The Broken Horseshoe

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.

It all looks very well and makes sense, and the lady in question is as beautiful as you could ever wish, but nothing is what it appears like. It's the ordinary skilful Durbridge touch of a clever thriller with a mystery dominating the plot, as two doctors get involved in a fearful business of murder, planted evidence, mysterious messages written on a mirror and deleted, invisible ink and so on, and all you know is that at least Robert Beatty must be innocent, which he always is but nevertheless always gets into trouble. The lady in question is the beautiful Elizabeth Sellars, whom it is also impossible to suspect of anything wicked with her irresistible Jacqueline Kennedy looks, while the gorgeous music of Wilfred Burns makes the whole set-up impeccably seductive, and like doctor Robert Beatty you are ready to believe anything. Fortunately he has a brother-in-law in the police who keeps his head sober and isn't easily fooled, not even by the beauty of women, so eventually the whole thing gets sorted out. But you never learn whether the other woman was murdered or not, but you could always hope that she survived, like doctor Robert Beatty did himself from the villain's knock-out drops.

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.

THE BROKEN HORSESHOE is a low budget British thriller filmed at Nettlefold Studios and distributed by the reliable Butcher's Films. Unfortunately it's one of their lesser outings, a largely uninteresting mystery yarn which sees a hospital doctor become both a murder suspect and an amateur sleuth as he attempts to solve the mysterious death of one of his patients.

Unsurprisingly, this is a sluggish, talky affair, notable only for some of the performances of the supporting players. While the main actors are rather stiff, there's a stand-out turn from a debuting Roger Delgado playing a rather sinister character; you can see why Delgado became a familiar face on our screens in the years to come as his performance is assured and confident. There's even a role for Ferdy Mayne (THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KLLERS) playing the chap whose murder kickstarts the whole plot. But the storyline is distinctly average, the events of the plot feel rather quaint, and as a whole this hasn't dated as well as other material from the era.