The Broken Horseshoe

Surgeon Robert Beatty operates on Ferdy Mayne with a new drug. Maybe has been in a hit-and-run and is anxious to get out of hospital, so he leave earlier than Beatty would like, especially as alluring Elizabeth Sellars had come by when Mayne was unconscious and Beatty wants to see her again. Mayne makes an appointment for a follow-up and gives Beatty a letter to hold until he returns. When he doesn't return, Beatty goes to Mayne's apartment and finds Mayne's corpse. His brother-in-law, Peter Coke, is the cop investigating the murder. Beatty doesn't mention Miss Sellars.

It's a decent mystery, and I preen a bit in that I figured it out. It's also a fair movie with film noir tinges, and a first film role for Roger Delgado. I was annoyed by Wilfred Burns' lush and busy score. Burns was a favored composer for bits of stock music, but listening to the bits constantly was a slightly onerous. That said, it's another decent B movie for Nettleford.

This is an adaptation of a Francis Durbridge tv serial, which was in six half hour episodes, performed live and not recorded. It's easy to see where the cliff hangers were even though it's very compressed. Durbridge stories are full of twists. It's well worth seeing the later BBC ones that do exist. But I'm mainly writing this to correct the very annoying point in the goofs. Fenton is a surgeon and so is not addressed as doctor. Surgeons are always addressed as mister.

Anyone who is interested in the atmosphere of Post-War Two tawdriness in London should watch these ' minor ' films of the early 1950's. Robert Beatty who was often seen on the screen then is always watchable, and he is good as a doctor who gets embroiled in criminal activities, and with a woman played by the underrated Elizabeth Sellars who has a mysterious past. The plot centres on supposed aid for Polish refugees called ' The Broken Horseshoe ' and the twists and turns of murders surrounding it. A clever plot but the film is really watchable for the good acting and the ' rich ' and cluttered apartments of the time and the ' poor ' apartments for those who are struggling under rationing and low paid jobs. Robert Beatty epitomises the former while Vida Hope ( a fine character actor of the period and responsible for producing the original production of ' The Boy Friend ' ) shows us the latter. Darkened rooms, even darker streets try to hide the slow recovery in the UK, and it is well shown in this film. Repression in every area and crime perhaps partly because of it is conveyed. A good film for those interested in the past, and films of the time are indispensable for showing social history.

Though the 1970s were the heyday for British TV spin-offs, author Francis Durbridge's serials, notable for each episode's cliffhanger ending, were among the first to transfer to the big screen twenty years earlier.

Here, Mark Fenton, a hospital doctor or possibly consultant as he is addressed as Mister, becomes ensnared with the double-dealing members of a crime ring after falling for the glamorous Della Freeman. Fenton appears to have more time on his hands than most members of his profession and he appeared in a similar adaptation OPERATION DIPLOMAT, played by Guy Rolfe. A likable cast includes Robert Beatty, with his decidedly Canadian accent as Fenton, while Elizabeth Sellars, an excellent and somewhat under used actress plays Della, looking classy and elegant in a sumptuous array of furs and hats. There's also two celebrated specialists in sinister foreigners for British films and TV, Ferdy Mayne and Roger Delgado.

The only film of Director Martyn C. Webster, a BBC radio producer whom had worked with Francis Durbridge on the Paul Temple series starring Peter Coke; he ensures it gets off to a flying start. Durbridge's thrillers and series were always gripping and enjoyable despite his over use of certain plot devices. See for example the similarities in a more polished adaptation of his work, Gerald Thomas's THE VICIOUS CIRCLE (1957), also featuring a doctor in trouble.

I enjoyed the acting performances of Elizabeth Sellars playing the alluring, sophisticated, femme fatale, Della Freeman as well as Roger Delgardo, who is cast as Felix Galegos, the slippery, dastardly villain, a role which he reprised in countless films. However, the rest of the cast are unremarkable and move around like mannequins to pad out the cast. Robert Beatty plays Roger Fenton, a chain smoking, naive and highly gullible doctor, who's drawn into a spider's web of intrigue involving the doping of horses. Fenton's fascination with the delightful Della Freeman, seriously affects his thinking with the result he puts himself in the frame as a murderer. Robert Beatty handles his role well as the spellbound doctor, but the storyline allows him and Sellars, little room for romance, not even a kiss or an embrace. Beatty was a trustworthy and solid regular of British films in the 40's and 50's who later appeared as a detective in the TV series, 'Dial 999.' 'The Broken Horseshoe' is a worthy, but cheaply made budget film, which doesn't inspire, as there is far too much talk and barely any action. One of those films to watch out of curiosity on a cold, wet afternoon.