Mörder unter weißer Maske

Above average (just) minor thriller with Dermot Walsh in a slightly atypical role as a mild-mannered accountant who's initial intent is to audit the books of a company that turns out to be mixed up with all sorts of hokey pokey. This leads to our villain, played by Alexander Gauge, in full Sydney Greenstreet mode ("upon my soul sir, you are the most impatient man...." etc etc; That nice Bill Travers, of all people, crops up as a heavy and Hazel Court (Mrs Walsh at this time), is generally underused for much of the film.

A reasonable way to pass 68 minutes and probably not very memorable but at least no American "B" star shoehorned into the cast in an attempt to raise its transatlantic appeal.

Behind the stirring title of this early Herman Cohen quickie lies a rather jaunty little frolic stylishly directed as usual by Vernon Sewell, with an incongruously light-hearted score by Eric Spear.

The interesting cast is headed by Dermot Walsh playing against type as a nerdy actuary who stumbles across baddies smuggling that familiar old 'McGuffin', a new alloy.

Previous commentators have already remarked upon portly villain Alexander Guage's resemblance to Caspar Gutman, and the improbability that our hero would be married to the gorgeous Hazel Court.

This is the sort of film I like. All the other reviews here are positive but I am struggling to find something I like about this film. It is so bad it has not been shown on the old film tv channel which has some standards.

I know this is a low budget film made in 1953 it really is uninteresting.

I used to wonder why my late parents hated British films,I think they saw too many films like this one.

It has to be said that Dermot Walsh tended to play rather more red blooded characters than the meek and mild accountant who unwittingly gets involved in this spy thriller.It seems so unlikely also that he would be married to the vivacious dancer Hazel Court.The cast is full of interest.As has been mentioned Bill Travers plays an almost unrecognisable heavy.Then there are Alexander Gauge(Friar Tuck) and Archie Duncan(little John) from the Robin Hood TV series.Unfortunately for poor Gauge he couldn't get any more work after the end of the TV series and committed suicide.Here he plays the head of a spy ring determined to stop at nothing to obtain the papers which are the "macguffin" of this film.Passes the time pleasantly.

The underrated and underused Dermot Walsh is actually very good in this. The other performances range from good to mediocre. But it is the script and direction that let this movie down, along with the plot and intrusive score. Another reviewer said this was a good example of why their late parents hated British films. In my late father's case he really resented the fact so many 1950s British movies relied upon a 6 foot something imported American star to tower over the rest of the British cast. It wasn't until the 1960s when the British Film Industry opened the doors to actors without affected RP accents and middle/upper class stage background. The likes of Connery, Caine, Burton, Finney etc were able to talk naturally and along with the Beatles etc completely transformed the UK's fortunes. So it's easy to forget how depressing it must have been to be around in the 1950s when the US dominated the music scene and cinema despite all of the great films and talent Britain did produce in the 1940s and 1950s, not least in Hollywood itself.