House of Blackmail

This low budget British film is quite well done. The script, acting, direction, photography, and editing are all first rate.

Carol Blane (Mary Germaine) drives to a dark old mansion to meet with blackmailer Markham (Alexander Gauge). He has a 200 pound check forged by Carol's irresponsible brother Billy (Barry Wynne). Along the drive Carol picks up seeming hobo Jimmy (William Sylvester). She soon comes to believe that he is a notorious escaped convict. Carol offers him 50 pounds to go to the mansion with her and pose as her lawyer. Then, he can steal the check rather paying the blackmailer. Jimmy agrees. At the mansion they meet Markham, Dr Welich (Hugo Schuster) and overbearing American Peter Carter (John Arnatt). Also on hand are sneaky butler Bassett (Dennis Shaw) and maid Emma (Ingeborg von Kusserow). Soon, Markham is murdered and everyone distrusts everyone else. Jimmy pretends to be Carol's fiancé as well as her lawyer. Eventually, the police will have to be notified. What will happen to Jimmy then? Is he really an escaped convict? Is everyone else who they claim to be? Who done it?

Also in the cast is Patricia Owens as Joan, Carol's roommate and model. In her first scenes, she is posing for Carol wearing a gorgeous evening gown that is worth seeing. Patricia brings an intensity to her role and she really dominates every scene that she's in. The viewer will definitely notice Patricia Owens in HOB.

I watched HOB on a DVD that I got from the Amazon. The picture quality and sound were both excellent. Watch HOB if you get the chance. It will keep you interested from the start to the plot twist at the end.

Really feels quite a bit earlier than the 50s and the cheap film stock doesn't help matters any. It's not just that though. The plot itself reminds me of 30s films, as does the soundtrack. I know I recently said this about a previous film I watched but this is very Edgar Wallace, Maybe I only feel that way because I've been reading him lately but then again his impact on mysteries and thriller since the 20s is not only undeniable but prodigious. This is quite an entertaining little film, falling squarely into the Mystery/whodunit genre and not really veering anywhere towards noir or even thriller. So it's good but quite safe. I'm thankful there's not too much comedic relief, as there often is with films of this kind, but it isn't dark or energetic either. A solid middle of the road mystery film.

Despite the menacing title, William Sylvester's first stint as a virile & good-humoured 'B' picture leading man (actually billed second to squirrel-faced Mary Germaine) in this droll A. C. T. Quickie shot at Nettlefold is generally a pretty light-hearted affair, with an annoyingly jaunty score noisily emphasising the fact.

Although set in the usual enormous house, Maurice Elvey's uninspired grouping of his cast as they chatter away (including Denis Shaw as a gentleman's gentleman who makes Parker look like Ronald Colman), the film seems long and cramped, although cameraman Phil Grindrod as usual delivers in the dramatic scenes after dark.

(1953) House of Blackmail CRIME THRILLER/ MYSTERY

It has a blackmailer, Markham (Alexander Gauge) demanding five thousand pounds from Billy Blane (Barry Wynne) by Saturday. And he manages to convince him to get it from his sister, Carol Blane (Mary Germaine) since he does not have that kind of money. During the meeting with his sister, and as it turns out Billy forged his mother's signature to purchase something and was caught. She agrees to pay 5,000 with conditions that she would get to meet the blackmailer himself. And as she is driving down the highway, she then cross paths with a drifter who claimed to be homeless, he says his name is Jimmy (William Sylvester). Meanwhile, on the next stop Jimmy also appears to fit the description of an escape fugitive, James Corbett. And for some reason, Carol who picked him up from the highway, trusts him enough to ask him to pretend to act like her husband and lawyer, for the intention of grabbing the fraudulent check her brother forged the mother's signature on. And upon their arrival, it was their they meet the owner of the house, Pete Carter (John Arnatt); the blackmailer, Markham; the doctor, Welich (Hugo Schuster); the servant, Basset (Denis Shaw) and maid, Emma (Ingeborg Wells). As soon as Marham is found dead some time during the night and the phone wire has been cut, the owner then ordered all the current guests to stay at the residence until authorities showed up.

For a short running time of less than a hour and a half there is many twists and turns and surprising unexpected revelations that cannot be predicted for not everything is what it appears to be.

A foolish young man named Billy Blane has forged a cheque for £200 and is threatened with arrest unless he pays £5,000 to the urbane and wealthy Markham. His artist sister, Carol (Mary Germaine) tries to get him out of it by agreeing to meet Markham in his old country house. On the way, she picks up a good-looking and garrulous hitch-hiker (William Sylvester) who calls himself Jimmy. The radio, meanwhile, speaks of an escaped convict from a nearby prison. Jimmy agrees to accompany Carol to the house and pose as her lawyer in an attempt to unnerve Markham.

There, they meet Markham (Alexander Gauge) and his two associates, an elderly Eastern European doctor (Hugo Schuster) and a sharp-tongued American (John Arnatt), also a Polish maid (Ingeborg von Kusserow) and a seedy, spying butler (Denis Shaw). After some sparring from Jimmy, Carol agrees to pay the money, but is unable to withdraw it from her bank until morning. The pair must remain until then and, with the windows electronically secured, there is no way to escape. During the night, Markham is murdered, and the killer could only have been someone staying at the house...

There is much intrigue and some witty dialogue to be enjoyed in this early fifties B-film, which reveals its small budget with its studio-bound setting and recycled score (at one point, it sounded like something from a Norman Wisdom film!). American William Sylvester is ebullient as Jimmy and, with his mid-Atlantic accent, could well have made an excellent Saint. As usual, Alexander Gauge is wonderfully erudite as the disreputable Markham, another of his reasonable-criminal roles, while the British actor John Arnatt displays a convincing American accent as the man who takes charge. There is also some decent characterisation - for example, with Bassett the butler and his listening at keyholes and room of pin-ups - and much creepy sneaking about, which I always love. Despite the gothic aesthetics, however, this is emphatically a mystery, not a thriller, and a pretty straightforward one at that. It's about the characters' interaction - not wanting to be alone or with any of the others either - and also keeps us guessing as to whether Jimmy is the escaped prisoner or not. The ending is neat, simple and reasonably satisfying, while everything before it is enjoyable too. An average film, of course, but that should be no insult when such things are as fun as this.