"Pel" Pelham is an outsider, determined that his little boy will succeed
in life through books and not by his wits, as his father has had to. At the
moment he is all fired up with a new scheme - Sapolio, "The Champion
Starving Man" is going to try to break his own record!! Pel has already
hired a waste ground and is building a glass tomb so Sapolio can be
observed by ticket holders. The tomb is erected like a house with
everything from his mattress to cigarettes being given publicity and
endorsements. Threaded through this bizarre plot is a murder - a girl
down on her luck and known to the main players is found murdered
in a flat above where a party is going on!
I don't know whether the editing was clumsy or if it was Lippert's version of a red herring but even though the murderer wasn't a mystery (in fact the plot really revolved around the murderer keeping two steps ahead of everybody else) during the party, one of the characters, a tattooist, made a hasty exit and didn't come back into the movie again!! I just kept expecting him to come back and spend the rest of the movie trying to clear his name!! Also Sidney James plays Tony Lewis, a book maker friend of Pel's, who advances him the money to put up the show but advises him to drop the "freak show" and turn legit. For much of the movie Ireland believes Tony to be the killer - until he turns up murdered!! Now the murderer is getting sloppy and is out to silence Sapolio who he believes can identify him.
John Ireland seemed to fit in so well into these British quickie crime movies (so many Americans didn't), lovely Honor Blackman had the thankless role of his wife except for a few seconds when she becomes the victim of ....... Sidney Tafler, where would sophisticated spivs be without him. And good old Geoffrey Keene, so often playing no nonsense police/detective parts but here he plays good old Uncle Harry, the friend to all, the greatest heart in show business.....you can see where this is going can't you!!
I don't know whether the editing was clumsy or if it was Lippert's version of a red herring but even though the murderer wasn't a mystery (in fact the plot really revolved around the murderer keeping two steps ahead of everybody else) during the party, one of the characters, a tattooist, made a hasty exit and didn't come back into the movie again!! I just kept expecting him to come back and spend the rest of the movie trying to clear his name!! Also Sidney James plays Tony Lewis, a book maker friend of Pel's, who advances him the money to put up the show but advises him to drop the "freak show" and turn legit. For much of the movie Ireland believes Tony to be the killer - until he turns up murdered!! Now the murderer is getting sloppy and is out to silence Sapolio who he believes can identify him.
John Ireland seemed to fit in so well into these British quickie crime movies (so many Americans didn't), lovely Honor Blackman had the thankless role of his wife except for a few seconds when she becomes the victim of ....... Sidney Tafler, where would sophisticated spivs be without him. And good old Geoffrey Keene, so often playing no nonsense police/detective parts but here he plays good old Uncle Harry, the friend to all, the greatest heart in show business.....you can see where this is going can't you!!