The Third Alibi - 1961 film review

I didn't have especially high hopes of The Third Alibi, a 1961 crime film directed by Montgomery Tully, but I found myself enjoying a tautly directed and neatly written "inverted mystery" that surprised me more than once with the turns taken by the plot. The storyline contains several familiar ingredients, but here they are blended with a good deal of skill to produce a film that is distinctly superior to most British B-movies of its time.

The story was actually based on a play called "Moment of Blindness" by the husband and wife duo Pip and Jane Baker. Whether the play was actually performed before being filmed, I don't know, but as yet I haven't found a trace of it. The Bakers, incidentally, became much better known for their TV work, most notably on Doctor Who.

Laurence Payne, an actor best known for his TV appearances as Sexton Blake, and a man who became a reasonably successful crime novelist, plays a selfish and weak-willed composer called Norman Martell. He is married to Helen (Patricia Dainton) but having an affair with her half-sister Peggy (Jane Griffiths). Life gets more complicated when Peggy announces that she is pregnant. Helen refuses him a divorce and also keeps secret the fact that she is suffering from a serious heart condition. The plot potters around for a while, and the young Cleo Laine sings a ditty supposedly composed by Martell. (There's an uncredited appearance by Dudley Moore,  no less, as a pianist!) It is not a memorable song; suffice to say that Norman is no Burt Bacharach. Nor, when he begins to plan an ingenious murder, does he prove to be one of the more successful killers.

From the moment that his murder plot begins to unravel, the story gathers real momentum, and John Arnatt gives a nice performance as an affable but shrewd superintendent, while Arthur Hewlett makes his presence felt at the end of the film. In researching the film, I found a negative review by David Parkinson on the Radio Times site which struck me as excessively harsh. Much more thoughtful and perceptive is the review on the Classic Movie Ramblings blog, which describes the film as "a lot more special than one would expect". CMR recommends this film, and so do I.

Fear is the Key - 1972 film review

During my teens, I went through an Alistair MacLean phase, reading every thriller he'd written. I began with The Last Frontier,and took in classics like H.M.S. Ulysses and Where Eagles Dare along the way. In time, MacLean's writing seemed to me to deteriorate, and I stopped reading him. But one of my favourites of his novels was Fear is the Key, which impressed me with its plot twists and emotional drive.

So I was glad to seize the chance to watch the film version, made in 1972,when MacLean's fame was more or less at its height. His stories were visual, and many were turned into films, most of which I watched - but somehow I missed this one. Perhaps because its cast was slightly less starry - although it did include a youngish Ben Kingsley, complete with a full head of hiir!

Barry Newman plays John Talbot, the main protagonist. Newman was well-known as the star of the TV series Petrocelli, but for me he was never quite in the top league of action heroes. Here he does a competent job, but although it's perhaps a harsh judgment, I feel he didn't have quite the level of charisma, magnetism or however one describes it that seems necessary for the role of Talbot. The obligatory glamorous young woman is played by Suzy Kendall, who was once married to Dudley Moore.

At the start of the film, Talbot is involved in a tragic but slightly mysterious incident. The action then shifts forward three years. Talbot is arrested and brought to court, where he shoots a policeman and escapes after kidnapping Suzy Kendall. There's a memorable car chase, and the plot twists come at acceptably regular intervals. Roy Budd supplies an excellent, jazzy soundtrack. Overall, a watchable action movie, but it's not of the same high quality as some of the best MacLean films.

Pretty Poison - film review

I find reading other blogs very enjoyable, and above all I like discovering new stuff - unfamiliar books, films, and trivia in particular - from them. I'd never heard of the 1968 film Pretty Poison, until I read an enthusiastic review on one of my favourite sites, John Norris's Pretty Sinister Books. I suggest reading John's review after watching the film, if you can, because his analysis covers the later part of the film as well as the set-up.

That set-up is fascinating. Anthony Perkins plays Dennis Pitt, a youthful arsonist just released from the institution where he has been a patient for some years,since killing an aunt in a fire he started. Dennis becomes entranced by Sue Anne, a stunning girl who turns out to be only 17, and appears to be the picture of innocence. Dennis is a fantasist, and he tells Sue Anne that he is an agent for the CIA. She appears to fall under his spell...

I love stories about fantasists -examples that spring to mind include several of Ruth Rendell's finest novels, and that wonderful novel and film Billy Liar - and this is why I created Guy, the protagonist of The Arsenic Labyrinth. What is especially interesting about Pretty Poison is the dynamic of the relationship between Dennis and Sue Anne. It doesn't develop in the way you might expect.

Sue Anne is played by Tuesday Weld. I've always rather assumed that she was really someone who was famous for being famous (and for being, for a short time, the wife of Dudley Moore) and I didn't realise what a charismatic performer she is. She is terrific in Pretty Poison, and although the film falters slightly towards the end, overall it's quirky and highly entertaining. Unsuccessful on its original release, it's become something of a cult classic, and I'm not surprised.