Sgt Fraser (Ray Barrett) is sent to protect the glamouress Claudia Matthews (Katherine Blake) who has been getting telephone death threats. He falls in love with her, but when he returns to her flat he is surprised to be answered at the door by his inspector (William Hartnell) who informs him that she has been murdered. Fraser is convinced that her husband, the businessman George Matthews (Nigel Stock), is the killer. However, Inspector Roberts takes him off the case due to his emotional attachment to it and makes him take leave. This does not stop Fraser from carrying out his own unofficial investigation, which takes him to Bournemouth where Matthews has a holiday home. Here, he meets Claudia's identitcal twin Pauline who agrees to help him prove Matthews' guilt as she too believes he is the murderer. Fraser soon finds himself falling for her and, so it seems, vice versa, but it isn't long before she reveals to him that she is really Claudia. In addition, she tells him that Matthews murdered his wife then hid her body in his flat and went away to establish an alibi. Later, Claudia informed the police anonymously before joining him in Bournemouth. She then says that they were lovers, but she now loves Fraser and agrees to his plan to murder Matthews. First, he takes out an insurance policy in Matthews name before arranging a fake road accident. The plan is that Claudia will collect the money before the pair disappear and start a new life together in Australia. However, the niave young policeman is soon to get a nasty surprise...
Although it is not one of the best Edgar Wallace mysteries, it is still well above the quality we would normally associate with British 'B' features and rubbishes the long held view that this area of film making could not deliver worthy results.
Anybody seeing the Edgar Wallace films for the first time more than fifty years after they first did the rounds in cinemas will be struck by the number of talented directors they brought to the table. This one was directed by Herbert Wise who sustains the intrigue and suspense remarkably well for most of the time.
The screenplay by John Sansom (a pseudonym for Hammer writer/producer/director Jimmy Sangster) is packed with red herrings and plot twists galore that are guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat throughout as you try to figure out how the femme fatale Claudia will lead the niave young police sergeant into hot water. It leads us up many paths before changing direction entirely. Is Claudia, for example, really a victim of threatening phone calls from a former lover? Or, could she and this ex-lover really still be in love and are creating a smokescreen to divert attention away from a plot to kill her husband? Alternatively, did Claudia and George bump off her twin sister to create the impression that she is dead for them to be able to commit an insurance fraud? They are the kind of questions that you will be undoubtedly be asking yourself as the movie unfolds.
So why isn't it the best, then? Well, I felt that it held its grip really well for about 90% of the time, but by the time it got to the climax I felt it drifted towards predictability as the plot panned out the way I thought it would by then after all the red herrings and plot twists had gone. Up until that point, it threw me off the scent entirely and I was expecting Mr Sangster to have had one final ace up his sleeve and take me by surprise. But he didn't. I also felt that the performances from the leads were not quite strong enough to bring out the emotions and passions that a couple in their predicament would have felt. There was, however, stirling support from a supporting cast of familiar British faces including Nigel Stock, William Hartnell and Noel Trevarthen and the production values were top notch for a 'B' movie with Bert Mason's classy b/w camerawork making full use of the Bournemouth setting heightenning the tension and creating a real sense of place as if you felt you were actually there.
Although it is not one of the best Edgar Wallace mysteries, it is still well above the quality we would normally associate with British 'B' features and rubbishes the long held view that this area of film making could not deliver worthy results.
Anybody seeing the Edgar Wallace films for the first time more than fifty years after they first did the rounds in cinemas will be struck by the number of talented directors they brought to the table. This one was directed by Herbert Wise who sustains the intrigue and suspense remarkably well for most of the time.
The screenplay by John Sansom (a pseudonym for Hammer writer/producer/director Jimmy Sangster) is packed with red herrings and plot twists galore that are guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat throughout as you try to figure out how the femme fatale Claudia will lead the niave young police sergeant into hot water. It leads us up many paths before changing direction entirely. Is Claudia, for example, really a victim of threatening phone calls from a former lover? Or, could she and this ex-lover really still be in love and are creating a smokescreen to divert attention away from a plot to kill her husband? Alternatively, did Claudia and George bump off her twin sister to create the impression that she is dead for them to be able to commit an insurance fraud? They are the kind of questions that you will be undoubtedly be asking yourself as the movie unfolds.
So why isn't it the best, then? Well, I felt that it held its grip really well for about 90% of the time, but by the time it got to the climax I felt it drifted towards predictability as the plot panned out the way I thought it would by then after all the red herrings and plot twists had gone. Up until that point, it threw me off the scent entirely and I was expecting Mr Sangster to have had one final ace up his sleeve and take me by surprise. But he didn't. I also felt that the performances from the leads were not quite strong enough to bring out the emotions and passions that a couple in their predicament would have felt. There was, however, stirling support from a supporting cast of familiar British faces including Nigel Stock, William Hartnell and Noel Trevarthen and the production values were top notch for a 'B' movie with Bert Mason's classy b/w camerawork making full use of the Bournemouth setting heightenning the tension and creating a real sense of place as if you felt you were actually there.
