Vengeance Is Mine

Obscure British B-movie sees Valentine Dyall, the voice of The Man in Black, regretting his decision to employ the unlikeliest of hitmen to knock him off when he learns that he only has 6 months to live. He plans for his arch-enemy to take the blame for his murder, but comes over all of a dither when he can't locate the hitman after one of those hack screenwriter-friendly medical breakthroughs saves his life. A certain cheap charm and an appearance from Sam Kydd makes it bearable.

Yes Anne Firth is playing here Linda, secretary to Valentine Dyall who is planning revenge on a previous business associate who embezzled money from Dyall's previous employer and who covered his tracks so well shifting the guilt onto Dyall who then spent a long time in gaol and for which he now plans his revenge.

I first noticed Anne Firth when she played "Miss Harper" in "The First of the Few" (1942) opposite Leslie Howard who played R.J. Mitchell famous designer of the "Spitfire" and I fancied her then.Perhaps I like being dominated! but I jumped at the invitation on YT to see her again in a leading role.It is a shame she made so few films.Yes this is a short film with a sudden ending, rather as if the producer on poverty row ran out of money.Short but sweet, I awarded it 6/10.

When i saw Richard Gooldens name in the cast,i remembered that he had played mole in Wind in the Willows,which was put on at Christmas each year.So in this film he plays à rather meek looking hired assassin.Sam Kydd has à relatively big role in this minor but nevertheless very entertaining thriller.

It is rare to see actor Valentine Dyall playing a leading role as a goody. Even rarer to see character actor Sam Kydd having a more substantial role in a movie.

Vengeance is Mine is a low budget quickie. Dyall plays Charles Heywood who was wrongly imprisoned. When he is told by his doctor he is dying and only has a few months to live he seizes an opportunity to get vengeance on a former associate who framed him. Heywood hires a hit- man to kill him and then make it look like that it was the former associate that did it.

The hit-man, a meek looking man accepts the assignment but Heywood then finds out that he needs to stop him carrying out his side of the bargain.

This is a curious crime drama, some of the acting is stiff, the picture quality is below average yet it maintains your interest as it moves quickly and has a short running time.

Valentine Dyall has just been released from prison, and he has vengeance on his mine, vengeance on his ex-partner Arthur Brander, who framed him into prison. Dyall intends to ruin him, delaying his deliveries, sabotaging his equipment, gradually destroying his business and his life. After a while, not only is he watching his plans do well, but Dyall's business is doing well, and he's in love with his secretary, Anne Firth, and she with him.

Then Dyall discovers he has a disease. He can retire and he may live a few years: otherwise, six months. So he works out another plan and hires Richard Goolden (in a fine little creepy role) to murder him and frame Brander in five months. Goolden looks upon it as an interesting professional challenge, accepts his retainer -- in pounds, not guineas -- and goes away. Next Dyall learns of an operation that can save his life. Can it save him from Goolden?

My first encounters with Dyall was as an occasional performer on BBC's THE GOON SHOW, usually parodying his radio performance as "The Man In Black"; I suppose he added something, with his low, sonorous voice, but how could I be sure he wasn't really Peter Sellers? He does well here in this cheap, short, rather creepy production. It's clearly a lesser effort, produced, written and directed by former assistant cameraman Alan Cullimore. There's little wrong with it except for a horribly intrusive score.