The Narrowing Circle

I must admit my complete ignorance about Director Charles Saunders' work, but he certainly does a fine job with this B picture. Relying on an Hitchcock-like screenplay whereby an innocent journalist (Paul Carpenter) keeps finding dead bodies and rating increasingly the prime suspect to Scotland Yard inspector Crambo (superior supporting show from Trevor Reid), the film posts strong dialogue and an interesting plot with a villain that I had not seen coming.

Splendidly simple photography, good fight sequences, clever twists and turns - all help make THE NARROWING CIRCLE a worthy watch, with the added bonus that Hazel Court has the loveliest eyes and a deliciously plump figure.

Recommended B noir.

Julian Symons wrote an excellent mystery which was also revealing about British social attitudes of the time. It was always going to lose something in its translation to the big screen but this film is below average even by contemporary British 'B' movie standards. It just becomes a run-of-the-mill whodunit with the characterization so thin that the unmasking of the guilty party is distinctly underwhelming. The budget apparently wouldn't stretch to the usual second division American star so the over-familiar Paul Carpenter turns out once again. Glamorous Hazel Court is some compensation as always and Trevor Reid is accomplished as the cynical detective.

Paul Carpenter gets passed over as the editor of the company's new true-crime magazine. Worse than that, the guy who gets the job takes his girl, who's more interested in someone who can afford her. So Carpenter slugs the guy, and goes on a binge. Along the way, he picks up a blonde drinking companion, who dumps him in a fleabag hotel, and signs him in under a fake name. Then she leaves. When he wakes up, he goes home and discovers the corpse of his romantic rival.

Matters turn nastier, as the hotel clerk doesn't recognize him, and the police say they cannot trace the woman. Only Hazel Court is sympathetic as he keeps finding the corpses of people who might alibi him.

Charles Saunders shows what he can do with a well-written script (except the part where Carpenter has figured out whodunnit, but refuses to share the name with Miss Court or the police; that must be the strict libel laws in Britain). There is some good humor, and a lead character who makes bad decisions and realizes it moments later is nice writing. Plus Carpenter and Court have good chemistry.

It's the usual plot of getting framed for crimes you didn't commit, and they keep piling up no mater what you try to do to get out of a constantly dwindling spiral and mess of implications and troubles. It's a well written script elegantly treated into a well directed film, but none of these characters will make any lasting impression. They are simply just types set up for a suspense thriller, not even imitating Hitchcock and falling far off the professional stream of thrillers. The people murdered here are no less than three, and they are all quite innocent but just happened to know some loose ends of a story that never even would have interested them. Fortunately the film is not too long, just about some minutes more than an hour, the action is intensive all the way with even some space for a romance, so you will enjoy it enough for its duration and then forget all about it.

This stars 2 favourite leads for British B films of the 1950s,Paul Carpenter and Hazel Court.It seems that anyone who has contact with Carpenter is found murdered and that within a very short time Carpenter is found adjacent to the murdered person.What I did not quite like about this film was that you were not likely to be able to guess who was the killer,as the killer was not on screen for very long.Furthermore the reason for the killings only became apparent at the very end.So you are not really given any clues as to whom it might be.The only way you will get it is if you guess,which obviously one of the other reviewers did.