Waste of time

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

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Producers: Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman. (Available on a very good Odeon Entertainment DVD). A Tempean Production, made at Alliance Film Studios. Released in the U.S.A. through Kramer-Hyams Films. New York opening at the Normandie: 4 April 1953. U.K. release through Eros: 5 January 1953. Australian release through British Empire Films: 16 September 1954. Sydney opening as a support at the State Theatre. 7,581 feet. 84 minutes. Censored to 7,517 feet in Australia.U.S. release title: Murder Will Out. SYNOPSIS: Three people are suspected of a murder. One of them is a self-styled literary genius. Another is an unsuccessful writer who, in the course of the action, achieves great acclaim by reading his stories on the radio. Plot sound familiar? Indeed it is. It's an obvious variant on "The Unsuspected" directed and produced by Michael Curtiz at Warner Brothers in 1947, starring Claude Rains as the literary broadcaster.COMMENT: John Gilling's direction rates not quite as high on the inventive scale as usual, as he is a trifle too respectful to his own script — an ingeniously complicated thriller with a well- thought- out climax.Nonetheless, the acting throughout scores a commendably high standard, though the lovely Valerie Hobson is not always too attractively photographed.OTHER VIEWS: This long drawn-out murder mystery fails to keep up the suspense despite its many twists... Valerie Hobson goes through most of the film with a fixed, impish smile. — M.F.B.A slickly calculated whodunit, engrossing all the way... James Robertson Justice is excellent, Valerie Hobson is beautiful and sensitive in this tense, innuendo-filled, meticulously woven thriller. — A. H. Weiler in The New York Times.

This is a film populated with unlikable people — we can't even fully sympathize with Hugh(Edward Underdown) because he is too weak to resist a particular professional temptation — he clearly possesses SOME principles about this, but allows himself to be steamrollered in a fashion that strains credibility. James Robertson Justice's performance delivers a little fun, and his jaded character at least comes off more believably than anyone else's except perhaps his butler's. Valerie Hobson plays what is probably the single most unsympathetic role of her entire career, seemingly without fully realizing it. This film walks a rather uncertain wobbly line between noir and an awkward romantic story. In neither category does it "land" with any conviction, despite the calibre of the actors involved.While I didn't like anyone in the story and the entire proceeding feels highly incredible in every detail, I suppose it's still entertaining enough for one viewing if you've nothing better to do. It's a not unpleasant little diversion, attractively made but with little distinction to the story it is telling.

After an arresting opening murder scene, THE VOICE OF MERRILL soon becomes one of the stodgiest murder mysteries I've seen from Britain in the 1950s. It wasn't until the mid to late part of the decade that British thrillers started to become more influenced by the American film noir/crime thriller genre, thus incorporating more action and incident into the narratives.Certainly THE VOICE OF MERRILL comes across as a rather dated and ho-hum sort of film with a story that barely registers. The viewer is introduced to four separate characters, each of whom has a motive for committing the early murder: there's the up-and-coming author (played by THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED's Edward Underdown), the snobbish literary figure (played by James Robertson Justice, doing his best Orson Welles impersonation) and his wife, and the shifty publisher (Henry Kendall, of THE GHOST CAMERA fame).Much of this film seems to get bogged down in radio play material which doesn't really add anything, plus an unwelcome romantic sub-plot between Underdown and the wife character. The latter is played by the lovely Valerie Hobson (WEREWOLF OF London), still an alluring beauty some twenty years after she first came to fame. Sam Kydd has a larger supporting role than usual as one of the younger detectives investigating the case. John Gilling, who later became one of Hammer's go-to guys in the 1960s, could usually be relied upon to direct more entertaining produce than this.

The Voice of Merrill (AKA: Murder Will Out) is directed by John Gilling who also adapts the screenplay from a story written by Terence Austin and Gerald Landeau. It stars Valerie Hobson, James Robertson Justice, Edward Underdown, Gary Marsh and Henry Kendall. Music is by Frank Cordell and cinematography by Monty Berman.A British Who Done It? Thriller Out of Tempean Films, The Voice of Merrill begins with the murder of a pretty lady, the perpetrator unseen of course, and thus begins a tale of blackmail, illicit affairs, dastardly plotting, sleuthing and the vagaries of fate. It's a complex screenplay in many ways, perhaps unnecessary so, and Gilling strains to make all the threads amount to anything akin to suspense. However, once the momentum builds, and the net closes in on the suspects, the makers unleash some genuine surprises that in turn lead to a dramatic climax of some memorable impact. The acting is only OK, though it's always fun to see Robertson Justice doing one of his big bluff cantankerous acts. 6.5/10