The Limping Man

It was quite common in the '50s for British B-pictures to feature a fairly famous American star in the main role. Presumably most British B-movies would not otherwise have been granted an American release. In this film, it is the turn of Lloyd Bridges to lend his talents to a brief, brisk and reasonably entertaining mystery flick.

Bridges plays Franklin Pryor, a former US soldier returning to Britain in the 1950s to rekindle a wartime romance with Pauline French (Moira Lister). As he disembarks from the plane at London Heathrow, Pryor witnesses the assassination of another passenger, gunned down by a sniper as he walks from the plane to the terminal. To make matters worse, when Pryor reunites with his old flame she seems to know more about the killing than she is letting on. The police even begin to suspect that Pryor himself may have had a role in the murder.

The script is reasonably engrossing, starting with the mysterious murder and building from there with plenty more intriguing goings-on. Indeed, for a while the film threatens to become something far cleverer and far more unpredictable than most films of its ilk. However, it is let down (badly at that) by a totally thoughtless twist ending which will have most viewers groaning in disappointment. Still, apart from the feeble climax this is a decent little thriller, well worth 80 minutes (or thereabouts) of anybody's time. It's a difficult film to track down, but if you're lucky enough to find it it'll do nicely for a rainy day.

This is a kind of "B" picture but it has a good cast and the story is intriguing enough. It stars Lloyd Bridges and Moira Lister, two good actors. An assassination happens as Frank Prior (Bridges) gets off a plane in London, where he is to see Pauline French (Lister) for the first time in six years, since the war. The person who was assassinated, Kendall Brown, is known to Pauline French and Scotland Yard is on the case. Frank tries to help French in trying to find out how she in involved. The Limping Man of the title is a shadowy figure, which is why I'm calling this a noir film. Its pretty good, but the ending, which I won't divulge, is strange. Its fun to watch up till then and, at 75 minutes, goes by quickly. Obviously not perfect, its good Saturday afternoon watching.

Absorbing little co-feature that holds the interest. It would be worth the price of admission if not for the I-want-my-money-back ending. Nice acting jobs all around, Miss Lister in particular. Good workmanlike performance by the dependable Lloyd Bridges. The picture didn't drag and moved along at a nice clip. In truth, I didn't mind the ending as I felt the plot was starting to dig a hole for itself which made the ending rather timely. Had never seen this picture in TV listings - I had a DVD copy which was quite good. Makes you wonder how many other underrated films never made it to a format of any kind, and are now gone forever.

The Limping Man is a fairly bland British B grade Noir with Lloyd Bridges imported from America to play the lead role and add appeal to a wider audience. The plot follows a reasonably intriguing path towards what should/could have been a dramatic conclusion before reaching a disappointing ending that might have been borrowed from a children's story. Despite this, the film has its moments with fine performances from Bridges and Alan Wheatley as the Inspector. Leslie Phillips appears as the inspector's subordinate and, as always, is typecast as the ladies man who ogles everything in a dress.

Although the ending is flawed the film still has appeal as an interesting example of British Film Noir.

In a parody of "The Famous Writers' School" a teacher recommends that no matter what corner you have painted yourself into, literarily, you can always end it with "then I got run over by a truck." In this film the audience is run over by a truck. It takes a nicely orchestrated set of events and cheapens them badly. This is the tale of a man who finds himself in the middle of some intrigue and blackmail. There are nice plot twists all along the way, especially involving the female protagonist who has gotten herself in some big time trouble. Lloyd Bridges is sort of along for the ride. We keep waiting for him to be more than an observer, but he never rises above that. Still I was involved until the moronic ending.