User Reviews

Counting down the last remaining weeks to Christmas,I decided to recently go on Ebay,in the hope of finding some titles that my dad could enjoy watching this holiday season.Taking a look at a page for British movies,I stumbled upon a near forgotten movie,which had been quickly made as an adaptation of a Christianna Brand novel,due to the success of the 1946 Brand adaptation Green For Danger.With having watched Green For Danger a number of times with my dad,I decided that it was the perfect time to pick up a deadly set of heels.

The plot:

Despite being the main attraction at London's most popular fashion house in Bond Street,the models find themselves unable to move on to bigger,and better things,due to former model Agnes Gregory having owner Frank Beavan wrapped round her finger,in order to make sure that none of the new models take any power or influence from her.

A few days later:

Returning home after eating at a restaurant,Agnes becomes very ill,and soon dies from a deadly intake of poison.Investigating the fashion house for any clues to who might have murdered Gregory,Detective Charlesworth soon finds out,that in life Agnes had stepped on everyone with deadly force.

View on the film:

Whilst the dialogue in Christianna Brand's adaptation of her own novel for Hammer (then known as Marylebone-Hammer) studios is a bit on the blunt side,Brand uses the edgy,backstabbing attitudes of the fashion models to make the movie's 45 minute running time fly by,with Diana Wong and Patricia Laffan, (who would reunite with the director for 1948's Who Killed Van Loon) giving sly,wicked performances as two (possibly) deadly models.

Making his directing debut, (after having been a producer for over a decade) Lionel Tomlinson kicks things off in a stylish fashion,by using a newspaper in the opening to show the less then cheerful relationship that the models have with the hard nosed Gregory.Whilst Tomlinson does sadly leave his eye for style behind as the movie enters the fashion house,Tomlinson creates a delightful back stabbing atmosphere,by shooting the scenes of the killer preparing their deadly weapon in a harsh Film Noir light,as a pair of deadly heels get ready to strike.

DEATH IN HIGH HEELS was the first film made by a fledgling Hammer Films after an eleven-year break in their filmography. It's another murder mystery adaptation of a Christianna Brand novel, following on from the success of the previous year's GREEN FOR DANGER. Sadly, this is a budget-limited production that feels rather tawdry and over-obvious, particularly for a modern viewer. The setting is a fashion shop, where the presence of some poison used for hat-cleaning leads to murder, with the twist that the wrong victim is killed. A rather uninteresting cast of characters share dialogue before a twist or two at the climax which isn't worth the wait. The best thing about this is that the running time is a mere 40-odd minutes.

With Christianna Brand's "Green For Danger" a big hit for director Sidney Gilliat, lowly Exclusive Films (Hammer's original name) turned to Brand's first novel "Death in High Heels". But while "Green For Danger" was a stunning psychological drama set among the private lives of a group of hospital workers and with top stars (Rosamund John, Trevor Howard etc) to bring it to life, "High Heels" was a quota quickie (and how) with cheap sets (one set tripling for a showroom, a dressing room and a cafeteria!!) and a cast of no namers!!

Set in a luxury Bond Street fashion house (a world Brand was familiar with) it reeled viewers in instantly with a gallery of all the players and their relationship with the dead girl, June, who has been killed before the film starts. "If Agnes Gregory was Bevan's right hand then June had been his left and he didn't wish his right hand to know what his left was doing" etc. Agnes is soon established as the shop tyrant - the girls even joke with the chemist that they need the prussic acid to kill Agnes and he wishes them good luck!! They actually need it to clean a hat!!

Things pick up a bit when the poison goes missing after being spilt on the floor, the boss says "Sweep it up, put it in an envelope and leave it on the table"!! - why not just get rid of it!! The designer is looking guilty - he has threatened to kill himself but then is found helping out in the kitchen!!

Someone does die - it is Magda, but the poison is so obviously meant for Agnes. At the last minute she has stormed out to keep a luncheon engagement. Scotland Yard comes into it and suddenly everyone looks guilty - all except Agnes whose forthrightness and commonsense stand out in a sea of furtive looks. There are a few surprises in the "all the suspects gathered in the one room" finale. It all has to do with promotion, both murders, - the lucky someone to get a transfer to the Deauville offices in sunny France.

It certainly doesn't try to cover up the cheapness of the sets but at only 50 minutes it is a nice way to spend an hour.