A distraught couple have called in the police when their little boy fails to arrive home from school. The British are masters of establishing emotion and motivation in even the smallest of parts and in the hands of Alan Edwards and Shirley Cameron, they manage to convey the deepest feelings of parents faced with that awful situation in the small amount of screen time they are given. The husband, empty but stoical, feels that because they have scrimped and saved to send their child to a good school, the kidnappers (there has been a ransom demand) may think the parents are wealthy when they are anything but.
In another part of the neighbourhood, Rosa Marotta is indulging in a bit of harmless banter with her likable neighbour John but when the story of the kidnapping hits the newspapers the reaction of John's wife proves they are heavily implicated. And from a chilling, off the cuff, remark of John's "yes, he died but it was an accident and anyway he's better off now" show that he is a dangerous sociopath.
Duryea gives one of his great performances, possibly his best but he has to compete with Isa Miranda (an Italian actress, known for the 1939 film "Hotel Imperial") and the story is told from her perspective. She is in the middle of calling her niece when she is literally jumped upon by two policemen who tell her that the person who used the call box before her was the kidnapper. She wants to help but at the same time the person was leaving the booth she was scrambling for her fallen coins and only got to see the kidnapper's shoes. Miranda is marvellous as the elderly Italian woman who feels she has let the police down and wants to put herself forward as a decoy - she will go to the newspapers claiming she is a witness to the ransom call and then sit back to see if the kidnappers come for her. She doesn't reckon on the relentlessness of John who she still regards as a friend but who is quietly determined to end the poor lady's life.
The story isn't perfect. Even though John gives viewers a glimpse of his "loser" lifestyle, it's hard to believe that with his merciless attitude to the boy's death, he hasn't tried something like this before. Gwen Watford is terrific as the decent wife who is driven to the edge by what John has done. She is almost too decent and I feel Megs Jenkin would have been perfectly cast.
There dare many edge of seat moments - like when all other methods fail, John succeeds in poisoning Rosa's milk while it's still on the doorstep and the nail biting scene as cups of tea are poured and John even pops around to see how it all goes!!
Very Recommended.
In another part of the neighbourhood, Rosa Marotta is indulging in a bit of harmless banter with her likable neighbour John but when the story of the kidnapping hits the newspapers the reaction of John's wife proves they are heavily implicated. And from a chilling, off the cuff, remark of John's "yes, he died but it was an accident and anyway he's better off now" show that he is a dangerous sociopath.
Duryea gives one of his great performances, possibly his best but he has to compete with Isa Miranda (an Italian actress, known for the 1939 film "Hotel Imperial") and the story is told from her perspective. She is in the middle of calling her niece when she is literally jumped upon by two policemen who tell her that the person who used the call box before her was the kidnapper. She wants to help but at the same time the person was leaving the booth she was scrambling for her fallen coins and only got to see the kidnapper's shoes. Miranda is marvellous as the elderly Italian woman who feels she has let the police down and wants to put herself forward as a decoy - she will go to the newspapers claiming she is a witness to the ransom call and then sit back to see if the kidnappers come for her. She doesn't reckon on the relentlessness of John who she still regards as a friend but who is quietly determined to end the poor lady's life.
The story isn't perfect. Even though John gives viewers a glimpse of his "loser" lifestyle, it's hard to believe that with his merciless attitude to the boy's death, he hasn't tried something like this before. Gwen Watford is terrific as the decent wife who is driven to the edge by what John has done. She is almost too decent and I feel Megs Jenkin would have been perfectly cast.
There dare many edge of seat moments - like when all other methods fail, John succeeds in poisoning Rosa's milk while it's still on the doorstep and the nail biting scene as cups of tea are poured and John even pops around to see how it all goes!!
Very Recommended.