Now I knew the story of this film, because I'd read the novel it was based on, so the unmasking of the villain was no surprise. (And mindful of 'spoilers' I'm not going to say who it was here.) But what really makes this ingenious detective film stand out, is its brilliant script by Val Guest shifting the setting from Massachusets to Brighton, it is as tight as a drum, plays absolutely fair with the audience, and is a model of crispness and authority. The actors respond in kind, all performances are superb, but I must single out the ever reliable Michael Goodliffe, so good in everything he appears in as Clyde Burchard.
The setting, a seedy Brighton of 1962 is evocative, you feel the undercurrent of crime in every shot. Nothing is overlooked to hold you gripped in your chair until the denoument. Val Guest made another classic the same year, the sci-fi 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire' a picture of Fleet Street. These two films stand as his monument. Two of the best films to come out of Britain in the post war period.
The setting, a seedy Brighton of 1962 is evocative, you feel the undercurrent of crime in every shot. Nothing is overlooked to hold you gripped in your chair until the denoument. Val Guest made another classic the same year, the sci-fi 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire' a picture of Fleet Street. These two films stand as his monument. Two of the best films to come out of Britain in the post war period.