The Man in the Road

As a mystery thriller the intrigue is not bad but rather fantastic and incredible, a little bit too overdone in complexity to be convincing, but the Russians actually worked along such lines in the cold war, using all kinds of brainwash techniques including hypnosis. It's all about hypnosis here, the victim wakes up without a memory and is more or less coerced into accepting an alien half Russian identity which he is sure isn't his real one, but he can't find his real one, because his brains have been tampered with.

Cyril Cusack makes an important contribution here as another patient, a doctor persuaded to cooperate with the kidnapping league bribed by unlimited access to whisky, which he accepts since he is a failed doctor and an alcoholic, and he works constantly on getting too tipsy to be able to regret it. The scenes with him and with Ella Raines are the best and most interesting in the film, although Donald Wolfit, as always, impresses with his acting, this time as the overbearing professor, who even one of his doctors finally has some objection against.

It's not a great thriller but interesting as an entertainment, and you will remember Cyril Cusack and Ella Raines better than Derek Farr.

Derek Farr is ambushed on a road,drugged and told by sinister doctor Donald Woolfit that his memory has gone and that he is someone else.Its a dastardly commie plot to take him to Moscow. Ella Raines,in her last film,is parachuted into the plot after 35 minutes.All very routine.

I really enjoyed seeing Ella Raines;(the web 1947, the suspect & la dama desconicida a.k.a phantom lady 1944, The senator was indiscreet 1947 and of course impact 1949) in this British produced film from 1956; in fact she was my favourite American heroine actress.She died aged 68 of a lung type of cancer.This was my first viewing of this film courtesy of Youtube.com.Her personality seemed to be naturally heroic and hence she sparkled in this genre film.Russell Napier appeared in numerous British 'b' films in the 50s & early 60s playing Scotland Yard police inspectors and here makes another appearance as such.The lead actor, Derek Farr I know from "The Dambusters" (1954) Quiet Wedding (1940) & Quiet Weekend (1946).Karel Stepanek played his usual nasty character which was usually a Nazi as in "Sink the Bismark" (1960) or as here a Communist agent.Remember this was filmed before perestroika at the height of the cold war.

Another reviewer made a comparison of the lovely Ella Raines with the equally lovely Gene Tierney with which I concur.I certainly did not find the plot too talky and it had a nice balance between dialogue and action and I awarded it 7/10.

After an introductory scene in which a car is waylaid on a narrow English country lane, a corpse substituted for the driver and the car doused with gasoline and set on fire, a man (Derek Farr) wakes up in a private hospital.

His amiable but vaguely sinister attending physician, Prof. Cattrell (Donald Wolfit) tells the man that he was the victim of a hit-and-run accident, and his name -- according to the wallet found in his suit -- is Ivan Mason.

There's just one problem: Mason can't remember his past. Or rather, what he does remember doesn't jibe with who they tell him he is, and every time he has one of these "false" memories he gets a blinding headache. Mason slowly begins to suspect there's something not quite right going on, even as Cattrell confronts him with all sorts of evidence that he really is Mason.

Both the amnesia and the headaches are the results of Cattrell's hypnosis, as part of a devious Commie plot to get Mason -- in actuality a top nuclear physicist -- to voluntarily go to Russia. Where, of course, his amnesia will be "cured" and all his nuclear secrets extracted.

Although when you think about it, the plan seems both cumbersome and far-fetched, the players make it look fairly convincing. One of the great things about these British B films is the level of acting talent they could draw on for supporting characters, actors like Wolfit and Cyril Cusack and Karel Stepanek. Sure, the leading man is rather wooden, but strikingly beautiful Ella Raines (in what was, sadly, her last big-screen appearance) more than compensates for Farr's deficiencies.

Stanley Pavey's black-and-white cinematography is crisply competent, with plenty of shadows and low angle shots to instill an appropriately paranoid atmosphere.

This is a distinctly minor thriller, compared to the likes of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", but still, it has its moments, and (mostly) manages to hold the viewer's interest until the end.

"The Man in the Road" is a British film from 1956 based on the novel of the same name. It concerns a famous scientist who is kidnapped while driving and taken to a country nursing home. When he awakens, he can't remember who he is.

The Communists have taken him and are sending him to Russia. They tell him his name is Ivan Mason, but he just can't make the connection. They keep him hypnotized.

A drunk in the home, either a patient or a doctor, clues him in on what's going on. While walking, he's asked for a ride by a neighbor (Ella Raines) and ends up telling her his story. Needless to say, she's a little nervous around him. There is something about him that's believable, so she investigates.

Derek Farr plays the confused scientist, and the great stage actor Sir Donald Wolfit is the villain. This was Ella Raines' last film. A beautiful woman and always a nice presence in any film. With her hair a little longer, she always reminded me of Gene Tierney. She retired after this. Sadly, like Tierney, she died from a smoking-related disease - in her case, esophageal cancer, in Tierney's, emphysema.

The movie is a little too talky for a suspense film and comes off as being on the slow side. It is recommended though -- these actors all enjoyed prolific careers, so the acting is good, and it's entertaining enough. Communism was a major subject in the late '40s and '50s, and this movie fits right into the genre.