This thriller is truly odd.Two brothers are novelists sharing a big house and a secretary.They are both writing murder mysteries.John Bentley is in love with the Secretary Rona Anderson.Dermot Walsh is too,only she doesn't love him.Unfortunately Dermot is barking mad.We know this because not only does he kill a visiting ex convict but also the family cat.Unfortunately Walsh's performance is so over the top that that the film is totally unhinged.It becomes unintentionally funny.Walsh sets up a situation where Bentley goes off on a wild goose chase giving him the opportunity to kill Anderson.However Bentley arrives back in time to prevent it.The climax is just as daft as what had proceeded it.
2 Reviews
Murky, slow-moving murder mystery
Leofwine_draca10 June 2016
TORMENT is quite an unusually plotted little murder mystery film, made by the little-known Advance Productions who only made three films. I saw it on the Talking Pictures TV channel under the title PAPER GALLWOS. Although the running time is a scant 77 minutes, it feels quite slow-moving, particularly in the first half which doesn't really add much in the way of plotting or character.
The storyline is unusual in teaming up two British B-movie stars, John Bentley and Dermot Walsh, as brothers who are both mystery writers. They should have added Paul Carpenter as the long-lost Canadian brother while they were. Bentley is his usual stock heroic figure, warm, likable, and humorous, while Walsh is more sinister, a man given over to deep brooding and nefarious plots.
Much of the plot hinges around a witnessed murder and the subsequent disappearance of the corpse, which was a typical plot development in this genre of film-making. Michael Martin Harvey (THE CASE OF CHARLES PEACE) has a nice little role as a scoundrel. Things only really pick up here for the climax, which is admittedly well mounted, although it comes too late to save what has been a rather murky and unbelievable thriller. Lead actress Rona Anderson was known for her role in SCROOGE and had a lengthy career in film and TV, while director John Guillermin is of course well known for going on to direct Hollywood classics like THE TOWERING INFERNO.
The storyline is unusual in teaming up two British B-movie stars, John Bentley and Dermot Walsh, as brothers who are both mystery writers. They should have added Paul Carpenter as the long-lost Canadian brother while they were. Bentley is his usual stock heroic figure, warm, likable, and humorous, while Walsh is more sinister, a man given over to deep brooding and nefarious plots.
Much of the plot hinges around a witnessed murder and the subsequent disappearance of the corpse, which was a typical plot development in this genre of film-making. Michael Martin Harvey (THE CASE OF CHARLES PEACE) has a nice little role as a scoundrel. Things only really pick up here for the climax, which is admittedly well mounted, although it comes too late to save what has been a rather murky and unbelievable thriller. Lead actress Rona Anderson was known for her role in SCROOGE and had a lengthy career in film and TV, while director John Guillermin is of course well known for going on to direct Hollywood classics like THE TOWERING INFERNO.
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