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| Murder by Proxy (Blackout) (1954) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 13 2012, 10:58 PM (340 Views) | |
| Laughing Gravy | Mar 13 2012, 10:58 PM Post #1 |
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![]() Gorgeous Belinda Lee meets drunk and stupid American Dane Clark in a bar in London spending his last few bucks (or quid or bob or whatever the hell they call real money in that crazy country). She makes him a pretty sweet offer: marry her, and she'll make him rich. Well, that sounds fairly good to him, except that as she tries to get him home, he collapses, dead drunk. Fade up the next morning; he's in an artist's loft, next to a lovely oil portrait of aforementioned Miss Lee, who's nowhere to be found. Turns out she's a missing wealthy heiress whose father has just turned up quite, quite dead - and say, where did Dane get all that blood on his jacket? Dane and the artist lady are going to spend the next hour investigating ("Be a detective? I can do that. Seen enough movies." Haven't we all?) Oddly enough, this one has the general reputation of being the best of all the Hammer noirs. It's not, but it's one of the better ones, and Dane Clark is excellent and gorgeous Belinda Lee is... well, awfully gorgeous. But the entire plot is a tad too complicated for its own good (mothers, fathers, attorneys, friends of the family, random strangers, coppers, and a hotel desk clerk all come into play) and at about 84 minutes, this thing's awful long for a B-movie noir. I am really enjoying watching the progression of director Terence Fisher, though, who was getting pretty good at these things - there are some lovely, atmosphere shots of locales around the city. Dane has some fun with his part (he's so drunk in the beginning, when he orders another drink he can't remember what was in his glass and simply gestures to it and says, "Build one on top of this"); told her married the missing woman during his blackout, he exclaims that he's off to figure out whether he's a murderer or a bridegroom. In regard to the missing (presumed dead) father, he states, "When he turns up - if he ever turns up - he's gonna be the DEADEST man ever killed!" Belinda Lee, truly stunning and still a teen when she made this, went on to a series of British comedies with such illustrious names as Norman Wisdom and Benny Hill, then moved to Italy for a few gladiator pictures. She was killed in a car crash while visiting California when she was only 26.
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10:54 AM Jul 11