Elã

If you have never heard of Constance Smith look at the tragic details of her life on this site. It makes terrible reading and says a lot about the corruption in film making. She was beautiful and far more talented than other actors who rose to stardom. Her life is also a cautionary tale in what was and still is a male dominated industry. She acted with such actors as Jeffrey Hunter, Jack Palance and Richard Widmark. In this film she is cast with Arthur Kennedy and both of them give more than this tepid thriller deserves. What it does show in the early scenes is a portrait of the cosy mediocrity of English life in the mid-1950's. For those who are interested in the social life of the period it is also worth seeing. It is not Film noir as some here have said, but a pedestrian example of criminality with Arthur Kennedy who accidentally gets involved with it. Film Noir was more an American and French genre than British. It is a great pity that in the declining years of its genre Constance Smith was not given better roles. If you want to watch her potential then watch this film.

Though it is short and sweet, Cy Endfield still struggles with this slightly contrived British murder/mystery. The rather wooden Arthur Kennedy ("Curtis") meets the glamorous "Lila" Constance Smith) in an hotel bar whilst his wife "Elizabeth" (Joy Shelton) has gone away for the weekend. After what seems like the briefest of introductions, he forgets any semblance of the sanctity of his marriage vows and as a result gets tangled up with some murderous diamond smugglers before a predictable ending. It's not a great example of the genre, more a rather stodgily paced vehicle for a visiting American star.

A bored man gets himself in a heap of trouble while his wife is away in Impulse, a 1954 British film starring Arthur Kennedy and Constance Smith, directed by Cy Endfield.

Arthur Kennedy, a brilliant actor, did make some films in England, though I'm not sure why. He had a wonderful Broadway and US film career, receiving several Oscar nominations. On top of which, he had to work with Constance Smith. By 1954 she had been fired by Rank and dropped by 20th Century Fox. She came to a terrible end.

In Impulse, he plays a real estate agent who is restless. He lives in a small town that offers no excitement. With his wife (Joy Shelton) away for the weekend, he goes to a bar and notices a beautiful woman (Smith) who seems to be ducking the police.

Later, her car has broken down so he offers her a lift. She's a nightclub singer and has to get back to London. He attends the show.

Before he knows it, he's involved with stolen jewelry, a murder, and dangerous criminals, not to mention a woman who can ruin his marriage.

Actually, the stories of Smith and and Jean St. Clair, who played the neighbor, are much more fascinating than this film.

From 1952 to 1969, St. Clair was married to Jack Baer, an art dealer who owned a gallery. They divorced in 1969, but in the early '70s, she was imprisoned for setting fire to his gallery.

Constance Smith, as mentioned, was fired first from Rank for being difficult, then dropped by 20th Century Fox after a series of B films. She was replaced early on in the film "I'll Never Forget You" starring Tyrone Power.

In 1962 she was sentenced to three months in prison for stabbing her boyfriend, documentary maker and film historian Paul Rotha. In 1968, she stabbed him for a second time and was charged with attempted murder. They married in 1974, and broke up in 1978. Smith tried several times to kill herself. Due to drug and alcohol addiction, her last years were spent in hospitals or working as a cleaner.

Impulse pales in comparison.

IMPULSE is another typical British crime film, one that plays out in a very low key way and which features an imported American star in order to bring American audiences in. This time around it's a permanently stressed out Arthur Kennedy, playing a happily married man who decides to embark on a dalliance when his wife goes away for the weekend.

His problems begin when he helps a stranded woman who turns out to be a femme fatale played by Constance Smith, whose real life was more torrid and tragic than any movie. Smith is excellent, by the way, and gives the best performance in the movie. Kennedy finds himself obsessed by her, but he doesn't know that she's involved with some ruthless criminals who think nothing of committing murder to get their way.

Before long the film settles in the typical Tempean Films format, with a lone hero, the attractive women helping and hindering him, the thugs seeking to kill him, and the police always one step behind. It's rather undistinguished stuff that lacks a decent storyline to see it through and I was bored more often than not. Cyril Chamberlain's weary cop encapsulates the audience's mood on this one. Watch out for a youthful Kenneth Cope making his debut film appearance early on.

I just wanted to correct one of the other reviewers on this sight: Charles de la Tour is not the pen name of Cy Endfield. He was a director in his own right who had children, one of whom is RISING DAMP actress Frances de la Tour. Something that would be rather impossible if he didn't actually exist!

(1954) Impulse CRIME DRAMA

Co-written and directed by Cy Endfield that has reality salesman, Alan Curtis (Arthur Kennedy) who while his English wife, Elizabeth Curtis (Joy Shelton) is away visiting her mom somewhere else. The first thing he does while his wife is away is drink at a pub, drinking next to him is a woman who appears to be on the run from the police. And upon him driving home, he then sees that same attractive woman stranded by her car as she attempted to get away from the the two men looking for her. And he allows her to stay in his flat until they get a mechanic to fix up her car. Except that she has a job as a night singer at a club for Jack Forrester (James Carney), and upon meeting him, he warns him not to get involved. Alan does not listen as he becomes more infatuated with her but continues to lie to him.