Blind Spot (1958)

Blind Spot is another one of those totally forgotten British crime B-movies the existence of which you never suspect until you come across them in one of Renown Pictures’ Crime Collection boxed sets. These sets really are like a lucky dip - sometimes the movies turn out to be forgotten treasures and sometimes they’re mediocre. Which category does this one fall into? That remains to be seen.

It certainly has an interesting setup. Captain Dan Adams (Robert MacKenzie) is a young American serviceman stationed in England and as a result of a training accident he’s totally blind. He’s allowed to leave the hospital to go to a party hosted by a fellow officer. The driver drops him at the wrong address - 12 Lindale Square instead of 12 Lindale Avenue. Adams doesn’t need the driver to wait to see him in. He knows where he is and his buddy Joe Kelly will be waiting.

Finding himself at the wrong house would be irritating but there’s worse to come. He falls over a corpse lying on the floor. Then someone slugs him. They leave him unconscious outside 12 Lindale Avenue.

So Adams has stumbled upon a murder. The twist is that Adams doesn’t know that he was dropped at 12 Lindale Square by mistake. He has no idea where this mysterious house was. He tells his story to the cops but they figure that he was just imagining things. It must have been the after-effects of the head injury that left him blind.

We’re only a short way into the movie when we get another plot twist. The blindness was only temporary. Within the next few days the surgeons were intending to perform an operation that would relieve the pressure on his brain, and that should restore his sight. That’s what happens. Adams now has his eyesight back.

But he still doesn’t know where that mysterious house was and he still knows that he discovered a murder and that bothers him a bit.

It isn’t really his business and he isn’t inclined to make it his business until he finds the tie-clip again. He thinks it could be a vital clue and now he’s starting to get obsessed over the mystery.

He follows another lead which leads him to the Brents. Mr Brent (John Le Mesurier) is still mourning the death of his son Johnny in an air crash. Johnny’s sister June (Anne Sharp) thinks that maybe Johnny’s death was a bit suspicious so now Adams has stumbled onto another odd occurrence. He doesn’t think it’s a coincidence.

Then something happens that supplies Adams with a really good motive for continuing to play amateur detective.

As an amateur sleuth he’s reasonably effective. He makes a few mistakes because he trusts the wrong people but he’s persistent and he has a suspicious mind.

Director Peter Maxwell made very few feature films but did a huge amount of TV work in various places, especially Australia. I can’t really fault the job he does here. The pacing is brisk and there’s some decent suspense, and a bit of action.

Robert MacKenzie’s career amounted to very little. In this movie he’s a bit bumptious but that fits the character.

The supporting cast is very competent. Appearing in a minor rôle is a young at that time totally unknown actor by the name of Michael Caine. I wonder if his career ever amounted to anything?

This is another competent B-movie produced by Robert S. Baker and Monte Berman, later to enjoy great success as producers of The Saint TV series. In this case the original story was apparently Baker’s.

Blind Spot is one of the nine movies in the Renown Pictures’ Crime Collection Volume 4 set. They’ve also released this one individually. The transfer is widescreen 16:9 enhanced and it’s quite satisfactory. There are no extras.

Blind Spot is just a typical British B-feature of its era but it has enough plot twists to keep the viewer interested and some suspense and it’s a perfectly competent production. I’m a fan of these low-budget British crime potboilers and I enjoyed this one. Recommended.