robin-moss2

I have to disagree quite strongly with the other review. The narrative of this film is most certainly not one we have seen a million times or more. It is highly original and well worth describing.

A gang of high class corporate thieves use blackmail to induce their victims to sell property at knock-down prices. The victims refuse to talk to the police. A police inspector is aware of the racket and persuades a shifty private investigator to work for the gang while reporting back to him. The P. I. joins the crooks, none of whom trusts the others, and each of them tries to enlist his services for their own exclusive advantage. There are two murders and it is not clear until the last surprise twist scene who committed the second murder.

The Share-Out has an excellent cast including Alexander Knox and Bernard Lee. As with all these Edgar Wallace films, the story unfolds quickly and the audience is never bored.

The Verdict is typical of the Edgar Wallace films that were made quickly and cheaply in the early 1960s in Britain. The main story is not credible but the film is so tightly edited that the audience does not notice until the film has ended.

An American gangster has been deported to England but when he arrives a police detective informs him that he is suspected of murdering a man several years previously. The gangster demands that a colleague try to corrupt members of the jury. His colleague is reluctant but as he investigates various possibilities, an idea occurs to him. An idea also occurs to the gangster's mistress. Each idea produces a plot twist at the end of the film.

The Verdict has an interesting cast, three of whom later appeared in James Bond films: Zena Marshall, Paul Stassino and Cec Linder. Nigel Davenport plays the gangster's partner.

As was always the case with this series of Edgar Wallace films, The Verdict was well photographed.

Strangler's Web is an interesting story about a murder that is not nearly as open-and-shut as it first seems. The characters are unconventional and are well-drawn by both the screenplay and the actors while the investigation into what really happened trawls through various strata of British society.

The opening scene where the murder takes place borrows ideas from the pre-credit sequence of From Russia With Love. The murdered woman's common-law husband is found at the scene and is the obvious suspect. A solicitor with a drink problem and a tendency to beat his wife is appointed to prepare the defence. He finds that the suspect's conduct towards the murdered woman was not unlike his own towards his wife. He pulls himself together and gets to work. He comes across a wide variety of people including a confidence trickster, an air-brained young woman and a disfigured ex-matinée idol.

Not a moment is wasted in Strangler's Web and the pace never lets up. As were the other films in this Edgar Wallace series, the movie is well- photographed and edited.