Double Exposures

Alibi Breaker also known as Double Exposures is a low budget B movie.

A starring role for Basil Langton who is better known as the patriarch in Upstairs Downstairs.

He plays journalist Peter Bradfield who is thrown out of the home of industrialist Hector Rodman who does not like snooping journalists.

Peter is a college friend of the deep in debt, wastrel son George.

Later on the dad gets into an argument with his son and George walks out.

Not before his father's personal secretary Geoffrey Cranswick, gets George to see the family's solicitor.

Unbeknown to George, the solicitor and the Geoffrey have hatched a plan to swindle their dad of £20,000 worth of bonds that his business needed.

Later Hector Rodman is a possible suspect for murder when the solicitor is found dead.

Peter gets involved as he was taking photographs and could implicate the actual murderer.

This is a silly quota quickie, the plot is stupid at times and so are some of the pompous characters.

I saw this film under the title ALIBI BREAKER, where it got a showing on Talking Pictures TV, an excellent channel for showing obscure old B-movies. It's another film where a camera plays a pivotal role in bringing a criminal to justice, as the original title, DOUBLE EXPOSURES, hints at.

However, the film itself is rather stodgy and it does feel very dated. The viewer is introduced to a sprawling family seemingly filled with comedic butlers, ne'er-do-well sons, and scheming associates. A lawyer is about to rip off the father of the family, but things don't exactly go according to plan and a young journalist ends up becoming something of an amateur sleuth when a murder takes place.

I love these 1930s crime films but ALIBI BREAKER doesn't have a great deal to recommend it. Basil Radford (THE LADY VANISHES) is credited in a large role, and the director is none other than John Paddy Carstairs, who would go on working right through to the 1960s. There's some brief innovation in having repeated panning shots rather than shooting everything in the old static style, and some of the humour is mildly amusing, but overall this is a bit of a bore.

I agree with malcolmgsw this film is dated....but enjoyable all the same...and a real glimpse into the past.

David (Basil) Langton who is best remembered as Lord Bellamy in Upstairs Downstairs plays a leading role here....but I saw no sign of Basil Radford in the film....maybe the previous reviewer is mistaken, the only Basil in the credits being Mr Langton.

1. The Movie Release It's a cheap & cheery entertaining British comedy movie that was first released in USA to American audiences. Considering the contents of the movie, 'Double Exposures' is a befitting humorous title, more than 'Alibi Breaker', as the comedy is more stage theatrics.

2. Category I guess that's where it all goes wrong for this movie - the Classification Category - where does this movie belong? The Americans prob saw the cast line up as a team effort similar to Abbott & Costello or Laurel & Hardy, but with the stage theatrics crime drama theme to it, whilst The Brits wanted to catapult this movie into serious crime drama. The Americans won & quite rightly so.

3. The Naming Ceremony On top of the' Double Exposures' & 'Alibi Breaker' Release Titles, comes the additional confusion surrounding 'names used' by a few male cast members of this movie and 'other' leading actors outside of this cast who 'have the same name'.