O Estrangulador

"The Frightened Lady" popped up on YouTube soon after I viewed "Written in Blood" (Caroline Graham, excellent author of the Midsomer Murders series) a 2d time and read the book a 2d time also. Although I could hardly make sense of "Frightened Lady" at first, it gradually began to make sense in a Midsomer sort of way - a shrewd old woman, proud of her "blood line," wants her piano playing son, Sir Lebanon, last of the family line, to wed his lovely cousin being held captive in a big old manor house filled with gruesome shadows and scheming footmen. An architect arrives to prepare for upcoming renovations but the old lady who wants repairs also wants everything to remain the same. Right! Well, the bottom line turns out to be something like that "Written in Blood" plot but instead of a Writers Circle we have a composer of odd jazzy-classical melodies and an elderly woman much like Honoria L'Idiot - if I may say so. You know what happens to the blood line when cousins marry cousins.

The Case of the Frightened Lady is directed by George King and based on a play by Edgar Wallace. Edward Dryhurst adapts to screenplay, Jack Beaver scores the music and Hone Glendinning is the photographer. It stars Helen Haye, Marius Goring, Penelope Dudley-Ward, Patrick Barr, Felix Aylmer, Ronald Shiner and George Merritt.

Mark's Priory: The ancestral English family home of the Lebanon's. Mark's Priory: Home to secrets, suspicion and possibly a psychotic murderer.

One of a number of old British films newly discovered for DVD release, George king's movie is a mystery thriller in the classic "old dark house" mode. Edgar Wallace's play had already been adapted to the screen in a 1932 film version directed by T. Hayes Hunter, with two subsequent television versions appearing in 1938 and 1983. Clearly it's a source story that has proved popular with producers. Although creaking with its undoubted stage bound origins, film delivers the goods for those willing to accept that the first half is driven by dialogue and character development. After an initial "shriek" opening, the picture settles into a literary stride where there's no real sense of impending menace or creepy atmospherics: in fact a good portion in this quarter is jovial as plot takes in major characters at a community dance party. However, conversations are relevant and it seasons the ingredients for the stew about to be cooked.

Once back at Mark's Priory, we at last reach the realms of mystery/thriller land and the hunt and guess who begins. Characters are strong for the formula; a head of the family who appears to be hiding something, a doctor who may have an iffy past, shifty footmen servants and naturally a pretty girl catching the eye of some debonair suitor. Throw in some shadowy photography by Glendinning and a terrific piano led score by Beaver, and fans of films of this ilk have much to enjoy; and thankfully the big "reveal" of the story is not too shabby either. Cast are well tuned for the material, particularly Goring, Aylmer (isn't he always?), Shiner and Merritt, the latter two of which making a wonderful double act as the intrepid coppers investigating the dastardly goings on. While keep an eye out for a young Torin Thatcher impacting with a character marker for future roles to come. 7/10

One of the several adaptation of the Edgar Wallace play is a typical, but unfortunately quite imperfect old dark house mystery about the last members of the once wealthy and prestigious Lebanon family. The family's head is Lady Lebanon, who rules the house with an iron fist and her sinister looking servants follow all her orders, that include keeping and eye on everyone, especially her only son, who is the last bearer of the name. She wants him to marry Isla Crane, her secretary, who also happens to be his cousin, but that seems to be no problem for Lady Lebanon, on the contrary actually, as we learn that it's been an on-going habit to marry family members.. which somewhat foreshadows the later turn of events.

A young lad called Richard Ferraby arrives to the house to discuss renovation plans and him and Isla, who is not too keen on the marriage idea anyways are immediately attracted to each other. Soon, the family's chauffeur gets killed, strangled with a scarf and Lady Lebanon's plan start to fall apart even further. It becomes obvious that she has many things to hide, including a locked room upstairs, some secrets with the family's doctor called Amersham and also, a scarf, that she tries to burn when police starts to investigate. While Lady Lebanon does everything to stop the investigation or at least make it as difficult as possible, both Ferraby and Lord Lebanon (who is clearly more interested in composing music than in the future of the family) try to help the rather incompetent police officers, but they can not prevent another murder from happening.

The film has everything that could make it a good old dark house mystery: family secrets, an old mansion, locked rooms, sinister butlers, secret passages and more-or-less likeable heroes, but it just does not work out at the end. The story has potential but it is heavily handled, dialogues are often awkwardly badly written, the acting isn't much better for the most part and director George King does not do a very good job either. He is well-known for his horror movies starring Tod Slaughter, so he should know a thing or two about scares and how to create a threatening atmosphere, but still, this movie completely lacks suspense.

And a friendly warning: if you watch this on Odeon Entertainment's Best of British DVD (that was actually the first time the film was made available for the public since its initial theatrical run), do not look at the photos on the cover unless you don't mind spoilers, as they give away both the movie's final plot twist and ending.

Another lively potboiler from George King, in which the absence of Tod Slaughter is compensated by some ripe ham from a young and dashing Marius Goring instead.

The picture it paints of a decadent aristocracy on the brink of the cataclysm of a second world war is not a pretty one, with the men neutered by in-breeding (replenished only by strong women marrying into the House of Lebanon) while surrounded by muttering, disrespectful servants.

Originally filmed in 1932 with Emlyn Williams (making his movie debut) and Gordon Harker (as Sergeant Totty), the movie was such a success that Wallace—reversing the usual procedure—turned his script into a stage play in which Williams (as Lord Lebanon) and Harker repeated their screen roles. Also in the 1932 movie, titled The Frightened Lady, were Cathleen Nesbitt as Lady Lebanon, while the lovely Belle Chrystall was Miss Crane, and Norman McKinnel, Inspector Tanner.

A Gothic thriller of the old school, The Case of the Frightened Lady spins an intriguing web of mystery and horror almost from the very first. I must admit I was not impressed by its trick opening which was obviously designed to fool not only the audience but the critics as well. At the conclusion of the under-the-credits sequence, director George King commences the movie proper with an odd scene in which Helen Haye faces the camera, while she and Marius Goring declaim their lines in full-blown theatrical style, their voices raised to reach the back of the gallery. At any second we expect the camera to pull back to reveal that Hayes and Goring are standing on an actual theatre set, as was done, for example, in The Hollywood Stadium Mystery (1938). But no! Before the scene has even concluded, both Haye and Goring suddenly abandon their grease-paint posturing and revert to more natural acting. So this was an expected "surprise" that happily didn't eventuate.

Another critical surprise lies in the writing and acting of Ronald Shiner's part. Although the sergeant is designed as comic relief, Shiner, for once, doesn't over-do the mugging and even plays the role with a degree of intelligence. Needless to say, we expect gifted performances from Haye, Ward and Goring, but at times Shiner even manages to hold his own in this company. However, an even bigger revelation in the acting department lies in the excellent portrayal by minor character actor George Merritt who plays a major role here and even manages to steal scenes from the principals.

King has handled his generous budget in fine style, making splendid use of his sets which, aided by Hone Glendinning's noirish lighting, provide plenty of spooky atmosphere. This brooding, riveting invocation of suspense, allied with rapid pacing and charismatic acting (even from minor players like Warwick, Thatcher and Scott), inexorably plunges us so inescapably into the maelstrom that we don't notice obvious contrivances in the plot and details that simply don't stand up to scrutiny. The script's faults, in fact, are inconsequential. While actually watching the story unfold, it remains a terrifyingly suspenseful movie experience.

In the title role, the charmingly aristocratic yet disarmingly sensitive Penelope Dudley Ward exhibits just the right note of fragile beauty as the imperiled heroine.