Calling Paul Temple

First of four B films adapted from very popular radio programmes of the 40s and 50s Highly enjoyable for fans of old fashioned mysteries. Nice location work in Canterbury though matte shots from cars involving rolling scenery date it. Leads both good including Sheridan who would move onto A films including the wonderful "Genervive"

Like many films based on radio plays; the writing tends to forget we also have images to process too and so they run a bit to language. This gentle detective murder-mystery falls into that trap and the wordy dialogue robs the thing of pace somewhat. That said, John Bentley and Dinah Sheridan deliver engaging, cheery performances as they are brought in by Scotland Yard to assist in the search for "Rex" - a mysterious blackmailer/murderer who is preying on women. Features some eerily lit scenes in Canterbury which add significantly to the tenseness of the drama with some hypnotism and fisticuffs at the end.

This is a moderately entertaining, if rather insipid, film based on the BBC radio series written by Francis Durbridge, with Paul Temple, the writer of detective novels, acting as a detective himself. Here he is played by John Bentley, the first of his three films as Paul Temple. He is a very personable and adequate actor for the role. His wife 'Steve Temple' is played in lively fashion by Dinah Sheridan. She looks so eerily like the contemporary British actress Rosamund Pike that I kept imagining I was watching Pike in the role. A true mystery would run something like this: could they possibly be related? Both were born in London. Oh well, probably not, but it is just uncanny, that's all: a case for Paul Temple. And as all writers named Temple know, solving mysteries can be a lot of fun. The credited continuity girl for this film was June Faithful, although it does not appear in her list of credits on IMDb. I knew her much later in her career, and have absolutely no idea whether she is alive or not, for that is not recorded on IMDb either. This was probably her first continuity job. The cinematographer for the film was Geoffrey Faithful (and in his case, it does appear on his lengthy list of credits on IMDb; he died 1979, aged 86), who shot VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960), MURDER SHE SAID (1961), and countless other films between 1913 and 1971, when he retired. He was probably June's father, and may have got her into the job on this first picture. This film is notable for containing much excellent location cinematography of the town of Canterbury as it was in 1947, with streets nearly empty of traffic, and before the town was largely ruined by tourism, chain stores, and rampant commerce. Much of the action is set there. A lot of the cinematography is atmospheric, commencing with the opening sequence inside the corridor of a moving train at night. If only the story and the direction had been better, this film could be something of a classic, but alas, it is not. A series of murders of women are taking place, and various sinister characters are 'set up' for us as either the real culprit or as red herrings, one of them played by the remarkable Burmese-Jewish actor Abraham Sofaer, who never failed in many a film to deliver an impeccably chilling rendition of a potential villain, aided by his weird looks. Another possible villain of the piece is ominously played by Hugh Pryse, who does a really good job of it indeed. Pryse died at the age of only 44 in 1955, only seven years after this film. He should have gone on to enjoy a distinguished career as an older character actor, for which he was eminently suited. Who is really killing all these women? They all turn out to be patients of Abraham Sofaer. Well, you can imagine the rest, but I shall not tell whodunit because that would be telling whodunit.

I'm giving this a 6 because I like British mysteries. I was not familiar with the actors, except perhaps Dinah Sheridan. I was interested to read that the lead actors all lived into their nineties. Wow.

This film apparently is part of a series of B movies based on a radio show. Paul Temple is a dlfictiin writer of detective stories who is attempting to learn the identity of "Rex," a person who has killed several women.

In this film nearly everyone is a suspect. The most interesting thing about the film is the trip to Canterbury, which was fascinating. I'm not sure the cast was really there, but the footage was great.

In the end, not knowing any of the actors, I had a tough time telling the men apart. Therefore after sitting through this I don't know who Rex was. Good luck.

Paul and Steve Temple are back, even if this time they're John Bentley and Dinah Sheridan. They're helping Scotland Yard track down a blackmailer who signs his murders "Rex". This puzzles the Yard, since dead women rarely pay ransom.

I agree with their reasoning. The trail leads to Abraham Sofaer, who's a psychiatrist and hypnotist, his suspicious-seeming secretary Margaretta Scott, who comes to Bentley for help, then seems to almost get him and Miss Sheridan blown up. Then there's..... oh, everyone, to the extent that I was growing suspicious of Shaym Bahadur, who plays their valet, Rikki. He didn't look like that in the last movie!

The mystery aspect of this one is not as good as the last one. The red herrings get piled on in such confusion that when the bad guy was revealed, it seemed a random choice. Canterbury seems to be about three minutes by car from Scotland Yard. In addition, the movie-serial nature of this movie stuck out, including a couple of cornball cliffhangers that went out of style in the 1930s, and the sort of canned music that Universal kept in stock to be plugged in just before the the car went over the cliff and the gong sounded.

Sigh. Well, it's Maclean Rogers directing; I'm sure that if you gave him a good budget, a good script and some real talent, he could direct a heck of a good movie. I don't think anyone ever did. This was Nettlefold Studios with Butcher's Film Service distributing, so money was tight; besides, the character was established on the radio and in the first movie, so it was likely a matter of they didn't need it good, they needed it Tuesday. At least there's some nice second-unit shot of Canterbury and some pleasant night-time shooting by Geoffrey Faithfull.