Face the Music (1954)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Terence Fisher

Writers:

Ernest Borneman (novel)
Ernest Borneman (screenplay)

Release Date:

29 January 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

Tagline:

LOOK OUT...It's Loaded!

Plot:

Newly arrived in Britain, a jet-lagged musician impulsively goes to the apartment of a beautiful blues singer he's just met and hours later is accused of her murder.

Plot Keywords:

Trumpet | Blues Singer | Poison | Musician | Murder

Cast

Alex Nicol	...	James 'Brad' Bradley
Eleanor Summerfield	...	Barbara Quigley
John Salew	...	Maxie Margulies
Paul Carpenter	...	Johnny Sutherland
Geoffrey Keen	...	Maurie Green
Ann Hanslip	...	Maxine Halbard
Fred Johnson	...	Det. Sgt. MacKenzie
Martin Boddey	...	Insp. Mulrooney
Arthur Lane	...	Jeff Colt
Gordon Crier
Paula Byrne	...	Gloria Lewis Colt
Leo Phillips	...	Dresser
Freddie Tripp	...	Stage manager
Ben Williams	...	Gatekeeper
Frank Birch	...	Trumpet salesman

Also Known As:

The Black Glove (USA)

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England, UK

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Quotes:

Maxine Halbard: How long do you like your spaghetti cooked?
James 'Brad' Bradley: Oh... about... about ten inches. Have you lived here all your life?
Maxine Halbard: Not yet.

Black Glove wears well

Taking advantage of arrangements favoured by the UK's Eady levy (a state film subsidy established after the war) in 1950, American producer Robert Lippert formed a business alliance with Hammer studios. Under the agreement, Lippert would provide American acting talent - frequently shop-worn stars or just supporting actors who fancied a profitable trip out of the country - while Hammer would supply the rest of the cast and the production facilities. Together they would split the profits. Famous for his concern with the bottom line, Lippert produced over 140 films between 1946 and 1955, characteristically genre pieces such as I Shot Jesse James or Rocketship XM. For the British deal, most of the films were noir-ish thrillers. None were entirely of the first rank, but they remain never less than entertaining, and include THE BLACK GLOVE.

The presence of Alex Nichol and the trumpet playing of Kenny Ball somewhat compensate for weaknesses elsewhere in The Black Glove (aka: Face The Music, 1953) a thriller set in a London world of basement jazz clubs, recording studios and dingy flats. The genial Nichol, perhaps best remembered today for his role as the rancher's crazed son in The Man From Laramie (1955), plays hero James Bradley, a musician who picks up a singer after a London concert, only for her to be murdered shortly after. Following the familiar pattern, Bradley has to discover the real killer and clear himself of suspicion. Nichol gives a likable performance as the trumpet player in a film that includes an archetypal noir voice-over as well as Kenny Ball's frequently soulful contribution on brass, which both add a good deal to the atmosphere. The opening, mutual attraction between Bradley and victim Maxine, played out over music, is especially fine. The intensity between kindred spirits recalls the first meeting in Gun Crazy (1950) while their later scenes just after, expressing their growing romance in cynical rhyming couplets ("Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, show me a woman a man can trust," etc), is also memorable. Bradley's continuous, professed lack of sleep adds to the dream-like mood of the piece. Maxine's sister Barbara works in Soho's Underground Club - "the sort of place you live horizontally or not at all" and most of the clues are found in and around the music produced there. The end of the film is more disappointing, a curious throwback to traditional whodunits, with principal suspects and interested police gathered together in a single room, so that the killer can be progressively unmasked. It's a clumsy and unconvincing narrative device. Director Fisher would later be associated with many of Hammer's celebrated Gothic horror releases.