Der Mann, der zum Mörder wurde

This film has an excellent cast.Kenneth Griffiths being very nasty as the blackmailing Archie.Gary Marsh being his usual jovial policeman.Bits from Kathleen Harrison and Irene Handel.However towering over them all is Oscar Hamolka and his expressive eyebrows.He steals every scene he is in,not just in this film but every film he appeared in.His is an excellent performance which keeps the film going after the murder of Archie.However the film does rely on an unlikely contrivance to bring the film to its slightly tame ending.What on earth was Irene Handel doing wandering around in the woods late at night?Due to her presence the murder eventually unravels.

This was best known as Diana Dors' first movie. Though she is not in the credits, crowds of her admirers turned out to see it. The plot twists and turns were so surprising, never quite what I guessed might have happened. Holmolka's performance is very realistic rather than a costumed caricature. Dors steals the show with her nasty wiggle walk through about four scenes and less than 10 minutes of film.

I finally caught this film on an ebay DVD copy which was OK quality but not top notch. I'd read Muriel Pavlow's interview by Brian McFarlane which mentioned this film and her role in it and so i was interested to see it. This is the film on which she met her future husband actor Derek Farr and admits she was upstaged by Oscar Homolka every which way. Homolka is the heart and guts of this film and he is superb. Kenneth Griffith( he played the same role in the stage production) also shines and once he disappears from the action the film is not so gripping. There is an effective twist in the tale/tail and it is a surprisingly downbeat story overall with its insights into the less savoury side of human character.

Oscar Homolka is super in this crafty little crime noir. He portrays a reputable antiques dealer whose daughter "Margaret" (Muriel Pavlow) is a virtuoso violinist. Unbeknown to all, though, he also has another business fencing stolen jewellery with his friend Derek Farr. When his odious clark "Morris" (Manning Whiley) overhears one of their conversations and tries his hand at a little blackmail, things start to spiral out of control as he threatens to tell the young woman of her father's behind-the-scenes shenanigans. When he demands that he be allowed to marry her - well you can guess! George King keeps the pace of this moving along well, with Whiley really good as the scheming underling whose looming comeuppance is surely just a matter of time. The score - especially the Mendelssohn Violin concerto at the end, adds loads to the atmosphere of this superior thriller that has plenty to shout about. Rarely seen these days, but if you do come across it - give it a watch, it's a more substantial part for the star that is well worth a watch.

Oskar Homolka is an antiques dealer with a daughter, Muriel Pavlow, who is studying to be a concert violinist. He is well respected and kindly, with a wide circle of friends that includes Derek Farr, a Royal Navy surgeon who brings him oddities from across the world. Farr is in love with his daughter. His other friends in Garry Marsh, at Scotland Yard, and Manning Whitley, a burglar from whom he buys stolen goods. He tells Whitley he's getting out of that line of business; he understands Whitley's disappointment, but he worries about public exposure, since he's wanted in France for having escaped from Devil's Island for murder. They part on good terms. However, Homolka's shop assistant, Kenneth Griffith, has overheard the conversation and begins to blackmail Homolka.

It's produced and directed by George King, best known as a director of cheap quota quickies in the 1930%, who had a lot of success directing Tod Slaughter n old-line melodramas. In the 1940s, King's star rose, and he was in charge of some fine programmers.

This one is in line with the melodramas he had directed in the previous decade. So long as he is concentrating on Homolka, it is a first-rate character study of a kind man under pressure. In the final third, he falls back into some of his habits as a director of cheap movies, most obviously during a car chase sequence.

Still, it's mostly a fine movie, almost entirely due to Homolka, and a pleasure to watch.