Wer ist Kendall Brown?

I saw this movie at the Internet Archive and was pleased with the quality of the copy. I have always liked Lloyd Bridges and remember his television show, Sea Hunt, quite fondly. I sure am glad I first watched the movie and then read the reviews here. I might have given the movie a skip had I read the reviews first and that would have been a shame. The movie has a lot going for it – it has a solid cast, is fast paced with good location shots and atmosphere, has the odd flash of humor (great scene where a couple of kids are caught watching TV. when they should be asleep as noted by another reviewer) and is suspenseful. Since I was not familiar – or did not recognize – a few of the actors mentioned by others, I'll probably give this movie a second watching just to see them. Although I'm glad I saw this movie and may well see it again, the ending was a huge let down. What were the producers of this movie thinking? Worse ending ever.

It was quite common in the '50s for British B-pictures to feature a fairly famous American star in the main role. Presumably most British B-movies would not otherwise have been granted an American release. In this film, it is the turn of Lloyd Bridges to lend his talents to a brief, brisk and reasonably entertaining mystery flick.

Bridges plays Franklin Pryor, a former US soldier returning to Britain in the 1950s to rekindle a wartime romance with Pauline French (Moira Lister). As he disembarks from the plane at London Heathrow, Pryor witnesses the assassination of another passenger, gunned down by a sniper as he walks from the plane to the terminal. To make matters worse, when Pryor reunites with his old flame she seems to know more about the killing than she is letting on. The police even begin to suspect that Pryor himself may have had a role in the murder.

The script is reasonably engrossing, starting with the mysterious murder and building from there with plenty more intriguing goings-on. Indeed, for a while the film threatens to become something far cleverer and far more unpredictable than most films of its ilk. However, it is let down (badly at that) by a totally thoughtless twist ending which will have most viewers groaning in disappointment. Still, apart from the feeble climax this is a decent little thriller, well worth 80 minutes (or thereabouts) of anybody's time. It's a difficult film to track down, but if you're lucky enough to find it it'll do nicely for a rainy day.

Absorbing little co-feature that holds the interest. It would be worth the price of admission if not for the I-want-my-money-back ending. Nice acting jobs all around, Miss Lister in particular. Good workmanlike performance by the dependable Lloyd Bridges. The picture didn't drag and moved along at a nice clip. In truth, I didn't mind the ending as I felt the plot was starting to dig a hole for itself which made the ending rather timely. Had never seen this picture in TV listings - I had a DVD copy which was quite good. Makes you wonder how many other underrated films never made it to a format of any kind, and are now gone forever.

Convoluted murder mystery. So who shot Kendall Brown from a distance as he was exiting a London airport. It wasn't Frank Prior (Bridges) who gets involved through happenstance, which wouldn't have happened if girlfriend Pauline (Lister) had met him at the airport as she was supposed to. Then there's singer Helene (Cordet) who's also implicated, that is, when she's not performing in a magic act. Anyhow, Scotland Yard's on the case, so the limping culprit better watch out. At least that's the way things appear.

Bridges fans like myself may be disappointed since his role is clearly secondary to Lister's and somewhat incidental to the plot. It may be that director Endfield did him an employment favor since both were targets of the Hollywood blacklist. After all, they had worked together brilliantly on the gripping Sound Of Fury (1950). There're a number of nice touches. I especially chuckled over the randy young police inspector (Phillips) when he trades meaningful looks with the busty landlady's daughter (Marsh). It's amusingly done. Also, the magician's act is novel accompaniment to Helene's singing. Too bad, however, we don't get a better look at the effects that pass by unhighlighted.

I'm guessing the bummer ending was because the plot's complexity made tying up all the loose ends darn difficult. Anyway, it's a pretty good time passer, ending or no, with a number of entertaining touches.

The Limping Man is a fairly bland British B grade Noir with Lloyd Bridges imported from America to play the lead role and add appeal to a wider audience. The plot follows a reasonably intriguing path towards what should/could have been a dramatic conclusion before reaching a disappointing ending that might have been borrowed from a children's story. Despite this, the film has its moments with fine performances from Bridges and Alan Wheatley as the Inspector. Leslie Phillips appears as the inspector's subordinate and, as always, is typecast as the ladies man who ogles everything in a dress.

Although the ending is flawed the film still has appeal as an interesting example of British Film Noir.