One Jump Ahead

Wooden performances telling in their act, a script that meanders away. Trying to remake one of those wisecracking Cary Grant movies of an earlier period, but none of the performers have any charisma at all. Jill Adams couldn't be more wooden if she was fitted with castors. The rest of the cast belong in toilet roll commercials.

The second of three crime quickies based on novels by Robert Chapman featuring roving reporter Banner; originally played by Peter Reynolds but in this and 'Behind the Headlines' (1956) by Paul Carpenter.

Despite it's fairly light-hearted tone, three people die (including a blackmailer and an eleven year-old witness). Although set in a relatively innocent Britain in which kids could still get into cars with strange men and the tenants in blocks of flats were prepared to display signs stating that they were not in, the underside of supposedly law-abiding post-war Britain is laid bare with its matter of fact depiction of adultery & blackmail (commonly seen in British films of this period on the understanding that it was usually sternly punished). Carpenter's dalliance with married Jill Adams doesn't prevent him from having the gorgeous Diane Hart in tow as his fiancée, though.

Paul Banner, a "noozeman" of the Daily Comet in England, is an American (he's Canadian, actually) working in England. He happens on a murder that leads him on a complicated trail. He has a ex-love - Jill Adams, who puts on a passable US accent - and she's attempting to get him back - Meanwhile, another lady vies for his affections. Needless to say, he solves the crime. It was only about 1 Hr. 5 minutes and the pace continues along quite well. The photography was quite good and the acting wasn't as bad as many other films. All-in-all, quite acceptable. Paul Carpenter, who plays Banner, was only 33 at the time.(Looks a lot more). He only had 10 more years to live (I'm unsure of the cause of death - maybe someone out there can tell me.) Jill Adams, who plays the blond bombshell, is still alive as at 2002.

I do remember Paul Carpenter,star of this film.A Showbiz football team were playing a charity match at Finchley F C on a Sunday.Carpenter was giving a commentary over the rabbit till the residents complained and he was silenced.Here he stars in a typical fifties crime film.With his American accent he was a cheap substitute for the usual fading American star.The film starts quite well but runs out of ideas early on,particularly with his romantic entanglements.The only other point of interest is the appearance of ex world champion boxer Freddie Mills.Quite apart from his death in mysterious circumstances it is also believed that he was a serial murderer.

Reporter Paul Carpenter is pursuing a story about a corpse found in a bombed-out church, and children scared out of their wits on the site. He's also in a tentative relationship with fellow reporter Diane Hart, but still stuck on a former lover, Jill Adams. She married a rich man, but has a habit of dropping in at his apartment when her husband is out of town.

It's a decent but uninspiring second feature directed by Charles Saunders, shot on a series of cheap sets. By the three-quarters mark, it's clear who did it, although not why. Also some of the dialogue near the end is too formal and overwritten. Still the performances are pretty good. Carpenter would play a reporter with the same name -- albeit in a supporting role -- for the some production company the following year. His career, which included 52 movie credits over 16 years, would with his death in 1964 at age 42.