The Embezzler (1954) User Reviews

Standard 1950's British drama

[whiteman-3 · 6/10 · 27 September 2001]

Long time bank teller (Charles Victor) learns he has only 2 years to live due to an illness. He decides he wants to enjoy his remaining time so embezzles a swag of money from his employer and plans to travel to Europe. But the cops are on his trail so he heads for a British seaside guesthouse where he blends into the social scene. But a fellow villain spots him and the blackmail begins.

Standard 1950's British drama and not bad entertainment for a rainy Sunday afternoon. You could do worse.

"Kind hearts are more than coronets, Mr. Lawton."

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 7/10 · 28 November 2020]

Henry Paulson, a henpecked clerk at the local bank steals money and instead of getting to the intended exotic Rio ends up in a boarding hotel in rainy Eastbourne, where interacting with the hotel guests changes his life. Although a thief and a fugitive our sympathies stay with Henry throughout, helped by the superb acting of Charles Victor. We have no sympathy for the amoral embezzler of the film's title Alec Johnson, played with silky confidence by Cyril Chamberlain that makes you distrust him the first time he appears onscreen.

The rest of the cast are also ideal including the assuring Ian Fleming playing the doctor, which he did in umpteen films including of course Sherlock Holmes' Dr. Watson. The setting of a respectable residential hotel appears in several British films but there is always something lurking underneath the gentle surface..... The film was well directed by John Gilling.

Last Holiday

[boblipton · 6/10 · 14 July 2019]

Mild-mannered bank cashier Charles Victor learns he has an enlarged heart and might last another couple of years. Between his nagging wife and the proposed stress of a promotion, he daydreams about a cruise. So he turns down the promotion and stuffs the bank's money in a suitcase. The manager catches him, leaving Victor just enough time to scarper to Eastbourne -- with a minute or two of location shooting -- where he holes up in a quiet private hotel. Things get noisy when ex-con Cyril Chamberlain shows up, blackmails ex-girlfriend Zena Marshall, courts well-to-do spinster Peggy Mount and recognizes Victor from the newspapers.

'Solid' is a good word to describe this obviously cheap second feature. The copy I saw had three minutes trimmed from its length, but it doesn't seem to miss them. The effect is that of a decent TV production from a semi-anthology show of the 1960s, like THE FUGITIVE, where David Jansen might get caught up in some one else's story for a week. Few of the actors are attractive, save the juvenile couple of Michael Craig and Miss Marshall; none of the characters are terribly interesting either, save Chamberlain as Miss Marshall's ex-boyfriend, looking to shake every farthing out of anyone who has any, and Phyllis Morris, whose nagging and browbeating seem like most of the reason for husband Victor to get out.

In some ways, that's an odd message to send: the only way to be interesting is to be a nasty piece of work. Yet the dull people are the ones who are happy, in their mild-mannered way. That seems to be the normative subtext of this movie. It's certainly not that money will make you happy.

Charming b-pic crime drama that transcends its ultra low budget and lack of physical action by placing the emphasis on character.

[jamesraeburn2003 · 6 October 2017]

An elderly bank cashier called Henry Paulson (Charles Victor) is told by his doctor that he has only two years to live due to a chronic heart condition. Bored with his job and hen pecked by his wife, Paulson decides to steal money from the bank and live out his days in South America. However, he is caught in the act by his manager who he locks in his office before going on the run. He ends up hiding out in a hotel in Eastbourne where he finds himself sorting out the problems of his fellow guests when a con man, Alec Johnson (Cyril Chamberlain) checks in. It transpires that he is the ex-partner of the young and attractive Mrs Forest (Zena Marshall) who has recently married a young GP called Peter Forest (Michael Craig). Johnson sees the opportunity for blackmail and demands £50 from his ex in order to prevent him from telling her new husband that she was once involved with a criminal. In addition, Johnson is also preying on the wealthy but vulnerable middle aged spinster Ms Ackroyd (Avice Landone). First he tricks her out of her valuable pearl necklace before conning her into believing that he wants to marry her and that he is going into business so that he can get his hands on her life savings. Paulson warns her not to trust him but to no avail. Later Mrs Forest confides in Paulson that Johnson is blackmailing her and he gives her the money to pay him off and to get rid of him. But, after she has paid him off, Johnson proceeds to demand a further £100 from her. Meanwhile, Johnson has twigged it that Paulson is the missing bank cashier the police are after and demands 50% of his proceeds to prevent him turning him in. Paulson agrees on the condition that Johnson leaves Eastbourne and never comes back, but he makes it quite clear he has no intention of doing so. Furthermore, he tells Paulson that he plans to tell Forest about his new wife's past whether she pays him any more money or not. Paulson eyes the bottle of medicine prescribed to him by his GP that can be fatal if used in the incorrect way. Has he got murder on his mind?

A charming British b-pic crime drama that transcends its ultra low budget and its confinement to a single set (a hotel) for much of its running time by skilfully making up for what it lacks in action by focusing on character. The script by John Gilling is sufficiently developed for the audience to care about and sympathise with the plight of the elderly bank employee who is beautifully played by Charles Victor. There is one little scene that really stirs the emotions where Mrs Forest is confiding in him about being blackmailed by her ex-partner and con man Johnson who is played with just the right amount of false charm and arrogance by Cyril Chamberlain. Paulson offers to give her the money to pay him off and, at first, she declines to which he replies: "I've always wanted to do something useful, something very different. I've always wanted to make someone happy." There is some wonderful down to earth humour too like when Paulson arrives at the hotel to find his fellow guests talking about him and his exploits, which are all over the tabloid newspapers. One of them says: "If he was to walk in this minute I'd shake his hand. He's lead a blameless life and probably thought 'What have I done?' He'll be sunning himself in the south of France tomorrow and good luck to him." You can just imagine the audiences of the day applauding in the cinema! The standard of the acting is generally good all round and look out for Michael Craig in an early role as the young doctor. The film was also directed by John Gilling who would later go on to greater fame at Hammer during the British horror boom of the sixties where he made two of their most highly regarded chillers The Plague Of The Zombies and The Reptile (both 1966). He spent his early career making scores of second features such as this that varied greatly in quality. Along with No Trace, The Voice Of Merrill and The Quiet Woman, this stands as one of the best and it is certainly a triumph for him in the way he turns a very low budget and confined film into a meaningful character study that actually features people we can sympathize with and care about. There are countless films of this type where the characterisations are so thin that there is no emotional element and the result is disastrous.

John Gilling's engaging, well-acted B-Thriller is a likeable enough time-waster

[Weirdling_Wolf · 7/10 · 24 May 2022]

Gifted Hammer Films director John Gilling, when not putting the wind up British cinema audiences with his grisly Gothic shockers filled with reptilian fiends, and singularly ghoulish zombies, also made a number of serviceable, low budget crime thrillers in the 1950s, his considerable versatility put to nimble use in the noirish potboiler 'The Embezzler'. This is, arguably, one of the more compelling examples of John Gilling's woefully neglected cops n' robbers oeuvre. In this specific instance, the existential misfortunes concern a weary, hen-pecked bank clerk Henry Paulson (Charles Victor) who is given a rather grim prognosis by his G. P which galvanizes this broken, grey little man into an extraordinarily cavalier act of larceny, the dramatic aftershocks thereafter making John Gilling's engaging, well-acted B-Thriller a breezy enough time-waster. It's aesthetically pleasing feature, featuring melancholic views of a decidedly more austere, glum-looking Eastbourne than one might have expected! While not exactly essential viewing,'The Embezzler' has a cogent text, a genuinely sympathetic protagonist in the light-fingered middle-aged misfit Paulson, and some terrifically tense interludes, plus the frequently heated exchanges between the no less shady, altogether eccentric hotel patrons provide some additional fizz!

Victor's excellent

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 29 April 2021]

A film of two halves, really. The first follows a put-upon Charles Victor as a bank clerk saddled with the biggest shrew of a nagging wife you've ever seen; when he finally commits his crime, the viewer is right behind him. Victor makes for a fine and sympathetic protagonist here, surprisingly so in fact, so this is all quite watchable. The second half changes direction and focuses instead on Cyril Chamberlain's scoundrel character, losing something along the way, but it's still relatively appealing.

Well above average

[swalbj86 · 7/10 · 3 February 2022]

Just seen this on Talking Pictures. An interesting British b movie with a rather clunky contrived plot. In spite of that it's well worth watching, plus it has the lovely Zena Marshall in it.

Good

[evans-15475 · 8/10 · 20 July 2021]

Enjoyable little film to past an hour and a bit and I do like 1950s films when you can be blackmailed over something that now would be an amusing dinner conversation.

Beware of blackmail!

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 2 March 2022]

This little B movie features a few memorable performances, particularly by Charles dichter as a man who steals from his employer and runs away from his hag of a wife, checking into a boarding house on the coast and living with an assumed name. But the happy household isn't exactly all that friendly, with a resident blackmailer played by Cyril Chamberlain who seems to know something about everybody and uses it against them. Eventually, things catch up to him, with Victor plotting a desperate way out from having his secrets being revealed, but things take a different twist.

The first half of the film switches between his exhausting job and his horrible home life with Phyllis Morris hysterically funny as the wife from hell, buy me any reason she can to humiliate him. For the most part, everybody at the boarding house is very nice, and the secrets that they have aren't really worth the trouble of extortion. But for someone like Chamberlain, any shady reason to make a buck for him is worth it. A minor interesting D feature is easily forgettable, but has a few very good moments.

Enjoyable story about a henpecked man

[ripplinbuckethead · 8/10 · 2 September 2019]

A bank clerk (Charles Victor) puts up with a nagging harpy of a wife day after day to the point where he just wants to leave. Not to mean he's thinking of being unfaithful to her, mind you, he just wants to leave. Putting the money into the vault at the end of each day and passing by the local travel agency on his way home gets him in the mood for Rio. Will he take the money and run one of these days? Or will his recently diagnosed heart condition hold him back?

This one, while being generally lighthearted, is definitely bittersweet, especially once he starts meeting certain new people, several of whom affect his life in a large way. I did have thoughts of Ikiru at times because of certain parts of the storyline, but it's nowhere near that heavy. I liked the way the characters' stories intertwined and how important they all were to the whole. Well written and performed.

I enjoyed this one a lot, from the lighthearted beginning to the surprising and bold end, which made me give this a half star higher rating than I might've otherwise. Recommended!

An Early Fawlty Towers

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 11 December 2013]

At the beginning you are lead to believe that this will be a man on the run film.However given the budget that is extremely unlikely.Instead it ends up as the forerunner to Fawlty Towers.The problem with this film is that there are a lot of flaws,particularly early on.The front door is left open so that rather conveniently the manager comes back to retrieve his golf clubs and catches Victor red handed.Victor locks the manager in his office but doesn't disconnect the phone so the police are quickly alerted.Instead of going by air Victor chooses a very circuitous route which involves taking the boat train to France.however as the police are watching the entrance to the platform he opts instead for Eastbourne.Then he skilfully changes his appearance by cutting off his moustache.He ends up in a small hotel,which is reminiscent of Fawlty Towers.Here a criminal is at work with most of the guests and not surprisingly spots Victor.He tries to get the funds off Victor.Victor tries to poison him,but is a bit too unsubtle.The criminal beats up Victor,unaware that Victor has a bad heart.Victor dies but the criminal is trapped by a very young Michael Craig,playing a doctor ,a role he would essay on many further occasions in more distinguished films.A fine performance from Victor in an average film.

His plan went wrong.

[plan99 · 8/10 · 3 February 2022]

A pleasant film well acted with a few twists and turns along the way. Eastbourne was not quite up to his expectations of the Caribbean but he became a goody as a result. The only actor or actress I'd heard of in this film was Michael Craig and his role was fairly minor just being there to do a bit of fisticuffs with the baddy as all the other male characters were too old to take him on.

Could have been better

[Tony_J61 · 3/10 · 4 January 2006]

Charles Victor was an extremely likable actor, although very few films took advantage of his demeanor as much as the mistitled 'The Embezzler' did.

The story seemed to jump a little, as we are initially led to believe that Rio de Janeiro is his preferred destination, as he wanders past a travel agency. Instead, he winds up in a mediocre boarding house, replete with the usual British classes of boarders.

Yes, the story is a bit of a yawn, but as mentioned previously, you could do worse.

Screened on ABC TV, Australia - January 2006.