playful Toto fetches - by the look on Paul's face things are not looking too good for Toto. Jean (Betta St. John), Candy's governess, is around but she is no use as she has come under Paul's spell and is viewing Candy more and more as a troubled young girl.The last ten minutes are nail bitingly suspenseful. Paul decides to go to France, to get away from Candy's relentless accusations but his hotel is only just over the border, giving him all the time in the world to return at night to murder whoever he likes and he does slip back via ----!!! He has lured Candy to the villa by impersonating a policeman over the phone and she almost becomes victim no. 4 but Jean, in an unusual case of the smarts, has alerted people that Candy may have gone to the villa to take her own life!!No one could play the cold as ice killer better than Peter Van Eyck, with his startling blonde crew cut and menacing manner. He is not particularly cool, calm and collected when he realises he may be trapped under the floor boards and only Candy is there to hear his muffled cries. But she then does a "Gaslight" with her "it's just my imagination, it must be!!" Will she alert authorities or keep that detached look on her face all the way to the airport???