Never having heard of this one even from the noir "experts" I didn't expect too much but I think it's a very cool little film, very literary in style (writer Ken Hughes was also the director) and full of human weakness and treachery. It's about an American writer of dime novels (like the Joseph Cotten character in "The Third Man") who allows his self-proclaimed weakness for promiscuous blondes to get him involved in a sequence of events that ends in murder. The film was produced by Anthony Hinds for Hammer Films which at that time was largely a distribution house and not a film producing entity, but it also included later Hammer horror big shot Jimmy Sangster as the assistant director.
The American writer is played by Alex Nicol, who did a very good job in my opinion. He showed real star power and it's a shame that he never really got a chance to star in too many other films. There's a strange hitch in the character, in that he's apparently a very smart and self-aware man who nonetheless allows himself to get into situations that he knows will end up hurting him because of his addiction to a certain kind of sex. He manages to perform in such a smooth way that we never really think too much about the contradictions in his character. The other really notable performance is from Sid James (an Ealing Films alumnus) who's very convincing as the world-weary rich man who's still in love with his cheating wife Carol (Hillary Brooke, who looks a bit like Nina Foch). There's a scene of the two of them drinking bourbon playing billiards that reminds me very much of the scene towards the end of Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut." James is perfect at conveying the character's defensive world-view -- he feels beset by all the many people who come to him for financial help and is glad to have a drinking partner in the writer, Mark, who seems uninterested in money and women. Sadly the truth is that Mark does have a money problem and he does have a sex addiction, but neither of those really interferes with his feelings of friendship and almost brotherhood towards Beverly (James). That gives the movie a lot more texture than it otherwise would have had.
A lot of the suspense in the movie is based around the question of when and why Beverly will be murdered, for we've already been told in the prelude that he has been killed and that Mark holds Carol responsible. Another interesting aspect is a sort of a red herring that's presented in the person of Beverly's daughter from his first marriage, Andrea (Susan Stephen). She's exactly the type of blonde that Mark should be interested in, but he shows absolute disregard for her from beginning to end of the film.
I think it's a movie that should be seen more often -- exactly the kind of seedy, low budget affair that's not afraid to be intelligent. You don't see movies like this anymore.
The American writer is played by Alex Nicol, who did a very good job in my opinion. He showed real star power and it's a shame that he never really got a chance to star in too many other films. There's a strange hitch in the character, in that he's apparently a very smart and self-aware man who nonetheless allows himself to get into situations that he knows will end up hurting him because of his addiction to a certain kind of sex. He manages to perform in such a smooth way that we never really think too much about the contradictions in his character. The other really notable performance is from Sid James (an Ealing Films alumnus) who's very convincing as the world-weary rich man who's still in love with his cheating wife Carol (Hillary Brooke, who looks a bit like Nina Foch). There's a scene of the two of them drinking bourbon playing billiards that reminds me very much of the scene towards the end of Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut." James is perfect at conveying the character's defensive world-view -- he feels beset by all the many people who come to him for financial help and is glad to have a drinking partner in the writer, Mark, who seems uninterested in money and women. Sadly the truth is that Mark does have a money problem and he does have a sex addiction, but neither of those really interferes with his feelings of friendship and almost brotherhood towards Beverly (James). That gives the movie a lot more texture than it otherwise would have had.
A lot of the suspense in the movie is based around the question of when and why Beverly will be murdered, for we've already been told in the prelude that he has been killed and that Mark holds Carol responsible. Another interesting aspect is a sort of a red herring that's presented in the person of Beverly's daughter from his first marriage, Andrea (Susan Stephen). She's exactly the type of blonde that Mark should be interested in, but he shows absolute disregard for her from beginning to end of the film.
I think it's a movie that should be seen more often -- exactly the kind of seedy, low budget affair that's not afraid to be intelligent. You don't see movies like this anymore.