Another film watched for context on the "House of Hammer" podcast, "The Last Page" or "Man Bait" as it was retitled is, alas another forgettable noiry thriller, that Hammer seemed to be in the habit of making at the time. Ironically, despite having two goes at it, neither title is particularly appropriate for the film, which was an early one for English screen siren Diana Dors.
Ruby Bruce (Diana Dors) works in an upmarket London Bookshop, she meets Jeffrey Hart (Peter Reynolds) a recently released conman and agrees to date him. Ruby's boss, John Harman (George Brent) makes an ill-conceived and aborted pass at her one evening and Hart encourages a reluctant Ruby to blackmail the married Harman. Hart's scheme escalates with disastrous consequences and Harman ends up on the run.
Again, Hammer are well out of the period when their films would suffer from poor sound and or film stock problems. This looks really good and technically is a fine effort, with multiple sets and locations used. This might be the first time I've seen young Diana Dors, as opposed to the somewhat parodic character she was in the seventies and I thought she was really good. Indeed, I thought that the second half of the film, in which she features less was markedly worse for it.
I don't think George Brent ever really convinces, particularly when the film becomes more action oriented ahead of one of the most abrupt endings I've seen in quite a while. Ultimately it really struggled to hold my attention though, and I kept finding that I had been distracted by something and forced to rewind it to see what happened.
Not the worst film I've watched for this podcast, not by a long way, but not one I'll see the need to revisit either.
Ruby Bruce (Diana Dors) works in an upmarket London Bookshop, she meets Jeffrey Hart (Peter Reynolds) a recently released conman and agrees to date him. Ruby's boss, John Harman (George Brent) makes an ill-conceived and aborted pass at her one evening and Hart encourages a reluctant Ruby to blackmail the married Harman. Hart's scheme escalates with disastrous consequences and Harman ends up on the run.
Again, Hammer are well out of the period when their films would suffer from poor sound and or film stock problems. This looks really good and technically is a fine effort, with multiple sets and locations used. This might be the first time I've seen young Diana Dors, as opposed to the somewhat parodic character she was in the seventies and I thought she was really good. Indeed, I thought that the second half of the film, in which she features less was markedly worse for it.
I don't think George Brent ever really convinces, particularly when the film becomes more action oriented ahead of one of the most abrupt endings I've seen in quite a while. Ultimately it really struggled to hold my attention though, and I kept finding that I had been distracted by something and forced to rewind it to see what happened.
Not the worst film I've watched for this podcast, not by a long way, but not one I'll see the need to revisit either.