The Man Who Finally Died

This is for the most part an absorbing mystery, one of those where by no means all of the individuals are whom they appear to be. There's a strong cast of British character actors with Niall MacGinnis especially effective as a rather unorthodox insurance investigator. The film loses points by being needlessly confusing with over-reliance on the dialogue at certain stages, and if you're not paying close attention to every word at these times, the leisurely developed narrative will remain somewhat obscure. In particular the scene where Georgina Ward's Maria is introduced (together with the business regarding her late father) should have been presented with greater clarity.

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?

Overly melodramatic tale of a man (Stanley Baker) called by his father, whom he believed to be dead, to visit him without giving a reason. When he arrives, he finds the father has died -- but has he really? This is fairly engrossing story that is puzzling to determine what is really going on. Unfortunately, some of the confusion is the result of many of the actions by the characters being largely inexplicable. Stanley Baker, who suspects his father did not die because of Mai Zetterling's (in the role of the dead father's wife) strange behavior, is wound so tight he seems ready to explode every moment he's on camera. Not far behind is Eric Portman in the role of the inspector, who just explodes several times almost without cause. There just didn't seem to be any direction. Mai Zetterling seemed confused. Unfortunately, blaring music at suspenseful points in the film ruins some of the intrigue. I liked the way the movie was shot but the acting was just mediocre probably due to the lack of direction. Still it's an interesting curiosity and a fun, if somewhat frustrating, viewing.

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.