Shown August 2011 on TCM's "Joanne Woodward day", this production by Marten Pictures stars Joanne Woodward as "Molly" and Stewart Whitman as "Alex". Woodward had done mostly TV during the 1950s, then started in films. Whitman had been quite the boxer in the service, and had also done a lot of TV in the 1950s, then on to films in the late 1950s/1960s, now getting credited for his roles. "Signpost" is a combination of prison escape, a who-dunnit, and even a bit of a 1970's psychological "thinker film". Pretty well done, its not at all a "murder noir" - its much too bright, blunt, and in- your-face to be a noir. When the escaped prisoner hides out in someone's house, the police keep popping in, sure that the escaped prisoner is still around. There are some surprises, and all the excitement is in the last 20 minutes. Also keep an eye out for Alan Napier (ALFRED, from the Batman TV Show!) Based on a play written by Monte Doyle, this was only the second film directed by George Englund. He seems to have done most of his work as a producer, and worked on the very successful Golden Girls TV show in the 1990s. Not a bad movie, but nothing real special.
11 Reviews
I think that Forester should be given the opportunity to prove his sanity!
sol-kay17 August 2011
Warning: Spoilers
****SPOILERS**** Well thought out murder mystery staring the great Stuart "the Mark" Whitman as committed and later escaped mental patient Alex Forrester who was convicted of slitting his wife's's throat and for some strange reason never remembering him doing it. Forrester who's up for a sanity hearing to prove that he's in fact ready to be released from the Milhampton Asylum for the Criminally Insane and be admitted back into society gets the bad news from his court appointed psychiatrist Dr. Mark Fleming, Edward Mlhare,that his chances for being declared sane, by the asylums' broad of psychiatrists, are as likely as a snowball in hell. Very upset in what Dr. Fleming told him Forrester plans to escape and stay on the lamb for two weeks which will qualify, according to an old arcane Victorian law that's still on the books, him to get a new trial and finally prove to the world that he's in fact all right! That all right in the head.
Bopping Dr. Fleming, who came to visit him in his cell, over the head when he wasn't looking and assuming his identity Forrester makes his escape and ends up laying low at nearby Molly Thomas', Joanne Woodward, place which he's been casing out for years from his prison cell window. With an all out manhunt under way for Forrester by the police and asylum security guards he makes himself at home at Molly's who, in what a hunk of a man Forrester is, soon ends up falling in love with him. It's later when Molly's husband is found stripped of his clothes and dead as a door nail flouting in the river that it becomes apparent to almost everyone that it was the escaped murdering psycho Alex Forrester who did him in!
With the very dangerous and homicidal Forrester in her house Molly's attraction towards him begins to unnerve those of us watching the movie. Not only is Molly not at all afraid of the escaped lunatic but doesn't seem to care at all about the fate of her late husband whom Forrester is now accused of murdering? Sure the guy, Forrester, is cute handsome and good looking in an somewhat rugged and caveman way but he's still an escaped homicidal maniac who can murder her at the drop of a hat! So what's this strange attraction by Molly towards him? Is it some kind of Stockholm Syndrome that Molly's effected by or is it something else. Something far stranger then then the already very strange goings on in the movie! Something that in fact was pre-planned to happen with the by now confused and almost on the brink of a nervous breakdown Alex Forrester being used as a pasty!
***SPOILERS*** As we soon find out Forrester was in fact nuts all right but not before he was committed but while he served time at the asylum. It was this sinister plan cooked up by those who planned to drive him insane to use Forrester to get him to take the rap for Mr. Thomas, Molly's husbands, murder for reasons known, that becomes very apparent at the end of the movie, only to themselves. It was Forrester's child-like honesty in trying to figure out if in fact he did or didn't do it, killed both his wife & Mr.Thomas, that got the persons who tried to frame him to slip up and in that end up exposing themselves in the crime, Mr.Thomas' murder, that they tried to hang him with.
Bopping Dr. Fleming, who came to visit him in his cell, over the head when he wasn't looking and assuming his identity Forrester makes his escape and ends up laying low at nearby Molly Thomas', Joanne Woodward, place which he's been casing out for years from his prison cell window. With an all out manhunt under way for Forrester by the police and asylum security guards he makes himself at home at Molly's who, in what a hunk of a man Forrester is, soon ends up falling in love with him. It's later when Molly's husband is found stripped of his clothes and dead as a door nail flouting in the river that it becomes apparent to almost everyone that it was the escaped murdering psycho Alex Forrester who did him in!
With the very dangerous and homicidal Forrester in her house Molly's attraction towards him begins to unnerve those of us watching the movie. Not only is Molly not at all afraid of the escaped lunatic but doesn't seem to care at all about the fate of her late husband whom Forrester is now accused of murdering? Sure the guy, Forrester, is cute handsome and good looking in an somewhat rugged and caveman way but he's still an escaped homicidal maniac who can murder her at the drop of a hat! So what's this strange attraction by Molly towards him? Is it some kind of Stockholm Syndrome that Molly's effected by or is it something else. Something far stranger then then the already very strange goings on in the movie! Something that in fact was pre-planned to happen with the by now confused and almost on the brink of a nervous breakdown Alex Forrester being used as a pasty!
***SPOILERS*** As we soon find out Forrester was in fact nuts all right but not before he was committed but while he served time at the asylum. It was this sinister plan cooked up by those who planned to drive him insane to use Forrester to get him to take the rap for Mr. Thomas, Molly's husbands, murder for reasons known, that becomes very apparent at the end of the movie, only to themselves. It was Forrester's child-like honesty in trying to figure out if in fact he did or didn't do it, killed both his wife & Mr.Thomas, that got the persons who tried to frame him to slip up and in that end up exposing themselves in the crime, Mr.Thomas' murder, that they tried to hang him with.
Entertaining but absurd chain of events
jameselliot-121 September 2019
Warning: Spoilers
When I was a child, my family and I would pile into the car and go to the movies on weekends. Signpost was on a double bill with another picture. As a little kid, I watched movies and TV shows but I didn't look at them critically and analyze the story I was looking at. I recently re-watched this film--all I remembered was Whitman and Woodward in a house with the impressive waterwheel--and realized how implausible the film is.
Great cast, interesting sets (that waterwheel and house was used in a Man From UNCLE show) and excellent photography can't overcome the over-the-top story. There's no way the murderer could have known that mental patient Whitman would knock him out, manage to escape a max security insane asylum, head in the direction of Woodward's house (instead of stealing a vehicle) where he would hide, make her acquaintance with a knife, then have sex with her and trust her not to call the police. Then at the end, the killer picks up Whitman's jacket in front of the police at her house and declares that it's his patient's jacket, blowing everything. When confronted, he confesses right then and there to his impossible scheme.
A more interesting film with Whitman as an actor pretending to be a mental patient to uncover where a fortune was hidden was Shock Treatment with Lauren Bacall as another evil psychiatrist, Roddy McDowall as a psycho killer and lovely Carol Lynley as the nice girl.
Great cast, interesting sets (that waterwheel and house was used in a Man From UNCLE show) and excellent photography can't overcome the over-the-top story. There's no way the murderer could have known that mental patient Whitman would knock him out, manage to escape a max security insane asylum, head in the direction of Woodward's house (instead of stealing a vehicle) where he would hide, make her acquaintance with a knife, then have sex with her and trust her not to call the police. Then at the end, the killer picks up Whitman's jacket in front of the police at her house and declares that it's his patient's jacket, blowing everything. When confronted, he confesses right then and there to his impossible scheme.
A more interesting film with Whitman as an actor pretending to be a mental patient to uncover where a fortune was hidden was Shock Treatment with Lauren Bacall as another evil psychiatrist, Roddy McDowall as a psycho killer and lovely Carol Lynley as the nice girl.
really good!
blanche-218 August 2011
Joanne Woodward, Stuart Whitman, and Edward Mulhare star in "Signpost to Murder," a 1964 film directed by George Englund. This almost seemed to me to be a television production, as the scenes seemed to be set up for commercials.
Whitman plays a convicted murderer, in prison for ten years. He has been working with a psychiatrist (Mulhare). He escapes when the board refuses his release and hides out in a house owned by Woodward and her husband. Woodward's husband is expected home; in the meantime, prison officials and police are combing the area for the convict.
Very good story, fabulous set, somewhat slow-moving in the British fashion (since it is British) but with an exciting ending. The excellent Woodward is quite glamorous here, and Whitman does a terrific job. Whitman was one of those actors who, had he come along ten years earlier, would have been part of a studio build-up and had a much better career in films. Like many of his contemporaries, he wound up doing a lot of television.
Recommended if you're a mystery/suspense lover.
Whitman plays a convicted murderer, in prison for ten years. He has been working with a psychiatrist (Mulhare). He escapes when the board refuses his release and hides out in a house owned by Woodward and her husband. Woodward's husband is expected home; in the meantime, prison officials and police are combing the area for the convict.
Very good story, fabulous set, somewhat slow-moving in the British fashion (since it is British) but with an exciting ending. The excellent Woodward is quite glamorous here, and Whitman does a terrific job. Whitman was one of those actors who, had he come along ten years earlier, would have been part of a studio build-up and had a much better career in films. Like many of his contemporaries, he wound up doing a lot of television.
Recommended if you're a mystery/suspense lover.
And the wheel keeps on turning.
ulicknormanowen16 February 2021
This is based on a play and it shows :all the action tales place in the heroine's house , in a stifling atmosphere in which the ceaseless turning wheel lapping creates a tension ; it is sometimes slow-moving ,but a little humour gets into the lugubrious atmosphere (the gossip woman who phones ; the vicar and the incongruous little help he provides ) and acting is excellent : you can't be wrong with Joanne Woodward ,a character actress who portrays a hostage ,a victim of an escapee from a mental hospital ; little by little ,doubt creeps into one's mind : is she so innocent?Stuart Whitman is credible as well as this lunatic who's seeing things (a dead body on the wheel)and who perhaps might not be really guilty :the circumstances of the crime which sent it to the asylum remain mysterious.
There's of course an unexpected ending ; although it's not as strong as such "in camera " thrillers as Levin/Lumet 's "death trap" , it is an unqualified must for people fond of suspense films.
There's of course an unexpected ending ; although it's not as strong as such "in camera " thrillers as Levin/Lumet 's "death trap" , it is an unqualified must for people fond of suspense films.
Great!
BandSAboutMovies19 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
"Are we all potential killers?" What a great tagline! That's the idea going into this film, directed by George Englund (A Christmas to Remember, Zachariah, The Vegas Strip War) and written by Sally Benson (Viva Las Vegas, The Singing Nun) and Monte Doyle.
Alex Forrester (Stuart Whitman) is a mental patient who killed his wife ten years ago and has been rehabilitated in an asylum. He feels that way, at least, but no one else does. So he takes matters into his own hands and beats his therapist Dr. Fleming (Edward Mulhare) unmercifully and runs into the foggy night. Maybe that doctor shouldn't have told him about an old law that gives a new trial to escapees who elude capture for two weeks.
Who would come up with such a law?
He makes his way to the house he's stared at for ten years from his cell and hides there as Molly Thomas (Joanne Woodward) waits for her husband to return from a business trip.
He easily kidnaps the woman but is shocked by what he finds outside the house: a dead body, throat slit, stuck in the water wheel. Who killed this man? Was it him? Why can't he remember? And when the body disappears, who took it?
Even as the police and the local clergyman (Alan Napier, Alfred from TV's Batman) come to the house looking for Molly's husband's body or to comfort her, she starts to fall for Alex. This movie is, as you can imagine, completely ridiculous in the best of ways and throws twists and turns at the viewer.
You know who loved it? India. While the movie started as a stage play, they re-adapted the movie into another stage play, Dhummas, which was made into three different movies - in Gujarati, Marathi and Hindi - all starring Sarita Joshi. It was also made as Ittefaq in 1969 and was remade as Ittefaq in 2017.
Alex Forrester (Stuart Whitman) is a mental patient who killed his wife ten years ago and has been rehabilitated in an asylum. He feels that way, at least, but no one else does. So he takes matters into his own hands and beats his therapist Dr. Fleming (Edward Mulhare) unmercifully and runs into the foggy night. Maybe that doctor shouldn't have told him about an old law that gives a new trial to escapees who elude capture for two weeks.
Who would come up with such a law?
He makes his way to the house he's stared at for ten years from his cell and hides there as Molly Thomas (Joanne Woodward) waits for her husband to return from a business trip.
He easily kidnaps the woman but is shocked by what he finds outside the house: a dead body, throat slit, stuck in the water wheel. Who killed this man? Was it him? Why can't he remember? And when the body disappears, who took it?
Even as the police and the local clergyman (Alan Napier, Alfred from TV's Batman) come to the house looking for Molly's husband's body or to comfort her, she starts to fall for Alex. This movie is, as you can imagine, completely ridiculous in the best of ways and throws twists and turns at the viewer.
You know who loved it? India. While the movie started as a stage play, they re-adapted the movie into another stage play, Dhummas, which was made into three different movies - in Gujarati, Marathi and Hindi - all starring Sarita Joshi. It was also made as Ittefaq in 1969 and was remade as Ittefaq in 2017.
A unique set, but the plot not so much....
mark.waltz12 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Even with a cast lead by Joanne Woodward, Stuart Whitman and Edward Mulhare, this is very much like a filmed stage play, edited down with all the gristle taken out and with the meat left intact. Whitman is a violent prisoner who knocks out his psychiatrist (Mulhare) in a violent manner and manages to disguise himself in order to get out even though he chooses the oddest way to do so. Bells go off, the public is notified to go home and lock their doors, and Whitman is chased through the woods by something that sounds like a baby lamb and runs into a tree, knocking himself briefly out which helps conceal him. Woodward, awaiting her husband's return, greets the local constable in her bathing suit, and soon finds Whitman in her home, desperate for a place to hide. News about her husband soon comes her way and this leads to a dramatic confrontation with Woodward, Whitman, Mulhare and the local law, and some convoluted twists brought out into the open.
This had the potential to be an interesting psychological drama but turns into something twisted and confusing and completely bizarre. However, you'll not soon forget the wooden padded wheel that becomes a fourth major character, twisting in the moat like waters that surround Woodward's home. The set design for this is superb, but the efforts of this to take a familiar plot and twist it around in messy ways makes it seem like one of those creeking 1930's melodramas that tried too hard to be clever and ended up just floating like a rotting piece of wood that had fallen off the padded wheel. Performances by the three leads become messed up because of the unbelievability of the twists of the plot, and that makes them seem forced and out of place. Woodward is still lovely as always. Whitman's character is by far the most interesting and developed.
This had the potential to be an interesting psychological drama but turns into something twisted and confusing and completely bizarre. However, you'll not soon forget the wooden padded wheel that becomes a fourth major character, twisting in the moat like waters that surround Woodward's home. The set design for this is superb, but the efforts of this to take a familiar plot and twist it around in messy ways makes it seem like one of those creeking 1930's melodramas that tried too hard to be clever and ended up just floating like a rotting piece of wood that had fallen off the padded wheel. Performances by the three leads become messed up because of the unbelievability of the twists of the plot, and that makes them seem forced and out of place. Woodward is still lovely as always. Whitman's character is by far the most interesting and developed.
Nifty thriller with unexpected surprise ending
pgilvoz26 June 2006
I also give this b/w thriller high marks. The story is good and as mentioned in another comment, the set is terrific and the atmosphere of suspense and intrigue sustains your interest. You begin to suspect that something's not quite right, but you're still surprised when it is revealed. One of my favorite actors, whom I had the pleasure of knowing briefly, was Edward Mulhare, and this is one of the few chances he was given in this country to show his appeal. Whitman reaffirms that he was a very underrated actor, despite his Oscar Nomination for "The Mark", having ultimately been relegated to B-Westerns and some unexceptional, though frequent, TV guest appearances. All in all, a very well-spent 74 minutes or so.
Manipulating the Mentally Ill
bkoganbing16 August 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I saw a Law And Order episode that had a similar theme to Signpost For Murder in which a psychiatrist played by Robert Foxworth was able to manipulate his patient in the way Edward Mulhare was doing with Stuart Whitman in this film. The Law And Order episode was infinitely superior.
I think Paul Newman was shooting Lady L in Europe at the time and Joanne Woodward got this film to do probably to keep herself busy. She plays the owner of a house where escaping mental patient Stuart Whitman takes refuge. Later on her husband turns up very dead, first for Whitman privately and then very publicly. And who's going to believe Whitman who is in the insane asylum for strangling his wife.
Mulhare, Whitman, and Woodward have all seen better films than this one. Definitely subpar for all of them although being the professionals they are they give the film there all. It just ain't enough.
I think Paul Newman was shooting Lady L in Europe at the time and Joanne Woodward got this film to do probably to keep herself busy. She plays the owner of a house where escaping mental patient Stuart Whitman takes refuge. Later on her husband turns up very dead, first for Whitman privately and then very publicly. And who's going to believe Whitman who is in the insane asylum for strangling his wife.
Mulhare, Whitman, and Woodward have all seen better films than this one. Definitely subpar for all of them although being the professionals they are they give the film there all. It just ain't enough.
Superb Film-Noir to be enjoyed with a slight (and delectable) twist for an even better ending
Ed-Shullivan18 October 2019
I would recommend this thriller/film-noir to anyone who enjoys a diabolical murder mystery film. The three main actors/actress were absolutely outstanding in their respective roles. Stuart Whitman plays a convicted murder named Alex Forrester who is placed in a prison for the mentally insane, accused of murdering his wife. His only friend in the world is the psychiatrist who is treating him in prison, a man named Dr. Mark Fleming played by Edward Mulhare. After Alex's release is once again suspended by a panel of doctors and a parole board, Alex takes the first opportunity to make a daring escape to the nearby farm house he has admired for the past five (5) years from his jail cell.
The farm house is owned by a lovely young woman (and her absent husband) named Molly Thomas played by Joanne Woodward. Alex overtakes Molly by gunpoint and convinces her to hide him out just for two weeks which is the exact time required to allow him to request a retrial according to his psychiatrist, Dr. Mark Fleming.
This is an excellent cat and mouse game, but the plot is thicker than a London fog, and Molly Thomas's luxurious farm house is the perfect hiding spot for the three main characters to eventually show who is the cat and who is the mouse.
It is a captivating black and white film-noir which I have placed on my Christmas wish list to obtain a copy of the film, for my personal film library. I wish the Criterion Collection would release a 4K Blu Ray version as it is most deserving of being included in this elite collection.
The farm house is owned by a lovely young woman (and her absent husband) named Molly Thomas played by Joanne Woodward. Alex overtakes Molly by gunpoint and convinces her to hide him out just for two weeks which is the exact time required to allow him to request a retrial according to his psychiatrist, Dr. Mark Fleming.
This is an excellent cat and mouse game, but the plot is thicker than a London fog, and Molly Thomas's luxurious farm house is the perfect hiding spot for the three main characters to eventually show who is the cat and who is the mouse.
It is a captivating black and white film-noir which I have placed on my Christmas wish list to obtain a copy of the film, for my personal film library. I wish the Criterion Collection would release a 4K Blu Ray version as it is most deserving of being included in this elite collection.
Good plot but they forgot the action
Coventry19 December 2021
Many great thrillers are based on stage plays. Just think about Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder" or "Rope", or "Wait Until Dark", or "The Bad Seed". This "Signpost to Murder" is also an adaptation of a play, and it's clearly noticeable by the limited number of sets and the extended dialogues. The plot is quite original and compelling, but the film-version badly suffers from a lack of action and spectacle.
Alex Forrester is desperate when his request for parole unexpectedly gets rejected. After serving several years in a mental asylum, and displaying excellent behavior, Alex and his loyal friend and physician Dr. Fleming were convinced he would get released. So, instead, Alex violently escapes and seeks shelter in the house with the millwheel that he could see from his cell. He finds the lady of the house all by herself, but she - Molly Thomas - may not be as defenseless as she looks.
Great performances, moody shots of the ominous house with the millwheel, and a downright fabulous & unforeseeable end-twist cannot prevent "Signpost to Murder" to be an overall disappointment. There is just too much talking, and too little action.
Alex Forrester is desperate when his request for parole unexpectedly gets rejected. After serving several years in a mental asylum, and displaying excellent behavior, Alex and his loyal friend and physician Dr. Fleming were convinced he would get released. So, instead, Alex violently escapes and seeks shelter in the house with the millwheel that he could see from his cell. He finds the lady of the house all by herself, but she - Molly Thomas - may not be as defenseless as she looks.
Great performances, moody shots of the ominous house with the millwheel, and a downright fabulous & unforeseeable end-twist cannot prevent "Signpost to Murder" to be an overall disappointment. There is just too much talking, and too little action.
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