The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (TV Series) The Partner (1963) User Reviews

A solid mystery, but it's clunky in parts.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 14 April 2023]

Dodgy Accountant Charles Briers tries to ease the tax burden for his employer Wayne Douglas, tying young actress Lin Siyan up in a scheme, everyone it seems is on the make.

It may take a second viewing to fully understand the plot, it's not a straight forward one, I'd actually go so far as to say it's a little disjointed, but there is enough intrigue to keep your interest. There are a couple of plot holes, so you may need to tie up some of the loose ends yourself. The main question I had, did Lin Siyan stay in that dress permanently?

Garard Glaister directs a pretty good picture, it boasts some great production values, for a B movie it looks great, the usual smart clothes and great cars, but the shooting studio scenes also look great.

I think the acting here is a very mixed bag, some of it's very good, some of it I found rather wooden. The standouts were Guy Doleman and Ewan Roberts, both looked in a different league. I'm a big fan of Mark Eden, but he seems somehow disinterested here, still better than Yoko Tani and Anthony Booth, who sadly are both lifeless.

6/10.

Merton Park studios is the real star

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 10 March 2010]

In many mystery film serials sooner or later the film studios are featured in a story.for the film makers it was cheap and there was no need to make any sets.So in this film the film is very much set in and around Merton Park Studios in South London.The studio only had 2 stages as can be seen in this film and they don't appear to be very large.I have to say that i was concentrating so much on the studios that i rather lost the plot.It is so labyrinthine that i really failed to understand who had done what to who and for what reason.Incidentally i think that the name of the producer in the film was an in joke.Remember that when this film was made in 1963 the two biggest action stars were John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.Hence the producers name of Wayne Douglas.

The Partner

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 11 November 2021]

An effective B thriller set in the movie making world with plenty of skulduggery and double crosses.

Lin Siyan is a film actress who with the accountant from the film studio she is working for plans to rip off Wayne Douglas (Guy Doleman) who heads the studio.

The accountant also plans to fleece Lin by making her sign a dubious contract. Soon the accountant is dead.

Douglas hires investigator Richard Webb (Mark Eden) to find out just what Lin and the accountant were up to and retrieve his money.

Soon Douglas winds up in hospital as he is shot and left for dead.

The police led by DI Simons are also on the case and come across some young tearaways who also plan to harm Lin.

Mark Eden and Guy Doleman come off best here and they both add intrigue and a bit of mystery to their roles. Anthony Booth seems to be more irritating as the hoodlum.