Die Affäre Delavine

When it looks like newspaper man "Rex Banner" (Peter Reynolds) is being framed for a murder, he and his wife "Maxine" (Honor Blackman) must try to find out just what happened and who might want to frame him! It's a rather messy detective yarn with one too many red herrings and some pretty mediocre writing. Blackman stands out but that isn't hard, and Gordon Jackson really ought to have read the script before he took the part of "Florian". Katie Johnson ("Miss Bissett") steals the show, but features way too infrequently to rescue this bog-standard afternoon feature from the well trodden path of sleuthing journalists with their glamorous assistants and a less than competent policeman.

It starts with a murder, but soon news service man Peter Reynolds is on the track of an old jewelry heist, along with wife Honor Blackman in this tightly plotted second feature.

The most notable thing about this short British feature is that there seems to be nothing in it that doesn't lead inevitably to the matter at hand. The other is a rare appearance by Katie Johnson -- best remembered as the old lady later that year in the classic Ealing comedy THE LADYKILLERS. She won a BAFTA as Best Actress for that role. Born in 1878, Miss Price was on the stage by 1894, where she continued to perform at least until 1935. Her first screen role was in 1932, but she was cast almost exclusively in uncredited small roles for the first fifteen years. Then she had a marvelous 1955, made one more movie in 1957, and died that year.

I suppose the only notable thing about this thriller is members of the cast who would go on to better things.Katie Johnson would go on to win a BAFTA for her part in "The Ladykillers".Gordon Jackson would find fame as the butler in "Upstairs Downstairs" on television and Honor Blackman would of course find fame in both "The Avengers" on television and Pussy Galore in a Bond film.Here they are just marking time in an amiable but rather involved thriller which was beloved of writers of crime fiction in the 1950sIt was the sort of film where it is quite easy to work out by a process of elimination who is the killer.It is the sort of film that would be executed far more effectively on television which would of course eventually cause the death of films of this genre at least as B features.

Just saw this on Talking Pictures channel (UK, old films and TV), and the critical reviews on here are rather unfair. Bear in mind what this was, a B feature, just over an hour long, and a small budget!

It tells a perfectly reasonable little story, though the time confines don't allow many choices for the actual villain?! The plot is worked out quite well, and you need to make allowances for how things were in the early 50s, but that shouldn't be so tricky.

One glaring plot error (?) has been mentioned, re taking a flash photo through a window, but then for decades we've seen press snappers taking an attempted pic through the windows of vans taking prisoners to and from courts -- don't they know better too??!!

And it was nice to see Blackman & Jackson taking their next steps up the acting ladder.

A snappy little British thriller with plenty of stuff to enjoy, THE DELAVINE AFFAIR is yet another film churned out at Nettlefold Studios, with an interesting cast and a plot that never lets up. It's a film that packs plenty of twists and turns into the 64-minute running time, with an erstwhile reporter hero and a sinister villain. The lead character is played by Peter Reynolds, in a welcome departure from his typical performances as cads and bounders. Reynolds brings a cheeky charm to the role of a reporter willing to do anything for a scoop, and the opening sequence - in which he literally stumbles upon the body of an old acquaintance - is great stuff.

The story goes on from there, taking time to feature the lovely Honor Blackman in a significant role as the reporter's wife, and Gordon Jackson as a friend of the family. Valerie Vernon plays an arresting femme fatale and wears some ahead-of-the-time gear. The reliable Michael Balfour (ALBERT, R.N.) plays in support as Reynolds's photographer buddy, and sharp-eyed viewers will spot LADYKILLERS actress Katie Johnson in a minor part. THE DELAVINE AFFAIR is a fine example of the British B-movie, a well-paced and entertaining slice of escapism.