Sentenced for Life

Rather cjeekily the opening shot is a copy of the opening of Scales of Justice.However this film lacks the pace of that series.This moves at a snails pace only to reach a rather somnolent climax.The two thugs that beat up Francis Matthews must have come from rentamob.

Jack Gwillim was sentenced to life at hard labor for stealing technological secrets during the Second World War. He insisted he was innocent. His son, Francis Matthews, never saw him after that; in fact, he tells people his father died when Matthews was ten. Now his dying mother insists her son see his father, who still maintains his innocence. Investigating, he finds Jill Williams, the daughter of the man who may have committed the crime. He romances her and she takes him to meet her father, Basil Dignam. Matthews becomes convinced that Dignam was the man who stole the technology.

Max Varnel directs this, but the results are not very good, despite an interesting story. The actors are perfunctory in their lines, and this being a Danziger production, there is no striving for excellence in this cheap second feature. The score is rather strangely lush and romantic.

Varnel is the son of Marcel Varnel, a fine director of British farces until his death in 1947. The younger Varnel had been born in Paris in 1925. His directorial career began in 1958; he mostly directed movies for the Danzigers, and television. Later in life, he moved to Australia, where he directed many episodes of the soap opera NEIGHBOURS. He died there in 1996.