Kill Her Gently

Two escaping convicts hitch a ride with someone who may be more disturbed than either of them. Griffith Jones is well cast as a cool, mannered and devious husband with emotional baggage to spare with Maureen Connell as his well-meaning and unfortunate spouse.

As one previous reviewer has noted, this is quite a brutal film in its sometimes violent treatment of both male and female characters. The film quality as seen on the estimable TPTV was far from perfect but didn't detract from the pace of the narrative. Although the casting of an American and a European as the escapees was obviously intended to attract a wider global audience, the latter role (George Mikel) was underwritten; the plaudits for the film mainly go to Marc Lawrence, who I had only really previously known in his roles in Diamonds Are Forever ("I didn't know that there was a pool down there "), and The Man with the Golden Gun.

Thus was it described by Chibnall & McFarlane in 'The British 'B' Film' in 2009. The evidently tiny budget actually enhances this raw little hostage drama which begins like Edgar Ulmer's 'Detour' (1945) with Griffith Jones giving a lift to two desperadoes. Not surprisingly the film was released only after delays and cuts.

One of the hitch-hikers is played by one of Hollywood's meanest-looking heavies ever, the ferrity-faced Marc Lawrence; who back in America himself later directed the similar 'Nightmare in the Sun'.

In 1957's Kill Her Gently, Connors (Marc Lawrence) and Svenson (George Mikell), an American and a Swede, escape from prison and are picked up by a man, Jeff Martin (Griffith Jones) on his way home. He knows who they are and tells the police blockade that they are two friends.

The escapees don't quite understand why he's being so nice, until he offers them 1000 pounds to kill his wife. In exchange, he offers to get them out of the country that night.

The men put on an act of treating both Jeff and wife Kay (Maureen Connell) as hostages.

Turns out that the true looney-tunes in this group is Jeff. Kay cheated on him with the doctor who had him committed. Well, he doesn't seem to have fully recovered.

Kay is the one with the money, but when the monthly deposit hasn't yet arrived, tensions grow, and Jeff needs to sell his car. He's arranged for them to leave by evening, but they're not going anywhere without the money.

Eventually bodies start piling up in this violent and misogynistic film. Director Charles Saunders keeps the tension going. The American and British cast was for a wider distribution of the film. Marc Lawrence seems to be the biggest name, living in Europe due to being blacklisted.

I guess the only reason this movie is not a well-beloved classic is that it was not made in Hollywood, is filmed in black-and-white, came from a minor studio and is full of unknowns. I also don't understand why so many people who watched its TCM debut rated it so low. It is definitely the best movie I saw during their entire "detectives" month.

The film starts out with Connors, an American, and Svenson, a Swede, escaping from prison. They are picked up hitchhiking by Jeff Martin. They become suspicious, though, when Martin gets them through a police roadblock, covering for them by claiming they are some friends of his that he has brought back from London to the rural area where the story transpires.

It turns out Martin has plans for them. He makes a bargain with them to help them flee the country if they will assist him in his scheme. Otherwise, he will turn them in. They have little choice, and agree to go along with his plan before they even know what it is.

But everything goes wrong with Martin's plan from the start. Bad breaks follow unfortunate coincidences in one unexpected plot twist after another, starting from the moment they get back to Martin's house and running all the way down to the penultimate scene.

Eventually it comes out that Martin has a past, and when the escaped cons discover it, this creates another rift in the deteriorating trio.

Both of the "bad guys" are really not so bad. Svenson especially is quite human, a rather sympathetic character. Of course, in spite of their increasing lack of enthusiasm for Martin's plan, the two of them have lived by the sword, and so are liable for the consequences. But each of them manages to achieve a small measure of redemption.

Nothing is wasted in this movie. The plot unfolds with mounting tension at a rapid pace. Every moment in this rather short film is calculated, crafted, a necessary piece in the tension that is developed by a skillful combination of plot and direction. Hitchcock rarely did it better, and often did it worse.

Even the final scene keeps in character with the movie, and does not fall into the mawkishness which would have been so easy, but rather ends up on a rather dark and somewhat ambiguous note.

The building tension in this movie achieves what few movies ever have been able to do to me ("Lady In A Cage," "Dial M For Murder" and "Midnight Lace" spring to mind), keeping me riveted to the screen, and almost uncomfortable, squirming in my chair as I wait for the inevitable, which, in the greatest Hitchockian manner, does not come, but is whipped away by a surprising plot twist.

Excellent suspense! Masterfully executed!

The makers of this film clearly wanted to cast this film so that they could get distribution both in America and Europe.What else can explain the the strange casting of the convicts.Nevertheless this is quite a reasonable British film noir,with plenty of bodies scattered around.Though you have to get through one major implausibility.The police blockade not looking to see the 2 passengers in the car with Griffiths Jones.Jones depiction of his growing insanity seems to depend on him being lathered in sweat and his eyes becoming rather more prominent.One would have thought that his rather strange behaviour would have given a clue to people.As usual the police only get there in the end to mop up the pieces.