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PIT OF DARKNESS is another decent British B-film written and directed by Lance Comfort. He seems to have a good run of them in the early 1960s, making every penny of his low budgets count, and as a result this densely-plotted story is one of the better Butcher's Film Service outings in existence.

The film features everyman lead William Franklyn as a kind of proto Bourne, waking up with no memory after suffering a violent assault. The last three weeks of his life are a blur, but it soon transpires that he's been involved with some dodgy characters who haven't quite finished with him. Comfort keeps you guessing as to the outcome of the story, and all is eventually revealed via a lengthy flashback.

This is one of those films where everything just gels together quite nicely. It's certainly not the best of its kind but it's also hard to fault. Franklyn is a dependable lead but the supporting cast is even better. Nigel Green is the authoritative and a youthful Anthony Booth a spiv type. Nanette Newman makes an impact as a woman caught up in the plot. Leonard Sachs is a slimy villain and the delightful Michael Balfour a henchman who shows up towards the end. The climactic scenes in particular are quite exciting and overall PIT OF DARKNESS is sure to be enjoyed by fans of this genre.

Thanks to a reasonably interesting story and strong cast, this is one of the better films from ultra low budget Butcher's Films. The paucity of resources does show up a little however in the rushed climax - presumably there wasn't enough money to stage a big action scene.

Casting cognoscenti will appreciate the fact that two of the villains are played by "The Good Old Days" impresario Leonard Sachs and the Prime Minister's father-in-law, Tony Booth!

I found "Pit Of Darkness" a reasonable film to watch but with several plot holes, not least no-one wondering if there was a connection between William Franklyn being missing for three weeks and one of his firm's safes being robbed by an expert. And the partner in the firm didn't even mention the incident when Franklyn did turn up. The gang that held him must have been very considerate in allowing him to buy some smart new clothes after they'd messed up those he'd been wearing when they captured him!

It wasn't very bright of Franklyn to accept the blonde hostess's invitation to her flat after her previous invitation to a cottage had nearly led to his death. And then the gang, after several attempts to bump him off, suddenly realised that they needed him to crack another safe.

As another reviewer has suggested, the makers seem to have taken bits of plots from other films and untidily cobbled them together.

Franklyn acted well enough and there were several interesting names in the supporting cast.

William Franklyn is a normal, middle-class fellow. He's got a business installing extra-secure safes for jewelers. He's got a pretty staff, a wife and a mistress. His trouble is he just woke up in the middle of an old bomb site with no memory of what he's been doing for a long time. His wife, Moira Redmond, says he's been missing for weeks. His girl friend agrees to meet him at their cottage. When he gets there, it blows up.

It's an interesting start that suggests D. O. A., but Franklyn, alas, is no Edmond O'Brien, and despite some nice camera work by Basil Emmott, it turns into a rather ordinary crime thriller, decently directed by the competent Lance Comfort. The ubiquitous Nigel Green and Michael Balfour have reasonable supporting roles.

This is quite an engaging story of a man "Logan" (William Franklyn) who comes to on a bombed-out Wapping waste ground with a bloody head. On returning home, he discovers from wife "Julie" (Moira Redmond) that he has been AWOL for three weeks - and he has no idea what happened in the intervening time. It soon becomes clear that his mysterious disappearance is connected with his business - he designs and instals safes - and he must try and piece to gather what happened. Neither the writing (it's a bit repetitive) nor Franklyn are great, to be honest, but Nigel Green and Leonard Sachs (with Tony Booth) help chivvy things along now and again. It's pretty obvious why "Logan" was the target, but the perpetrators remain a mystery til quite near the end and as low budget Butcher's efforts go, this is up in their upper echelons with a smidgen of psychology injected into the plot, too. Could have done without Ronnie Hall and his crooning, though....!

William Franklyn, whose voiceover of Schweppes adverts would become a TV feature, posts a highly convincing performance here, hardly ever leaving the screen, and somehow reminding me of a younger Rex Harrison. He certainly looks suitably bamboozled to begin with, as he carefully pieces together his three weeks' absence from work and home.

Director Lance Comfort, about whom I am embarrassed to admit I know nothing, intelligently puts together a maze of flashbacks and throws in quite a few suspects until Logan (Franklyn) works out the enigma - and that begins with firm partner "enigmatically" telling him about the Ethiope's Ear, subsequently identified as the 250,000 quid diamond stolen from a tycoon called Tuscan.

Why that partner knows that crucial detail, and even recites it to him in his wife's presence - lovely Moira Redmond - is never explained and has to go down as a big minus, costing my rating one star. It deliberately deceives the viewer and detracts from the plot's credibility.

Otherwise, logical incidents advance a riveting and fluid story line, cinematography by Emmot and editing by Trumper are first class, and even the recurrent song, My Heart Is the Lover, by Martin Slavin, is really catchy.

Leonard Sachs plays the foreign-accented villain unctuously enough.

Not perfect, no masterpiece, but no waste of 79'. Recommended viewing if you like film noir.

Pit of Darkness is a British B film about safe maker Richard Logan (William Franklyn) waking up dazed and confused in some wasteland. He has amnesia and he went missing for three weeks.

When he arrives home his wife Julie (Moira Redmond) is shocked to see him. She thought he has been having an affair and gone off with another woman. Julie even hired a private detective who wound up dead.

When he gets back to the office Richard tries to put together what happened to him. Slowly some memories return in a hazy fashion. Her wife's voice signifying that she is being threatened. A blond young woman who was getting a bit flirty.

Some press cuttings missing from his firm. There has been a recent robbery where a safe installed by his firm was broken into. Richard get suspicious of her secretary's boyfriend who is always hanging about.

A few clues lead Richard to a nightclub owned by a man called Conrad. Maybe Richard was forced to rob a safe against his will.

An entertaining B movie. With a few flaws such as why the baddies keep Richard a fair few times. The security in Richard and his partner's firm was shocking. They seem to employ all sorts.

Amnesia is a staple of film noir and has been dealt with memorably, if you'll pardon the pun, in dozens of films such as Street of Chance (1942), Somewhere in the Night (1946), Home at Seven (1952) and Spellbound (1945). More recently, Colin Farrell lost his memory in Total Recall (2012) which some will no doubt label as a techno-noir. This film, however, is easily forgotten. Lance Comfort was a prolific director. Looking at the list of films I've seen this year I come across Tomorrow at Ten (1962), Bedelia (1946), Hatter's Castle (1941,) Breaking Point (1961), The Painted Smile (1962), Rag Doll(1962), and Hotel Reserve (1944), all directed by Comfort, and all superior to this absurdly plotted, oddly photographed (there are several pointless, lingering close-ups of William Franklyn, Bruno Barnabe, Nanette Newman et al) and poorly acted (especially by Franklyn, who gives underacting a bad name) programmer that would have been more effective at the 50-60 minutes mark rather the thrill-less 77 I sat through. Still, this time tomorrow I won't remember a thing about this dud.

Lance Comfort was no bad director, and he made quite a number of very sustained thriller dramas of lasting interest, although it's obvious he never could work with any sufficient budget - most of his films are of the B level, and that's glaringly obvious in this one: almost all scenes, except for a few street scenes in the dark, are indoors in flats, a cellar, the Blue Baboon night club and the cottage way out in the country, which is only used for being blown up. The weakness of this thriller is, like in so many squeezed thrillers, that so many threads are left incomplete. The murder of the blonde, for instance, is just left behind without any further questions or reports, neither in the papers nor by the police. The death of Bruno is also left without any further notice. William Franklyn at least makes a plausible case, he manages well like all the actors, and it's a relief to learn that both the doctor and the wife had nothing to do with the plot. The boy introducing the case is one of the most important parts. It's a great plot up to Lance Comfort's best standard, and he was actually best at making B-films rising up to a higher level, like the excellent "Temptation Harbour" of 1947.

This is a essentially a 45 minute film which has been painfully padded out to almost 80 minutes, and it shows, as by the end I was beyond caring about the main protagonist, William Franklyn and the whole safe cracking, amnesia saga. Franklyn is a too smooth and languid character to hold the attention of the audience. His one dimensional, underwhelming character, squeezes the life out of this crime drama and so I was left merely observing the acting of the lovely Nanette Newman and Moira Redmond who have a tough time playing opposite the wooden lead. These cheaply made films traded on the usual criminal stereotypes which popped up in countless British crime films in the 50's and early 60's, hence the appearance of Michael Balfour playing the usual low life criminal, complete with cigarette dangling from the mouth. Sorry, but this film dragged so much that I was left praying for the end.