The Man Who Finally Died

A hearse passes a German hotel and next thing "Newman" (Stanley Baker) arrives rather bemused. Why? Well that's because it was apparently the funeral of his dad, but he thought he had died twenty years ago. Events only become more curious when he then discovers that dad "Deutsch" had a young wife "Lisa" (Mai Zetterling) who lives in a sprawling mansion with "Martha" (Barbara Everest) who remembers him as a child. Something is definitely amiss, and when it transpires that they are both living as guests of local and rather creepy doctor "von Brecht" (Peter Cushing) who runs a local camp for displaced persons after the war, well he becomes even more suspicious. Meantime, local policeman "Hofmeister" (Eric Portman) is sniffing around with his henchman (Nigel Green) as is the enigmatic insurance investigator "Brenner" (Niall MacGinnis). Quite quickly, things start to become as dangerous as they are confusing for "Newman" as he becomes more and more convinced that his father might still be alive. What now ensues offers us the potential for an intrigue, but it's got too many red herring storylines that just peter our before a denouement that's a really quite disappointing hybrid of half a dozen better crime noirs. There's a lot of dialogue but little actual characterisation; the wooden Baker doesn't really impress; Zetterling features far too sparingly to make much impact and there are just too many daft German accents to make ziss much güt! The production itself isn't anyone's finest work either with some fairly obvious continuity errors and quite a few clunky edits not really helping the overlong preamble set this up to be very compelling.

This started really well and up until about halfway I was totally involved and enjoying trying to work out, as was Stanley Baker's character, just what was going on. But then around the time we visit a cemetery and there is much discussion about whether or not a body should be interred, I begin to lose it.

I think in a similarly confusing giallo there would be much more vivid and colourful aspects to maintain an interest that here just waned. It ends well enough and Baker is at his very best here although I thought Cushing only just held his end up. Mai Zetterling was wasted in a lousy role.

What a strange movie this turned out to be. I found the conclusion most unsatisfying considering the histrionics from the majority of characters, particularly from the lead Baker and the Inspector (Portman) who swung inexplicably between moods of benevolence and vile-temperedness. Who was in whose grave and who wasn't buried at all? Was Cushing's character that of a mad scientist or a loyal and concerned friend of Baker's father? Characters take turns at pointing a gun at each other, none ever convincingly indicating they would actually use it! After all the intrigue and menacing dialogue (and lots of it) the explanation of the scientist (who wanted to be a nonentity) towards the end of the film just left me bewildered. Maybe he should have been the one pushed off the train?

Baker returns to Bavaria upon learning that his father, who he believed had died 20 years ago might still be alive. On arriving at the local town he is faced with resistance from all sides.

Enjoyable British mystery which, whilst a bit dated, is a good story with various twists so you never know until the end who the baddies really are and what is going on. The cast of British stalwarts are all pretty good, particular Eric Portman as the stern police chief and Baker is a solid enough lead despite the fact he's rather angry and shouty in every scene.

Not only is THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED the second movie where Niall MacGinnis has a gun drawn on a train during the climax following CURSE OF THE DEMON, but THE THIRD MAN has been knocked-off once again...

And this time... despite a horribly intrusive, melodramatic harpsichord hammering like lightning following a horror film revelation... it's a pretty good effort as former German child now adult British citizen/jazz pianist Stanley Baker returns to Germany after getting a mysterious call about his father, who he thought was dead twenty-years ago, and is now dead again, only it happened a week earlier...

And as this effective mystery thriller progresses, the dad, like Orson Welles's Harry Lime, could have been involved in some bad things, covered up by a doctor played by Peter Cushing (protecting widow Mai Zetterling and directed by Hammer's Quentin Lawrence, and having co-starred with Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND), while also helping gorgeous ingenue Georgina Ward, whose father was buried in the same grave that, well...

There are too many twists to count or spoil, but Baker, donning Ray Charles-like sunglasses even indoors, goes from place to place in his usual strongarm, no-nonsense fashion, only a bit more vulnerable, and deliberately confused, like the audience.