Out of the Shadow

Bearing a 1962 copyright date but with a cast member (Edwin Styles, who plays the college principal) who died in December 1960, this otherwise very routine murder mystery (with the usual noisy jazz score) is enlivened by location work in Cambridge (where the locals in one scene can be seen gathering to enjoy watching the actors at work) and by the erratic direction of a young Michael Winner.

Winner has managed to assemble a cast of familiar faces to go through the motions and the frequent dollies & dissolves create a veneer of sophistication that goes some way towards camouflaging that Winner still hasn't yet mastered getting his eyelines to match during dialogue scenes.

Terence Longden shows up in Cambridge. His brother, a University student, is said to have committed suicide in the river. It's a conclusion the police accept, but Longden finds incomprehensible. Longden makes himself a nuisance, and soon encounters Diane Clare, the stepdaughter of a Cambridge don and antiques dealer who also seems to have dived into the river at the same time. It seems an unlikely coincidence to either. When another local antiques dealer comes to warn Miss Clare that Longden could be embarrassing to her and to the memory of her stepfather, their suspicions are confirmed... but if it was murder, what were they murdered for?

This early directorial effort by Michael Winner moves along at a terrific clip, with everyone talking very fast, annoyingly so. It's clear Winner was pushing everyone to make it come in at less than an hour, and he succeeded.... but it does no favor to the film.

By 1961, Michael Winner traversed early directing and writing days. That said, he already showed some of the attributes that would buttress such solid heats as DEATH WISH, with staccato editing and in your face cinematography.

Winner has precious little to work with in OUT OF THE SHADOW, known in the US movie circuit as MURDER ON THE CAMPUS.

Terence Longden plays the part of Mark Kingston, who comes to Cambridge University looking to find out what actually caused his brother's death, and in short order he meets lovely and cooperative girls, becomes the target for beatings by unknown, sometimes masked attackers from whom he flees and then confronts only for a copper to detain him on charges of resisting, and Inspector Willis, a Scotland Yard chief as useless as his mutilated left arm, in an interestingly deprecating look at Scotland Yard's operation.

Neither Longden nor any of the other actors particularly stands out in this fast-moving noir. If you close your eyes, do not see the action and just listen, you can tell that lines are deliberately read at top speed.

Although rather basic cinema, at 58' it is no waste of time.

A reporter (Terence Longdon) probes the mysterious death of his brother, who fell out of the window of his college dorm room. Without anything to go on, except his own curiosity, Longdon begins asking questions. When the police and the college staff are evasive in their answers, he digs in his heels and starts his own probe. Longdon turns to his brother's classmates and friends. He schedules a meeting with a student who saw someone walking on the roof of his brother's apartment on the night he fell. But minutes before the meeting time, the student is found dead, another victim of an accident. Now even the police are willing to believe that there is more here than just two accidental deaths.

The print I saw had the title, Murder On The Campus, and ran the full 61 minutes. Finally, the 3.5 viewer rating is ridiculous. This is a well made British B mystery. Nothing terrific but hardly 3.5. Another curious example of how IMDb handles ratings. Don't pass this up because of the rating.

A quickie quota B movie, at least you can gauge the evolution of Michael Winner as a film director.

Murder on the Campus is an early work that Winner wrote and directed. Mark Kingston (Terence Longdon) is a journalist who is investigating the death of his brother who was a student at Cambridge. The police think it was a suicide.

The police think Kingston is a nuisance who just gets in the way. However as soon as Kingston arrives on the scene, there are several other suspicious deaths.

There is something about the university accommodation that is of interest to someone.

This is a brisk and lively film, there are several suspects. You would probably gather that the most unlikely people are likely to be culprits.

It might not make much sense but Winner was a determined director. Within a few years after the release of this film he made it to Hollywood.