User Reviews

This is an entry in the series of cinema film shorts made under the umbrella title 'The Scales of Justice' This is a pretty good film and has a nice twist ending. As usual it starts off with a court case and then goes into flashback to explain why they are there. Edgar Lustgarten tells the story of how Simon, the son of Sir James Deniton is thrown out of university after he rebelled against his rich family by having a drunken brawl in the local bar. When he arrives back home, also as a rebellion against his family he breaks up with his girlfriend Julia. He then goes to get drunk again at the local French bistro in Pimlico, London. While there he meets a mysterious French girl called Yvonne. After a few days together he takes her for a holiday in Brighton. At the hotel there, Simon meets a detective called Robbins who tells him that Yvonne is married, because of this Robbins later tries to blackmail Simon for five thousand pounds. As another sign of his rebellion Simon takes a gun from a drawer in his home and goes to Robbins' house, where he kills him. He is then taken to court where (for some reason) Yvonne turns up in his defence. He gets off with it and is later released. The twist ending is that Yvonne's relationship with Simon was just so that he could be blackmailed by her real husband, who turns out to be William Pervis, the manservant to Simon's rich family. So this is where the title comes from, as Pervis abuses his 'Position of Trust' Great to watch and a nice twist ending with the villain been the last one who you would suspect.

Simon Dennington (Derrick Sherwin), the wild son of a powerful businessman, is sent down from college for being involved in a drunken brawl which he calls "an act of rebellion". In a French bistro in Pimlico he meets a beautiful French girl called Yvonne (Imogen Hassell) and he starts dating her. They arrange to spend an illicit weekend away together in Brighton. But a man announcing himself as a private inquiry agent, Robins (Peter Barkworth), interrupts them as they are about to have breakfast and says he is acting on behalf of Yvonne's husband. Dennington ditches Yvonne and returns to London, but Robins proceeds to blackmail him. Desperate, Dennington gets a gun and calls on Robins at his apartment in order to get his money back. However, he gets distracted by a sound from the kitchen suggesting that there is someone else in the flat besides themselves, and Robins jumps him in attempt to get the gun away from him. The two men struggle, the gun goes off and the blackmailing private eye is killed. A lady living in the flat above hears the shot and comes down to investigate discovering Dennington leaning over the body with the gun in his hand. He is duly arrested and put on trial for murder and will face the death penalty should a guilty verdict be returned by the jury. Just as that seems inevitable, the solicitors acting on his behalf are contacted at the eleventh hour by a new witness who offers to take the stand and testify on his behalf. Who is this person and what will he or she reveal?

Excellent, punchy British crime featurette featuring a convincing performance from Sherwin as the wayward son of a tycoon who in search of a more exciting life takes off with the beautiful Imogen (competently played by Imogen Hassall) and gets himself into deadly peril as a result. Peter Barkworth is also noteworthy as the shady, unscrupulous private eye. Director Lionel Harris succeeds in creating some admirable suspense and tension, which means this little crime short packs quite a punch for its size. It holds our attention throughout and the proceedings are much enhanced by some splendid period b/w shots of London and Brighton. The final sting in the tail as we find out who is the brains behind the blackmail plot isn't that easily guessable and is revealed in a courtroom finale that could have come out of the last episode of Perry Mason.