From "The Litttle Foxes" on Broadway to the film version, classic film noir and onto B westerns, Dan Duryea had quite a memorable career, and this British thriller is a late-in-life success (artistically if not at the box office) that showed how menacing he could be in a very subtle way. He has kidnapped and murdered a young boy, and the old woman (Isa Miranda) who supposedly overheard him on a payphone is a close acquaintance of his girlfriend Gwen Watford's. Duryea realizes the only way to not be exposed when he finds out that she saw him is to kill her, not realizing that she never saw his face, only overheard his disguised voice. Miranda has willingly made herself a planned so the killer will expose themselves, by chance, he ends up staying in her apartment along with a cop there for protection, so he has two victims to claim to add to the poor unfortunate kid.
Wearing a stocking over his head, Duryea looks quite frightening as he strikes, like a character out of a Lon Chaney Sr. Movie. Miranda (who was much younger than her character) is absolutely superb as the sweet old woman willing to risk her life to see Justice served, and with stooped shoulders, even that can't hide her loveliness. I'd seen her in the two American films she made years before (basically a Dietrich knockoff), and didn't think too much about her. But she is fantastic in this, someone you can truly root for, especially when she calls her willingness to risk her life a noble death.
This is quite a chilling British quota quickie, suspenseful from start to finish, and Duryea and Miranda are simply fantastic. Peter Madden as the police commander has the delightful type of face that would stop a clock, and along with the handsome Barry Warren (as the police officer staying with Miranda) adds fine support from the law enforcement represented on screen. The black and white photography really adds to the suspense, and the minimal give it the feel of a stage melodrama, very close to "Night Must Fall" and "Kind Lady" as it puts a sweet grandmotherly in jeopardy. A twist involving a pet may be disturbing to some viewers. At the end of the film, you truly feel sorry for Duryea, getting the worst possible kind of punishment.
Wearing a stocking over his head, Duryea looks quite frightening as he strikes, like a character out of a Lon Chaney Sr. Movie. Miranda (who was much younger than her character) is absolutely superb as the sweet old woman willing to risk her life to see Justice served, and with stooped shoulders, even that can't hide her loveliness. I'd seen her in the two American films she made years before (basically a Dietrich knockoff), and didn't think too much about her. But she is fantastic in this, someone you can truly root for, especially when she calls her willingness to risk her life a noble death.
This is quite a chilling British quota quickie, suspenseful from start to finish, and Duryea and Miranda are simply fantastic. Peter Madden as the police commander has the delightful type of face that would stop a clock, and along with the handsome Barry Warren (as the police officer staying with Miranda) adds fine support from the law enforcement represented on screen. The black and white photography really adds to the suspense, and the minimal give it the feel of a stage melodrama, very close to "Night Must Fall" and "Kind Lady" as it puts a sweet grandmotherly in jeopardy. A twist involving a pet may be disturbing to some viewers. At the end of the film, you truly feel sorry for Duryea, getting the worst possible kind of punishment.