Out of the Shadow

Bearing a 1962 copyright date but with a cast member (Edwin Styles, who plays the college principal) who died in December 1960, this otherwise very routine murder mystery (with the usual noisy jazz score) is enlivened by location work in Cambridge (where the locals in one scene can be seen gathering to enjoy watching the actors at work) and by the erratic direction of a young Michael Winner.

Winner has managed to assemble a cast of familiar faces to go through the motions and the frequent dollies & dissolves create a veneer of sophistication that goes some way towards camouflaging that Winner still hasn't yet mastered getting his eyelines to match during dialogue scenes.

This is one of these films that could really have benefitted from a stronger, more charismatic, leading man! As it is, Michael Winner chose to saddle us with the wooden and rather plodding Terence Longdon to play "Kingston". He has arrived in the heart of academic Cambridge to establish just what happened to his brother who was found lying at the foot of his bedroom window. The police have assumed suicide, but he is not convinced. It doesn't take long for him to find himself embroiled in some skulduggery surrounding stolen goods and more bodies! Finally convincing the constabulary - "Insp. Wills" (Donald Gray) - that there is more afoot we embark on a briskly paced mystery as he and "Mary" (Diane Clare) who is the daughter of another seemingly suicidal victim begin to close in on the culprits - and attract their attention too! It's not great this - the acting is pedestrian and there is way too much verbiage, but the story is actually quite decent and the film does not hang about - each scene seamlessly picking up from the previous as if it were a stage play! It's nobody's finest work, but is still not a bad hour's watch.

Terence Longden shows up in Cambridge. His brother, a University student, is said to have committed suicide in the river. It's a conclusion the police accept, but Longden finds incomprehensible. Longden makes himself a nuisance, and soon encounters Diane Clare, the stepdaughter of a Cambridge don and antiques dealer who also seems to have dived into the river at the same time. It seems an unlikely coincidence to either. When another local antiques dealer comes to warn Miss Clare that Longden could be embarrassing to her and to the memory of her stepfather, their suspicions are confirmed... but if it was murder, what were they murdered for?

This early directorial effort by Michael Winner moves along at a terrific clip, with everyone talking very fast, annoyingly so. It's clear Winner was pushing everyone to make it come in at less than an hour, and he succeeded.... but it does no favor to the film.

"Murder on the Campus" was Michael Winner's second film. It was actually made in England in 1957 under the title "The Clock Strikes Eight". It is a very routine muder mystery with little to recommend it. It is what was known as a "Quota Quickie", a second feature, made on the cheap to enable British theatre owners to fulfill their quota - a legal requirement that a set percentage of all footage shown in British movie theatres had to be British in origin.

In a University town that is famed for it's genteel manners, somehow Michael Winner believes that the hero, Mark Kingston, can get to the bottom of what he believes is the murder of his brother. There is precious little, "please, thank you or sorry" from him and his whole manner consists of being at best, abrasive to all and sundry.

I do realise it's only a film, but credibility hits a low when the police appear to believe that two drownings in the local river are not suspicious. The area of Cambridge where the River Cam passes the Colleges is know as "The Backs". The Cam is about four foot deep there, hence the use of flat bottom boats driven by poles (Punts).

As with so many "B" pictures of this era, there is the customary American Actor who despite his obscurity in the film world even among Americans, is there in the hope of creating some interest in the film stateside. In this particular case, his character is that of a USAF Sergeant, who is equally rude and abrasive to complete strangers. At one stage, Kingston offers him a lift back to his airbase, to which he responds that it's not necessary because it's within walking distance. The nearest airbase is Duxford, which is about 9 miles from Cambridge, and the USAF pulled out of there in 1945.

If you have a reasonable knowledge of Cambridge, you are more likely to treat this film as a comedy rather than a thriller.