Death Trap (1962)

Death Trap is a competent 1962 entry in the British Merton Park Studios Edgar Wallace cycle.

Paul Heindrik (Albert Lieven) is a ruthless but successful middle-aged investment banker. His feckless stepson Derek (Kenneth Cope) is in over his head financially and is desperately trying to persuade his stepfather to bail him out, but so far it’s no dice.

Paul’s Jean Anscomb (Barbara Shelley) has been listening in on Paul’s conversations and going through his briefcase.

Her disreputable friend Ross Williams (John Meillon) is just out of prison where he’d been sent after embezzling clients’ money from Paul’s firm. Maybe he was set up and maybe he wasn’t but he has convinced himself that Paul owes him. He is about to spot an opportunity for blackmail.

A woman, Carol Halston (Mercy Haystead), turns up at Paul’s office. A few weeks earlier her sister Moira died of an overdose of sleeping pills. The inquest brought in a finding of accidental death. Carol isn’t entirely convinced. The day before she died Moira withdrew seven thousand pounds from her bank. No trace of the money can be found, although several of the characters have come up with definite theories.

So we have a bunch of people who are all ethically challenged to some degree. Some might be involved in serious crimes. Some may simply be a bit foolish.

And then a man is deliberately run down by a car. He is linked to Paul Heindrik and to these other characters. That makes two sudden deaths. One is definitely murder, the other might possibly be.

The viewer knows more than the police but there’s a lot of important stuff that we don’t know, and the motives remain a mystery.

This movie does a fine job of keeping us guessing about the characters. We know that one of them is a criminal but we honestly don’t know about any of the others. Their behaviour might invite suspicion but they might be innocent.

There’s some decent suspense. There’s a killer who is highly likely to kill again and a character we have come to be fond of is in very real danger.

Detective Inspector Simons (Leslie Sands) is one of those thorough coppers who doesn’t take anything at face value and he’s very quick when it comes to spotting connections.

Merton Park Studios never had any problems assembling very competent casts for these movies. It’s Barbara Shelley, looking rather glamorous, who delivers the star power. All the cast members deliver suitably ambiguous performances.

Look out for a young Barbara Windsor in a small role, looking cute wearing nothing but a towel!

Director John Llewellyn Moxey had a prolific career in both British and American TV and helmed several of these Edgar Wallace B-films including the very good Face of a Stranger (1964), Downfall (1964) and the excellent Ricochet (1963). He was a very competent artisan.

John Riddick wrote the well-constructed script for Death Trap as well as scripting others of the Wallace films including The Partner (1963), The Double (1963) and the very fine The Rivals (1963).

Death Trap is included in Network’s Edgar Wallace Mysteries Volume Four DVD set. It gets a very nice transfer.

Death Trap is well-crafted and enjoyable. Highly recommended.

The Man from Utah (1934)

The Man from Utah is a 1934 western B-movie made by Lone Star Productions and it’s one of the many B-westerns John Wayne made in the 30s.

Somehow or other the music track for this movie was lost at some stage and eventually a somewhat unsatisfactory modern music track was added. Fortunately the original dialogue track survived.

When we’re first introduced to John Weston (John Wayne) we think this is going to be a singing cowboy movie but it isn’t.

John Weston arrives in a little town in the West looking for work. When he almost single-handedly foils a bank robbery the crusty but good-natured Marshal Higgins decides he’s found the man he needs to take on a gang that uses a rodeo in the neighbouring town of Dalton as a front for its criminal activities including a series of robberies.

Weston is deputised. He will be undercover, posing as an entrant in the rodeo. It could be dangerous. There have been several mysterious deaths at the rodeo - men who fell foul of the gang. Marshal Higgins can’t prove that these were murders but he has no doubt that they were.

Weston is going to have romance problems as well. He falls for Marjorie Carter (Polly Ann Young), daughter of Dalton’s leading citizen but he has to play up to sexpot Dolores (Anita Campillo). Dolores is mixed up with the gang and she could provide a way for him to ingratiate himself with the gang.

The leader of the gang is Spike Barton (Edward Peil). He has his suspicions of Weston. Weston has some ideas about how the gang uses the rodeo as a cover for its robberies. He also thinks he’s figured out how the murders were carried out.

So it’s going to be a cat-and-mouse game between these two.

A major advantage that B-movies (especially crime thrillers, spy trillers and westerns) enjoyed was that the running times were so short. This one clocks in at just 51 minutes. You didn’t have to think about the pacing. It had to be brisk. There was no choice. This movie moves along very quickly indeed.

There’s lots of rodeo action. It’s all stock footage of course but it’s integrated into the movie pretty well.

There’s lots of action. Of all kinds - shoot-out, fistfights and daring trick riding.

The Big Trail (1930) was an ambitious epic western that was expected to make John Wayne a star but it didn’t happen. The movie flopped. This turned out to be, perversely, a lucky break for Wayne. He wasn’t ready for stardom then, the John Wayne persona was not yet fully formed and he did not yet have the necessary star quality. He spent almost a decade in the B-movie ghetto but when he did finally get his big break, in Stagecoach in 1939, he was ready. He’d gained a vast amount of experience, his trademark persona was now fully developed and the characteristic John Wayne star quality was there in abundance. After that his career never looked back.

In The Man from Utah you can see the process half-completed. He’s starting to get that easy good-humoured confidence that was such an essential part of John Wayne the star.

This movie boasts a perfectly serviceable plot and while it’s obviously not one of the great westerns there’s a lot for fans of the genre to enjoy. If you’re a fan of Duke Wayne, even better.

The Man from Utah is a fun little movie and it’s highly recommended.

My copy is on an ancient long out-of-print Payless double-feature DVD (it’s paired with a Roy Rogers movie) but the transfer is quite acceptable.

The Set Up (1963)

The Set Up is a 1963 entry in the British Merton Park Studios Edgar Wallace B-movie crime thriller cycle - a prolific and consistently very fine series of movies.

Arthur Payne (Brian Peck) has just been released from prison. He meets a man on a train who tells him he might have a job for him.

Payne is then approached by another man with a proposal. It will pay well.  He wants his own safe robbed. His story is that he is trying to catch his wife out - she has been selling off her diamonds and replacing them with fakes. There’s no risk involved in the job. Payne won’t actually be doing anything illegal. There’s no way the police can become involved.

Payne is a nice enough guy but he’s as dumb as a rock. He falls for this story although even a give-year-old child would be suspicious. Of course the fact that Payne has been in prison indicates that he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Payne is so naïve that he doesn’t even bother to wear gloves when robbing the safe.

Naturally it all goes horribly wrong. Payne is now on the run, suspected of a murder.

Then he meets a cute blonde. Meeting a cute blonde is generally trouble but this is a nice cute blonde. She wants to help Payne. He has told her the truth about the way he was set up and she actually believes him. He trusts her and although he thinks she has betrayed him she hasn’t.

Inspector Jackson (John Carson) would like to believe Payne is innocent as well. He arrested Payne last time but he thinks Payne is fundamentally decent. And he finds it hard to believe that a petty thief would suddenly become a murderer.

Maybe Payne really was set up. But possibly he wasn’t the only one.

The strong cast is a bonus here. Maurice Denham as Gaunt is good, Anthony Bate is delightfully smooth and untrustworthy as Gaunt’s business associate Ray Underwood. Luanshya Greer is likeable as Sally, the cute blonde. I always enjoy John Carson’s performances whether he’s playing a good guy or a bad guy. Brian Peck has a tough job as Payne since we have to be on the guy’s side even though he’s been such a total fool.

Gerard Glaister directed this film and several others in the series but he had most success as a television producer. It’s hard to fault the job he does here.

The low budgets of these movies didn’t give directors much scope for being visually ambitious. The most important thing was to keep the stories powering along and the very short running times (usually less than an hour) helped here. If the script was good the movie would work. This one was written by Roger Marshall who had an outstandingly distinguished career as a television writer and wrote several of these Edgar Wallace potboilers.

The Set Up is included in Network’s Edgar Wallace Mysteries Volume Four DVD set. It gets the usual nice transfer.

As with all the movies in this series The Set Up was shot in black-and-white and widescreen. The Set Up is very decent entertainment and it’s recommended.

I’ve seen and reviewed a lots of these Edgar Wallace films, including several written by Roger Marshall - Ricochet (1963) and Who was Maddox? (1964). Some of the others I’ve reviewed are Number Six (1962), Candidate for Murder (1962) and Time to Remember (1962).

Locker Sixty Nine (1962)

Locker Sixty Nine is a 1962 entry in the British Merton Park Edgar Wallace thriller cycle - a prolific and consistently excellent series of crime B-movies.

This one was directed by Norman Harrison and written by Richard Harris.

We are introduced to businessman Bennett Sanders and we realise he’s the sort of businessman who makes enemies. He has hired ex-cop Craig (Walter Brown) as a bodyguard.

Murder follows, or at least possible murder. With no body to be found Detective Inspector Roon (John Glyn-Jones) is understandably reluctant to commit himself, but there are some suggestive bloodstains.

Miguel Terila (John Carson) and his wife Eva (Clarissa Stolz) have some sort of grudge against Sanders.

Someone might want to kill Sanders for business or financial reasons but with two beautiful glamorous women mixed up in the case, both apparently Sanders’ mistresses, romantic jealousy is just as likely. The second woman is night-club chanteuse Julie Denver (Penelope Horner).

The vital clue is a secret file kept in a safety deposit box. Everyone wants that file. They are prepared to use drastic measures to get hold of it.

Reporter Simon York (Eddie Byrne) is convinced there’s a much bigger story here and he intends to uncover it.

The plot is solid enough overall but the main problem is that the major plot twist is too obvious and there’s not enough sense of urgency or real danger. These criminals are not quite desperate enough.

These Edgar Wallace thrillers were consistently good because they had fine writers and very competent directors and while they did not have huge stars the cast members were always very capable. I can’t single out any particular cast member since they’re all absolutely fine. It is always fun to see Alfred Burke in anything (he plays Simon York’s editor).

These were low-budget movies so there was no scope for spectacular visual set-pieces or lavish sets. They relied on good scripts and on the fact that they were made by professionals who knew what they were doing and who understood the genre.

The very short running times (usually just under an hour) helped as well. There was no time to waste on unnecessary subplots.

As was the case with most of the directors of these movies Norman Harrison worked mostly in television. Screenwriter Richard Harris had a distinguished career as a TV writer.

Locker Sixty Nine is included in Network’s Edgar Wallace Mysteries Volume Four DVD set. It gets, as usual, a very nice transfer.

Like all the movies in this series Locker Sixty Nine was shot widescreen in black-and-white. Locker Sixty Nine is decent entertainment.

I’ve seen and reviewed a stack of these Edgar Wallace films, including Marriage of Convenience (1960), Man at the Carlton Tower (1961) and The Sinister Man (1961). In fact I’ve reviewed a couple of dozen of these films!

Dead Men Tell (1941)

Dead Men Tell is a 1941 20th Century-Fox Charlie Chan mystery starring my favourite screen Chan, Sidney Toler.

Dead Men Tell has a contemporary setting but the opening scenes take place on a sailing ship that looks like it’s right out of a pirate movie. And the ship is about to take part in a treasure. With a treasure map. And the captain’s cabin is filled with pirate memorabilia. OK, this movie has grabbed my attention right away.

Most of the action in fact takes place aboard this sailing ship. An eccentric old lady, Miss Nodbury (Ethel Griffies), has a map showing the location of treasure buried by notorious pirate Blackhook. He was one of her ancestors, which explains her obsession with pirates.

She has organised an expedition. She has torn the map into half a dozen pieces. Each member of the expedition has one piece. Miss Nodbury is a very suspicious old bird. She trusts nobody.

Of course you know that someone will commit murder to get hold of that map. The murder occurs, by one of those amazing detective story coincidences, while Charlie Chan and Number Two Son Jimmy Chan (Victor Sen Yung) are aboard.

Number Two Son has witnessed something important but he doesn’t recognise its significance and Charlie is always inclined to be sceptical when Number Two Son claims to have uncovered vital evidence.

There is indeed a murder. And it won’t be the last.

There are plenty of shady characters about - treasure hunts don’t end to attract reliable responsible citizens. The treasure hunters are not necessarily quite the people they claim to be.

And something happened in the past that could have a bearing on the current situation.

And that notorious pirate Blackhook will exert a certain influence on events.

I like Sidney Toler as Chan because he gives the character a very slight edge. Charlie’s a really nice guy but he is a cop. You don’t become a high-ranking police detective without a certain toughness.

Number Two Son is of course basically a comic relief character but Victor Sen Yung can be genuinely amusing and he’s not excessively irritating. And the character does get to do a few relatively important things. The supporting cast is solid.

Being a B-movie made by a major studio Dead Men Tell is a polished professional production. A B-movie shooting schedule didn’t allow for anything too fancy but it’s clear that director Harry Lachman and DP Charles G. Clarke are at least making an effort to create some atmosphere and to add a bit of visual interest. Although it never leaves port the sailing ship provides an excellent setting.

Dead Men Tell is a fine entry in the Fox Chan cycle. That cycle was drawing to a close by this time (although Charlie and Sidney Toler would find a new home at Monogram) but the quality remained high. Dead Men Tell is highly recommended.

This movie is included in Fox’s Charlie Chan Collection Volume 5 DVD boxed set. The transfer is very nice indeed.

I’ve reviewed quite a few of the Sidney Toler Chan movies - Charlie Chan’s Murder Cruise (1940), Charlie Chan in Panama (1940), Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940) and Murder Over New York (1940). They’re all excellent B-movies.

The Shadow Strikes (1937)

The Shadow Strikes is a 1937 B-movie based on the Shadow character featured in a series of pulp novels and radio dramas. The Shadow was typical of the pulp heroes of that era. They were not superheroes as such but characters like the Shadow and Doc Savage could be regarded as proto-superheroes. Masked crime-fighters were very popular.

Rod La Rocque plays the title character. For some unknown reason the Lamont Cranston of the pulps and radio dramas becomes Lamont Granston in this movie.

This was the first movie appearance of the Shadow. It was made by a small outfit called Grand National Pictures. They made a follow-up movie, International Crime, a year later (again with Rod La Rocque). There would be later Shadow movies from Monogram in the 40s.

The Shadow Strikes opens with a brief scene which gives us, in a perfunctory manner, the information that the wealthy Lamont Granston (Rod La Rocque) has a secret identity as the masked crime-fighter known as the Shadow.

The Shadow interrupts a burglary in the office of lawyer Chester Randall. The Shadow has given the police a tip-off but he is unable to make his getaway before they arrive. Luckily the cops, led by Captain Breen (Kenneth Harlan), are not too bright - at no point in the movie do they actually check any information given to them, they just take everything anybody says at face value. The Shadow, who has at least had time to shed his masked crime-fighter garb, is easily able to fool the police into believing that he is in fact Chester Randall.

Then there’s a telephone call for Chester Randall. Granston decides to continue his impersonation - he has a hunch that he will uncover something interesting by doing so. A wealthy old guy, Caleb Delthern, wants a new will draw up. It has to be done urgently. He thinks his life is in danger. He’s not wrong about that. Minutes later he is shot dead through a window by an unknown assassin who makes a successful escape.

Caleb’s heirs are a motley assortment of nieces and nephews and the terms of his will are such as to make them all possible suspects. They all behave rather suspiciously. The youngest of the nephews, Jasper, is a dissipated young man heavily in debt to gambling boss and presumed racketeer Brossett (Cy Kendall).

Most of this movie’s many problems stem from the fact that it’s a very low-budget production from a particularly low-rent Poverty Row outfit. Director Lynn Shores relies heavily on lengthy very static dialogue scenes, these being scenes that could be shot very quickly, easily and cheaply. There was obviously neither the time nor the money to attempt any worthwhile action scenes.

A bigger problem is that it’s played as a standard crime mystery B-movie. Lamont Granston spends almost the entire movie pretending to be Chester Randall. We see the briefest of glimpses of him in his Shadow guise. There is no mention of any of the Shadow’s special talents. He becomes just a stock-standard amateur detective.

The best thing about this movie is the almost complete absence of the irritating comic relief that ruined so many American B-movies of this era.

The Shadow Strikes is just too stilted and too talky and it lacks atmosphere. The plot is serviceable. The acting is at best adequate. It’s just a very unexciting routine mystery that takes no advantages of the possibilities afforded by the original version of the character. Maybe worth a look for its curiosity value if you’re a Shadow fan.

I found a copy of this film, which obviously had fallen into the public domain, in one of those Mill Creek 50-movie DVD sets (in this case their Mystery Classics set). The transfer is a bit rough but watchable.

Blonde for a Day (1946)

Blonde for a Day is a 1946 private eye thriller featuring Mike Shayne.

The Mike Shayne Private eye thrillers of Brett Halliday (a pseudonym used by Davis Dresser) began publication in 1939 and were successful enough to attract the attention of Hollywood. 20th Century-Fox made seven Mike Shayne B-movies between 1940 and 1942, all with Lloyd Nolan as Shayne. PRC then made five more films in 1946 and 1947 with Hugh Beaumont taking over the lead role.

The 20th Century-Fox and PRC films are best regarded as two distinct franchises with rather different flavours. The Fox movies tend to be lighthearted semi-comic crime films. The PRC movies have a slightly tougher grittier feel. For my money Lloyd Nolan’s interpretation of the role is a bit too whimsical. Hugh Beaumont takes a more no-nonsense approach to the role which I much prefer.

Blonde for a Day is number three in the PRC series. Crusading reporter Tim Rourke (Paul Bryar) has been publishing hard-hitting exposés on a crime syndicate. His editor, Walter Bronson (Frank Ferguson) fears he’s going too far. Tim figures he’ll soon be out of a job. And gambling boss Hank Brenner (Mauritz Hugo) might be tempted to try to shut him up for good. Tim sends a wire to his old buddy, San Francisco PI Mike Shayne, asking for some help.

Somebody does go gunning for Tim Rourke.

Mike finds evidence in Tim’s apartment that he was visited by two blondes on the day of the shooting. One of the blondes might possibly have been Bronson’s wife. She’s been carrying a torch for Tim for a while.

So there are two possible motives for the shooting, the gambling exposés and the fact that Tim has been a bit too friendly with the boss’s wife. We will later find out that there’s a blackmail angle as well.

There have been other murders, and a blonde is suspected.

There’s a plethora of blondes in this movie. Blondes always mean trouble.

One of those blondes turns up dead.

Hugh Beaumont can trade wise-cracks effectively and he makes Shayne seem like just enough of a tough guy to be a convincing PI. Kathryn Adams, who was married to High Beaumont at the time, is good as Shayne’s feisty likeable secretary/girlfriend Phyllis (and she gets a chance to show that she can throw a pretty good punch). Cy Kendall is solid as the perpetually grumbling Detective Lieutenant Pete Rafferty.

The supporting players are all perfectly adequate.

Compared to major studio B-pictures PRC’s productions were very low budget but that works to the advantage of these PRC Mike Shayne films. They lack glamour but they have a slightly seedy feel and after all the world of the private eye is pretty seedy.

Don’t expect a spectacular action finale. Not on a PRC budget.

This is a solid unassuming B-movie that moves along nicely and it delivers entertainment value. Recommended.

I’ve reviewed the first two PRC Mike Shayne movies, Murder Is My Business (1946) and Larceny in Her Heart (1946). I’ve also reviewed some of the Fox Shayne movies, including the best of them, Blue, White and Perfect (1942) and Sleepers West (1941) which is not too bad.

Dick Tracy Returns (1938 serial)

Dick Tracy Returns was the second of Republic’s Dick Tracy serials. It came out in 1938. This time it’s directed by William Witney and John English and nobody did serials better than those two. It also means that the cliffhangers will be above average.

Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy comic strip began its run in 1931. It’s still running today.

In this serial Dick Tracy has become an F.B.I. agent.

Dick’s latest case puts him up against Pa Stark and his five sons (obviously a reference to Ma Barker and her notorious boys).

And Pa Stark is played by Charles Middleton, Ming the Merciless himself. He is always a joy to watch. In this serial he’s not a wildly colourful villain but he is ruthless and menacing.

Ralph Byrd plays Dick Tracy and it’s fair to say that he was the definitive screen Dick Tracy. He makes Tracy a square-jawed hero but not too much of an an exaggerated comic-book hero. He resists the temptation to go over-the-top. His Tracy is a remorseless but quietly efficient crime-fighter.

Pa Stark dabbles in various kinds of criminality, from a relatively straightforward armoured car robbery to extortion and even espionage. His plans are elaborate but his boys don’t always execute those plans successfully.

A major problem that arises for Pa Stark early on is that his youngest son “Kid” Stark falls into the hands of the police and is facing a murder rap.

That murder rap is a personal matter for Dick Tracy. The murdered G-Man was one of his protégés.

Pa’s solution is to eliminate the witnesses, but that solution just seems to create more witnesses to more crimes. Dick Tracy becomes a witness but eliminating him is going to prove to be quite a challenge.

The science fictional elements of the first Dick Tracy serial have been dropped but there is still plenty of technology. 

Naturally there is some aerial action - aviation was a 1930s obsession so any crime serial worth its salt was going to include aerial adventure. You know there will be narrow escapes from doomed aircraft.

The Republic serials directed by Witney and English are always fast-moving. Never give the audience time to worry too much about the plots, just make sure that there is always something breathlessly exciting or tense happening. Have lots of things getting blown up. Witney and English always did superior action scenes.

Naturally Pa Stark’s criminal schemes tend to involve cars, aircraft and explosions and some modern technology (just as a new high-powered astronomical telescope), and abandoned mines and all the stuff that makes 1930s/40s serials so much fun.

Dick Tracy Returns is fine entertainment. Highly recommended.

VCI’s released a DVD boxed set containing three Dick Tracy serials. It offers perfectly acceptable image and sound quality and it’s a very good buy.

The first of the Republic Dick Tracy serials, Dick Tracy (1937), was not directed by Witney and English and has a different feel but it’s very enjoyable. I’ve also reviewed the two best Witney-English serials - Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939) and the magnificent Spy Smasher (1942).

To Have and to Hold (1963)

To Have and to Hold is a 1963 entry in the Merton Park cycle of British Edgar Wallace B-movies. This one was scripted by Jimmy Sangster and directed by Herbert Wise.

Sergeant Fraser (Ray Barrett) is an ordinary cop, a detective. He’s given a very easy job to do - to convince a woman that her ex is not really intending to murder her. But Claudia (Katharine Blake) sounds so convincing and she’s clearly genuinely frightened. Fraser allows her to persuade him to stay for dinner. They agree to meet for lunch the next day.

Fraser hasn’t done anything seriously wrong but taking the risk of becoming personally involved in a case like this is perhaps a little unwise.

Fraser had no intention of getting personally involved at all but sometimes a man meets a woman and he just gets drawn into things. He’s not even sure why Claudia fascinates him. She is charming but perhaps it’s something else. Perhaps its’s just a natural masculine reaction - a frightened woman who may be in danger and he starts to feel protective.

The involvement proves to have been very unwise. This was not such a trivial routine matter after all. And Fraser is in the middle of it and his life is getting just a bit out of control.

Then the plot twists start to kick in. Fraser is really in a muddle now. He thinks he knows what is going on but he is personally involved and he could be totally wrong.

His boss, Detective Inspector Roberts (William Hartnell), isn’t overly pleased with him. Roberts believes Fraser is a good cop and he doesn’t want to see the younger man doing anything to wreck his career.

Fraser also has Lucy (Patricia Bredin) to consider. Lucy is his girlfriend, or was his girlfriend and maybe still is.

Jimmy Sangster was always a reliable writer and he’s come up with a very solid screenplay here. Herbert Wise was already an experienced television director and while the low budgets on these Edgar Wallace movies didn’t allow much scope for doing anything fancy he shows himself to be perfectly competent.

Australian actor Ray Barrett was always worth watching and he gives an effective low-key performance here, doing just enough to let us know that Fraser is confused and upset and that his judgment might not be as sound as usual.

Katharine Blake is fine as the woman.

William Hartnell is as always a delight. His inspector is not quite the usual crusty bad-tempered old cop with a heart of gold. Right from the start his attitude towards Fraser is more that of an indulgent uncle. Barrett and Hartnell are terrific in their scenes together.

The one weakness is that the script glosses over a couple of points and that ends up stretching credibility just a little. I found myself mystified that these things were left hanging.

On the whole though it’s enjoyable and nicely twisted.

As usual it’s widescreen black-and-white, a format of which I’m quite fond.

This is included in Network’s Edgar Wallace Collection Volume 5 DVD boxed set. And as usual the transfer is excellent.

Hold Back Tomorrow (1955)

Hold Back Tomorrow was produced, directed and written in 1955 by Hugo Haas, a filmmaker who is arguably unfairly overlooked. It’s one of several Haas movies which starred Cleo Moore.

It’s a movie that had to tread fairly carefully to avoid the ire of the Production Code Authority.

A killer named Joe Cardos (John Agar) is to be hanged the following morning. The warden tells him he can have a last request. No matter what it is it will be granted. Joe asks for a woman for the night.

The warden is horrified but feels that he has no choice. The cops are given the job of finding Joe a woman.

That proves to be rather difficult. Most girls are not keen on the idea of spending the night with a guy who is about to be hanged for strangling three women. Even ladies known to have flexible moral standards are not interested.

Finally they get a lead on a girl who might be a possibility. The proprietress of an escort service suggests that Dora (Cleo Moore). Dora is down so low and is so desperate she would do anything for money, and since there will be two hundred bucks in it for her she might say yes.

We have already been introduced to Dora, in the movie’s effectively moody doom-laden opening sequence. She was trying to drown herself. She really is at rock bottom. Not surprisingly she says yes. She hates the idea but she hates life and she hates herself and she hates everything and she figures she’s got nothing left to lose.

Dora and Joe don’t exactly hit it off at first. Eventually they begin to talk. About their pasts. About why their lives have been so disastrous. I can’t say too much more without risking spoilers.

Almost the entire movie is shot on a single set, Joe’s cell. By its nature it’s a very talky movie. It also inevitably has a slightly artificial feel but that works to the film’s advantage - it’s as if for one night these two people are locked in their own private world.

And it is totally focused on Joe and Dora. That puts a lot of pressure on the lead actors. They carry it off pretty well. John Agar plays Joe as a man filled with seething resentment and he does a decent job.

Cleo Moore never quite made it to the top as an actress. She didn’t quite have that extra something that transforms a promising actress into a genuine A-list star. I’ve seen a few of her movies and she was always quite competent. This is by far the best performance I’ve seen from her. She’s very very impressive and never makes the mistake of pushing things too far. Dora is not a woman likely to have an emotional meltdown or burst into tears. For her it’s much too late for that. Moore captures her mix of resignation and despair exceptionally well.

Now back to my earlier point about this movie’s fascinating attempts to sidestep the Production Code. First off, what would a guy in Joe’s position want to do with a dame on his last night on earth? Maybe he’d like to play gin rummy, or talk about literature, but even in 1955 no audience was going to buy that. But of course there was no way the movie could suggest that he might want to have sex with her. Perish the thought. Joe just wants a woman to talk to. It kind of works but it is obviously a bit unlikely, especially given that Dora is a stunning blonde and is wearing a slinky dress.

When the cops talk to the woman who runs the escort service Haas is careful to make sure we see a prominently displayed sign which explains that the agency provides girls as dancing partners only, but at the same time we get the very strong impression that these young ladies are call girls.

Of course when the cops had trouble finding a girl to agree to share Joe’s cell on his last night the obvious thing would have been to look for a prostitute. Even if it was going to be made clear that no hanky-panky was going to happen it would be fairly obvious that a prostitute would be more likely go for such an idea than a respectable girl.

And at this point it would seem that Haas decided to take a risk. He threw in a line that tells us that Dora is in fact a call girl. It’s just one line and presumably he hoped that somehow the Production Code Authority (PCA) would miss it. And apparently they did. So Dora is indeed a prostitute, and we also learn (in that same single line of dialogue), that like most such girls she’s been persecuted by the criminal justice system and that might well explain why she’s been reduced to poverty and despair. All of which means that her character makes more sense, and her actions make more sense.

Haas was clearly trying to make a grown-up movie and to a surprising extent he succeeds. He knew that the really grown-up stuff would have to be limited to one or two crucial lines of dialogue that the PCA might not notice. My interpretation of this movie is to a large extent based on these throwaway lines, but given that Haas had by this time been writing and directing movies for 30 years I figure that if he included a line of dialogue he did so for a reason. There’s that one line that suggests that Dora is probably a call girl. There’s another line that indicates that Dora assumes that Joe’s murders were sexually motivated, that he strangled women because that was the only way he could get sexual pleasure.

What’s really interesting is that Dora simply doesn’t care if Joe kills her for his sexual pleasure. To her that would be a fitting end to her life.

The prison authorities leave Dora completely alone in the cell with Joe. There’s not even a guard posted outside. He could do anything he wanted to her. That’s obviously a bit of dramatic licence, no prison warden would allow such a thing, but it’s dramatically necessary. We have to believe that Dora’s life is in Joe’s hands.

This is a story of a man in need of redemption, but he doesn’t know it. And a woman in need of a meaning to her life, but she doesn’t know it. You’ll have to watch the movie to find out whether either achieves those goals.

This is a slightly odd movie but it’s engrossing. Highly recommended.

It’s included in Kino Lorber’s Film Noir: Dark Side of Cinema XVII boxed set although of course it isn’t film noir.

I’ve reviewed a couple of Cleo Moore’s other movies - One Girl’s Confession (1953) and Over-Exposed (1956).