The Flaw

A diverting little thriller with offbeat casting of the two male leads which packs a few Hitchcockian twists into barely an hour's running time.

John Bentley is even more manipulative and a bigger skunk than Ray Milland in 'Dial M for Murder', and it makes extensive use of locations throughout. (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) Only the ending comes as a bit of a letdown by resolving things too quickly and tidily after all that lovingly detailed scheming.

A dashingly handsome racing driver woos and marries a pretty heiress in double quick order, then reveals that he is in fact Dick Dastardly, at which time her much duller and more conventional ex-suitor springs into action to put things right.

This modest time-waster is a fun ride, as long as the implausible plot and obvious pitfalls are not dwelled upon. The two leads, the ever-dependable John Bentley and Donald Houston could just as easily swapped roles and the film would look the same; the lovely Rona Anderson goes into marriage with the oh-too-smooth Bentley with wide-eyed naive innocence, and there is even a brief look of regret after the love rat returns and mouths some appropriate platitudes.

Fortunately our hero (no guesses who this is) is revived to save the day - if not the film's chances of Best picture of 1955.

B films from the 1950's, and here I am concentrating on the UK, are a particularly interesting way of discovering long forgotten memories of how this island country lived. The format of these films, but not always, concentrate on crime and inevitably punishment. It is an old cliche that is debatably true that old French films from the same period regarded sex as being important, but not so in the UK. Violence it seems has always been more important to Britain than sexuality and whereas in France details concentrate on the passions of the body, in this emerald isle details of inanimate things, however trivial, take its place. I learnt in this film made by Brighton Studios and directed by Terence Fisher, the prices of admission to theatres, and minute details of mock Tudor houses and their cluttered interiors. As social history this is fascinating and that is why I like watching these films, good or badly made. Terence Fisher before he drained the mystery out of Dracula and Frankenstein, replete with gaudy colour, extreme violence for the time and hardly any atmosphere at all, made B movies. ' The Flaw ' has a nasty crime scene with no detail spared, and an ending that I could see a mile off. The fascination of the agony of being murdered or dying brutally no doubt made Fisher the ideal man to become a lead Hammer Horror vivisector of the Gothic. As for the story in ' The Flaw ' a young woman marries a very bad man played rather boringly by John Bentley and her life is endangered. Fortunately she has a faithful ex-boyfriend played well by Donald Houston at hand and the rest of the story I will not spoil. For those who live in or near Brighton there are very good shots of Shoreham Harbour and its lighthouse. Detail again, but B movies are worth seeing just to appreciate them. Worth seeing, but as I said there is an unpleasant gloating over dying in the middle which the camera thoroughly enjoyed. A 5 for details of every facet of 1950's life except of course for sex.

Race car driver John Bentley marries heiress Rona Anderson. After a year, she confesses to her lawyer, Donald Houston, that he married her only for her money. He's been keeping a girl on the side. Houston discusses divorce with her. She goes home, tells Bentley she's leaving. Bentley then plans her murder... but first he kills Houston, telling him his perfect plan as he collapses under poisoned whisky. Houston gasps out that there's a flaw, and dies.

It's a B picture, basically a three-actor affair, and the lack of adornment means it is eked out by a rather slow editing pace and some long sequences of getting from point A to point B. However, it's a clever little story by Brandon Fleming, the actors are excellent, and Terence Fisher's direction is good. Without any cinematic gloss, it fills an hour very pleasantly.

THE FLAW is one in a series of low budget crime thrillers that later Hammer director Terence Fisher made in the 1950s. It's far from his most distinguished work although as a virtual three hander it works reasonably well and at only an hour in length it never outstays its welcome. Fisher's direction adds a little life and style to the proceedings although the plot is very ordinary and simplistic and the outcome easily guessable.

John Bentley is cast against type as a womanising racing car driver. The object of his affections is the lovely Rona Anderson, who had quite a career in B-pictures during the '50s; she was in the same year's STOCK CAR, with similar film ingredients, although perhaps is best known for appearing in SCROOGE. Bentley's intentions towards her are less than charitable, so it's a good thing that Donald Houston - playing against type as a friendly family lawyer - is on the case. It's a talky little production without a great deal of action, but it passes the time reasonably well nonetheless.