Three Silent Men

an inventor offers his invention to the British army on condition that the government forge an alliance with a country who want to see the end of our empire.Driving away from the demonstration of the equipment the inventor has a near fatal crash,but his life is saved by a surgeon.However everyone agrees that it would be better if the inventor had died.The inventor is murdered and the surgeon is suspected.However there are other suspects who might be guilty.Whilst the mystery is well handled,nevertheless there are a few unexplained events.Why was the surgeon in the inventors room and why was he creeping about in the medical cabinet with a torch.There is some comedy introduced with reporters vying for the story and a touch of romance with a very young Patricia Roc.An entertaining 67 minutes.

A fascinating premise containing some snappy one-liners but suffering from very slapdash and cheap-seeming execution. (I was, for example - ANTI-SPOILER COMING: - expecting the fact that Sebastian Shaw was skilfully but visibly made up to look about twenty years older than his actual age of 35 pointed to some final twist, but this proved not to be the case.)

Creator of a superweapon with which his declared intention is to destabilise the current European world order, the late unlamented Karl Zaroff (Meinhart Maur) is portrayed as an arrogant skunk lights years away from the visionary arms manufacturer and model employer Andrew Undershaft in 'Major Barbara', and his killer seems to have being doing the world a service rather than being the villain the denouement portrays him as; so from the looks of this movie E.P.Thorne's original novel should be worth investigating.

Meinhart Maur has a devastating new weapon that he offers to the British government on terms they find too difficult. Later, Maur is driving and gets into an accident. When he's pulled from it, doctor Sebastian Shaw operates on him, but is later heard to rail against a man who can create such a weapon. Meanwhile, intelligence man Derrick De Marney tries to find Maur's plans, but fails. He suggests to Shaw that it might be best if Maur is isolated as he convalesces. That becomes moot when Maur dies, and suspicion falls on Shaw.

I could have used subtitles given the poor soundtrack and the rustic accents adopted by local poacher Cameron Hall and Andre Morrell's German accent, but I found the plot understandable, particularly with dishy Patricia Roc playing Shaw's daughter and De Marney's love interest. Other recognizable performers include Peter Gawthorne, Hugh Dempster, Ian Fleming, and Bill Shine.

In his mid-thirties, Shaw was already playing a man old enough to have lost a son in the Great War. He would continue to act until his death in 1994 at the age of 89. Perhaps his most famous role was as the first performer to play Anakin Skywalker in RETURN OF THE JEDI.

Unlike the other reviewer on this site, I found THREE SILENT MEN quite dull despite elements of interest in the narrative. It feels very much like a 1930s murder mystery updated to the then-present day, 1940, which leads to the addition of a plot involving an unnamed enemy country and the development of technology to help that country win the war. I'm not sure why Germany wasn't named after we had declared war at that stage, but the implications are clear.

The opening sequences are a bit fuddled although the direction of the scenes involving the speeding car are quite fun. After this point the film settles down into becoming a traditional murder mystery with the finger of suspicion pointed at top surgeon Sebastian Shaw (RETURN OF THE JEDI). Despite the short running time this is a film that feels very dragged out and many of the comedy scenes involving the drunken yokels and the in-fighting of the reporters do nothing to add to the plot in any way. Things only get lively at the very end. A youthful Andre Morell, future Hammer star, plays in support.

Plodding British 'thriller' that is so vague about key elements of its plot that it feels unfinished. Noticeable only for an early appearance from Andre Morrell.