Review of Kiss the Blood Off My Hands

Now here's a title that raises expectations! Only to dash them in the end. Lancaster and Fontaine are engaging as always, but ultimately can't save this muddled movie. The story just never catches fire or rings true, not helped by a bogus Foggy London Town setting that evokes Sherlock Holmes more than postwar England. You almost expect Dick van Dyke to come sliding down the chimney. Also Robert Newton's bad guy turn is more comical than menacing; basically he just reprises his Bill Sykes role from Oliver Twist. Not half, guv! This might have been forgivable in a 30's movie, but you'd think they would have moved on by 1948. Also the ending must be one of the blandest cop-outs in cinema history. In the end, it's just one more also-ran movie.