The Man Who Finally Died

1962's "The Man Who Finally Died," released December 1963, was a BBC serial that originally aired in 1959, with this feature version following three years later, with an entirely different cast. Stanley Baker stars as British subject Joe Newman, formerly the German-born Joachim Deutsch, who has believed his father Kurt dead for 20 years, until receiving a phone call from Bavaria claiming to be Kurt Deutsch. Upon arriving, he locates his father's grave before visiting the Deutsch widow, Lisa (Mai Zetterling), currently living in the country home of Dr. Peter von Brecht (Peter Cushing), his every move watched by the local police, plus the insurance investigator (Niall MacGinnis) responsible for Newman's phone call, who believes the deceased still lives. Holds up rather well despite its television origins, thankfully not lost though unseen for decades, reuniting Baker with Peter Cushing five years after 1957's "Violent Playground." Cushing initially appears sympathetic but gradually displays more sinister shadings, but has only one lengthy scene during the film's first half (the von Brecht home is Bray studio's familiar Oakley Court). The fine supporting cast includes Nigel Green, who previously appeared with Cushing in 1960's "Sword of Sherwood Forest," which also featured Niall MacGinnis (playing Friar Tuck), who again supported Cushing in 1966's excellent "Island of Terror." Certainly not a horror film, though it made one appearance on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater on Aug 7 1976, paired with second feature "The Horror of Party Beach."

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?

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.

Many, if not most, of the reviews I encounter here state that "The Man Who Finally Died" is heavily influenced by - or even blatantly imitating - the Orson Welles' classic "The Third Man". Maybe so, but I haven't seen that one (yet) and therefore cannot judge. What I can say, however, is that the plot is great and incredibly absorbing, regardless of which film brought it first, and that this isn't a low-keyed type of rip-off but a stylish and polished British 60s effort with more than adequate production values and ditto acting performances.

As a young boy, John Newman (born: Joachim Deutsch) fled from Nazi-Germany to England with his mother, and always assumed his father died in the War. 20 years later, he receives an anonymous call from Bavaria stating his father still alive, but when he arrives there, John learns - via his young stepmother he didn't knew existed - that his father passed away just a week ago from a stroke. Other people tell him his father died two years ago, and lots of other contradictions. When did Kurt Deutsch die? 20 years ago, 2 years ago, or just the week before? Or perhaps he's still alive, even? And since everybody is so reluctant to help or even inform John, who called and lured him to Bavaria?

As you can tell, "The Man Who Finally Died" is a convoluted puzzle that requires full, constant, and devoted attention in order not to miss the tiniest clue or detail. It's extremely compelling, though, with a couple of ingenious and unforeseeable twists and broodingly uncanny atmosphere. The Bavaria settings and post-WWII references are excellent, and of course it's always a delight to watch fantastic British actors like Peter Cushing and Nigel Green. Lead star Stanley Baker certainly isn't my favorite performer, and quite often he looks very silly in this film, what with his unnecessary sunglasses and he's constant "I-don't-have-a-clue-what's-happening-here" facial expressions.

THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED is an early '60s black-and-white conspiracy thriller with enough twists to make even M. Night Shyamalan blush and a great cast of British character actors. Along with underrated leading man Stanley Baker and a typically villainous Peter Cushing, we're graced with the presence of NIGHT OF THE DEMON's Niall MacGinnis, Inspector Nayland Smith himself, Nigel Green, and plenty of others who round out various roles: tough cops, pompous officials, friendly advisers, and the like.

The film itself is one of those 'small town conspiracy' movies where it seems that everyone's in on some secret, apart from the lead of course. This generates plenty of suspense and although the film is rather dated when viewed in a modern light – cosy rather than dangerous – it proves more than adequate entertainment. It also possesses at least one twist I didn't see coming in advance, so there's kudos for that.

The film is a little slow and stodgy in places. It feels like a Bond film on occasion, with Baker arriving in an exotic (well, Germany) destination and attempting to uncover the secrets involving some evil criminal mastermind. The eventual solving of the crime ties into the Cold War in a nicely unexpected way. Yes, I could have done with some more action, some more open peril – the movie's premise is perfect for the odd chase scene, for instance – but it's hard to fault or be too hard on an efficient little thriller like this.