These comments contain spoilers, including major plot details.
This is part of the newest DVD Kit Parker Double Feature, Hammer Film Noir series. The films in the series are British B films, usually featuring a has-been American actor in the lead with a supporting British cast. Because of the American name in the lead, the films were issued in the United States as well as England, usually under a different name in the U.S. than in England.
Today "film noir" is used so indiscriminately to describe films that there's not much point is saying this film doesn't qualify as noir, though in Andrea Nevill, the protagonist's wife, it does have a femme noir or femme fatale who deceives her husband (cliché). And in a wife contriving with her lover to murder her husband, we have a standard noir plot (cliché).
Dane Clark is the has-been American star here, and he does well enough, though he is a fish out of water among all these English actors. I've seen Paul Carpenter in other British films, most recently in "The House across the Lake," another film in this Hammer Film Noir series. He's a handsome, appealing guy, not properly cast here as a hit man. But Thea Gregory as the wife comes across well as a beautiful, upper-class woman. Although Cecile Chevreau as secretary Joan Peterson, secretly in love with her boss Jim (cliché), isn't attractive enough for a romantic leading lady role, she does offer solid support.
For me the icing on the cake here was Anthony Forwood as Peter Glanville. As we all know now from recent reputable biographies, he was Dirk Bogarde's lover, and by the time this film was in production, he and Dirk were living together, though Bogarde continued to date studio starlets to maintain the illusion of heterosexuality. Certainly, Forwood was more attractive than Bogarde was and obviously had a more outgoing personality, able to smooth the waters that Bogarde frequently stirred up with his cold, snobbish personality. Forwood didn't make many films, but I have seen him in some others. As here, he was always competent in his performances, though he never appeared in challenging roles.
At 70 minutes, this is a pleasant enough time waster.
This is part of the newest DVD Kit Parker Double Feature, Hammer Film Noir series. The films in the series are British B films, usually featuring a has-been American actor in the lead with a supporting British cast. Because of the American name in the lead, the films were issued in the United States as well as England, usually under a different name in the U.S. than in England.
Today "film noir" is used so indiscriminately to describe films that there's not much point is saying this film doesn't qualify as noir, though in Andrea Nevill, the protagonist's wife, it does have a femme noir or femme fatale who deceives her husband (cliché). And in a wife contriving with her lover to murder her husband, we have a standard noir plot (cliché).
Dane Clark is the has-been American star here, and he does well enough, though he is a fish out of water among all these English actors. I've seen Paul Carpenter in other British films, most recently in "The House across the Lake," another film in this Hammer Film Noir series. He's a handsome, appealing guy, not properly cast here as a hit man. But Thea Gregory as the wife comes across well as a beautiful, upper-class woman. Although Cecile Chevreau as secretary Joan Peterson, secretly in love with her boss Jim (cliché), isn't attractive enough for a romantic leading lady role, she does offer solid support.
For me the icing on the cake here was Anthony Forwood as Peter Glanville. As we all know now from recent reputable biographies, he was Dirk Bogarde's lover, and by the time this film was in production, he and Dirk were living together, though Bogarde continued to date studio starlets to maintain the illusion of heterosexuality. Certainly, Forwood was more attractive than Bogarde was and obviously had a more outgoing personality, able to smooth the waters that Bogarde frequently stirred up with his cold, snobbish personality. Forwood didn't make many films, but I have seen him in some others. As here, he was always competent in his performances, though he never appeared in challenging roles.
At 70 minutes, this is a pleasant enough time waster.