Urge to Kill (1960) User Reviews

Low rent fun

[gordonl56 · 7/10 · 28 November 2009]

While walking home from the movies late at night a young woman is murdered. We don't see the murderer, but we can tell that the victim knows her killer. The murder is particularly gruesome with the girl getting sliced and diced with a broken bottle. The main suspect is a local mentally challenged lad, Terence Knapp, whose hobby just happens to be collecting bits of broken glass. The lad lives in a boarding house where of course the mandatory selection of suspicious characters dwell. The religious retired teacher, the housekeeper, the homely woman and the ladies' man etc. The police question the lad but release him because of lack of evidence. Several days later another girl is killed. Now the locals believe the police are missing the boat and plan to settle the score themselves. There are several death threats and a large rock through the front window. The police grab up Knapp again for a fresh round of questions. The Chief Inspector, Patrick Barr, decides the boy is not the killer and again releases him. Barr then starts a more intensive questioning of the boarding house's other tenants. The seemingly obvious red herring about the ladies' man, Howard Pays, turns out to be neither red, nor a herring. Twenty minutes in and we know who the killer is. Pays has a major problem when dealing with the opposite sex. He kills them. Now we get to watch as Pays makes several attempts at setting up poor Knapp. He then tries to work in another murder but is interrupted by Barr. The Inspector has finally tumbled to Pays act and puts the grip on him before he can escape.

Roaring along from start to finish in just 58 minutes it is nowhere as silly as it might sound. I found the film, taken from a stage play by Charles Freeman, fairly entertaining in that low budget sort of way .

Besides Barr, Knapp and Pays, the cast includes Ruth Dunning, Wilfred Brambell, Anna Turner, Chris Trace and Yvonne Buckingham.

The director was UK veteran Vernon Sewell. His work include the noir, "Latin Quarter", "Radio Cab Murder", "Spin A Dark Web", "Uneasy Terms" and the top flight "Strongroom" and "The Man in the Back Seat". The latter film makes my personal top 25 film noir.

All in all, it is a watchable little time-waster for a cold winter night. And it is winter here!

"That's the chap for you Lily Willis"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 7 January 2018]

In a small town someone is strangling young women. Attention centres on a boarding house for the culprit but who? The mumsy landlady, the scripture quoting salesman, the spruce young man, the mentally challenged boy? The murderer is revealed too soon so that takes some of the the tension out of the narrative. It is based on a novel by by Gerald Savory and the play 'Hand In Glove' by Gerald Savory and Charles K. Freeman so using the latter it is mostly confined to one set but there is some location shooting.

Acting wise it is decent enough with good performances from Ruth Dunning, Howard Pays and Anna Turner with able support from Wilfrid Brambell and top billed Patrick Barr as Superintendent Allen. The redoubtable Rita Webb has a small role. The educationally subnormal young man is played by Terence Knapp who played the same role a year earlier in an ABC television adaptation of the play.

The film is moderately entertaining. One wonders what the television version was like.

Rather obvious murder mystery

[didi-5 · 6/10 · 5 July 2009]

Presented in some countries as an Edgar Wallace Mystery, this tale rarely rises above the ordinary and obvious. In a boarding house run by mumsy Auntie B we find her nephew Hughie, a 'mental case', and a smooth suited chap, as well as a former teacher (Wilfred Brambell, pre Steptoe.

Someone is murdering young girls: of course, Hughie is suspected because he collects broken glass and the victims are usually slashed - but is he really responsible? The solution is obvious early on so there's no real suspense. Still it is watchable, if not essential.

Performances are generally OK; stalwarts like Patrick Barr as chief copper appear - and the story attempts to put a little grit into the situation. But the heart isn't really in it, and this film feels resolutely middle-class.

Hughie!

[fillherupjacko · 8 March 2007]

The Edgar Wallace Mysteries were a 46 film series made by Merton Park Productions. They concluded in 1965, with "Dead Man's Chest", and began here with "Urge to Kill" five years earlier.

Or did they?

"Urge To Kill" lacks the revolving bust opening titles of the Edgar Wallace series. Also, it isn't based on anything that Wallace wrote. Despite it being listed on IMDb as the first film of the series, it was probably only retitled as "Edgar Wallace Mysteries: Urge To Kill" for the USA and wasn't part of the series at all.

No matter. A lunatic is running amok in what looks like a particularly grim small town. No green hills in these parts, as someone remarks – even though I watched a green tinted version of this film, which makes everyone look a bit sicklier than they no doubt were. There's a small town mentally to many of the villagers, or towners, in the shape of some large talk down The Anchor (that's a pub) of mobbing up and sorting out Hughie (Terence Knapp), the educationally subnormal young man (or "mental case" as the Police refer to him – charming!) who lives with his Auntie, Auntie B (Ruth Denning) the landlady of a modest boarding house. Huey likes roaming round by the docks and derelict sites to find "pretty bits like flowers" – pieces of old broken bottles and such. Some local Judy will be bumped off and Huey will arrive home soaking wet or covered in mud. Other suspects emerge in the form of Auntie B's boarders: kindly (or is that cowardly?) Mr Forsythe (Wilfrid Brambell, yes, that one) who has a habit of quoting the Bible - and Charlie Ramskill (now there's a clue) played by Howard Pays as an unctuous sales rep who's outward confidence masks an alarming inadequacy with the ladies. Oh and there's Mrs Willis (Anna Turner) who likes to pop in with her glad tidings. Mrs Willis sounds like one of those TS Eliot women from the Wasteland: "Have you seen the paper? Have you seen it? It's Jenny. You know: Curly's daughter. Got herself done in. Strangulated. Here! See for yourself! Murdered and gashed! Gave me quite a turn. I wouldn't say no to a cup of tea."

It all adds up to something less than a mystery as it's pretty quickly revealed who the real madman is.

Unusual for the era for the way it places a – erm - murdering lunatic in an everyday setting - rather than the Grand Guignol mannered style of horror films – "Urge To Kill" came bang in the middle of Merton Park's heyday when they chugged along at the rate of one feature per month - before tailing off into TV production by the late 60s.

"Urge To Kill" runs contrary to the usual second features of the time, Butchers' productions of feeble glamour in London apartments/ nightspots for example, and outwardly has more in common with early Coronation Street. Merton Park Productions, who had their studios opposite – erm – Merton Park in London, were notorious for using locations in and around SW19 in order to keep their production costs down. This one is all quite studio bound; most of it set round the kitchen table. The writers presumably imagined that they were creating quirky, eccentric characters but very little about "Urge To Kill" rises above its mundane setting.

One of the more superior Edgar Wallace crime thrillers.

[Weirdling_Wolf · 7/10 · 24 November 2021]

While it would be fair to say that a great many Edgar Wallace mysteries aren't all that mysterious, quite a number are too formulaic to prove viable as gripping entertainment today, but most prove to be entirely watchable whodunnit's, and in spine-chilling serial killer thriller 'Urge to Kill, a sadistic, black-hearted, nattily white-gloved killer is sinisterly stalking the doomy, crepuscular city streets, a twitchy, murderous psychopath with a perverse yen for pitilessly strangling, and murderously slashing women to death! Sewell's gritty thriller is an adequate time-waster, competently written, well-acted by a solid cast, and experienced director director Vernon Sewell tautly executes a lean, frequently tense B-thriller that credibly maintains interest right until the sinister climax. The prolific Edgar Wallace's teasingly twist-headed, menacingly be-gloved maniac being a clear precursor to the sexier, black-leathered variety so garishly fetishized in the Italian Giallo of the 60s and 70s, and I genuinely found the darkly fascinating 'Urge to Kill' to be one of the more superior Edgar Wallace crime thrillers.

Agreeable B programmer.

[alexanderdavies-99382 · 6/10 · 11 April 2018]

"Urge to Kill" is one of the first films that became part of the series of loose adaptations of Edgar Wallace. Released in 1960, the story concerns the murders of local young women who have been strangulated by an unknown assailant. Suspicion falls upon a mentally disabled lad - predictable enough. This isn't the sort of film which is tailored for any particular actor as no one really dominates the plot. There are some effective scenes to be sure but this film is merely business as usual. Amongst the cast, the most familiar face is Wilfred Brambell - two years away from - "Steptoe and Son." He is completely different to his Albert Steptoe character in this movie.

Urge to Kill

[Prismark10 · 4/10 · 5 January 2021]

This is passed off as an Edgar Wallace Mystery. It really is a quick filler although nicely produced but very studio bound.

When a young woman is found strangled and slashed. Young Hughie becomes a suspect.

He is what might be called mentally slow. As a sign of the era, the police describe him as a mental case.

Hughie lives with his aunt who runs a boarding house and is known as Auntie B. Other guests are Charlie Ramskill a smooth sales rep and Mr Forsythe (Wilfrid Brambell) a teacher.

When a second woman is killed in the same way. Hughie who was out at the time and he likes to collect shards of glass and broken porcelain is suspected.

Urge to Kill is not a whodunnit. It is soon revealed that charming Charlie is the killer and he is trying to set up Hughie while all the time letting Auntie B know that he is on her side.

Superintendent Allen is the dogged detective but it is a poor thriller with plenty of plot holes.

Charlie wears a pale raincoat when he kills one woman which includes slashing her. Yet there is no blood on it.

Charlie sends Auntie B out to go looking for her nephew promising her that he will stay home in case Hughie arrives. Only for when Auntie B returns home, Hughies is there but not Charlie.

Auntie B never mentions this lapse to Charlie. The next night when Superintendent Allen specifically tells Auntie B to keep Hughie at home and stay with him. Charlie sends Auntie B out to the pub to plead to the irate locals, even though by now she should had realised that Charlie is unreliable.

Murder at Auntie B's place

[gavcrimson · 9 October 2006]

Not to be confused with the still unreleased Derek Ford/Dick Randall swansong of the same name, this Urge to Kill is a Vernon Sewell directed effort from 1960. It begins with the sort of murder scene where the killer's identity is kept off screen but in order to suggest he is known to the victim, she goes to her death saying something like "oh what are you doing here, why are you putting your hands on my throat, arrrgggghh". As the film, based on a play, is mostly set in the guest house of Auntie B, likely suspects include Auntie B herself (Ruth Dunning), smarmy young lodger Charles Ramskill (Howard Pays) who Auntie B is trying to marry her daughter off to, Auntie B's backwards nephew Hughie (Terence Knapp), and impeccably dressed city businessman Mr. Forsythe (Wilfrid Brambell), who is never without a good biblical quote. Having nailed Tod Slaughter in Murder at the Grange, Superintendent Patrick Barr investigates.

This being the unenlightened, insensitive early sixties, the victim's private life is up for comment "perhaps she was a jezebel?", and suspicion falls on child like simpleton Hughie, with even Barr's second in command remarking "you never know with these mental cases". (A few spoilers coming up) Of course any viewer with a bit of Sherlock Holmes about them will soon guess that Hughie is way too much of a red herring to really be the murderer, that and the fact that the film is gearing up to provide a message about the dangers of finger pointing and the lynch mob mentality as locals gather in the pub, threatening to turn vigilante and do away with Hughie. Nor does the killer turn out to be Wilfrid Brambell…..shame as it would have tied this in nicely with Cover Girl Killer.

Urge to Kill is less a whodunit though, rather a "will they figure out whodunit" as the killer's identity is revelled early on leaving him to try and frame Hughie by stealing his coat and placing it near victim number two….the rotter. While not quite in the same league as Sewell's The Man in the Back Seat, the jewel in the busy director's crown made the same year, Urge to Kill is a serviceable enough second feature that doesn't overstay its welcome (it runs just under an hour). The sort of film ITV used to show in the early hours, till they discovered inane phone in quiz shows rake in more money than creaky British B movies made in nineteen frozen-to-death. Its slightly let down by Terence Knapp's caricaturish turn as Hughie, his performance as someone with learning difficulties often resembling George Formby playacting being drunk, and after all the clever scheming the way the killer gives the game away is a laugh. Frustrated the police haven't found Hughie's coat, he tells Barr something to the effect of "I haven't seen Hughie's coat, but why not try looking…" then says the exact place where its hidden, D'oh! Also look out for a very brief appearance by Rita Webb in one of her earliest film roles, and a scene that entails a character suddenly having to leave the pub in which the actor obviously thought he could sneak in one last swig of his pint only to end up spilling most of it down his shirt. That'll teach him to drink on the job.