Meurtres sans empreintes

William Sylvester stars as Philip Vickers, a man who suddenly returns home after being considered dead for four years. Seems he was on a fishing trip in Portugal of all places and disappeared after going ashore. His memory of events is getting drunk, mugged and imprisoned.

His wife (Paulette Goddard) is having a big party and his three cronies are all in attendance. But one of the cronies is killed that very night. Who did it? All evidence points to Vickers.

When a local detective (Russell Napier) arrives on the scene he's convinced that Vickers is the killer but the wife and pal Bill Saul (Paul Carpenter) keep doing suspicious things. Then there's that creepy Joan (Alvys Maben) lurking in the background.

After another murder, things start getting serious.

Low-budget thrillers has some good points but the many negatives bring it down. The sets are incredibly ugly, and then there's that 50s space-age metal kitchen that keeps shape shifting. Goddard (about 44 at the time) is badly costumed and lit. But the story is pretty good.

Goddard, despite star billing, has little to do. Sylvester and Carpenter are good, and Maben is a scene stealer. Napier is also good as the detective. Don't by fooled by George Sanders' listing. He's not in the film, and the novel her wrote was actually ghost-written by someone else.

Most of the other reviews here rate this rather low, and say it's a poor example of film noir. Well I agree, it isn't great film noir. But it IS a very good mystery film. It's based on the novel "Stranger At Home" by George Sanders, which was actually ghost-written by acclaimed author Leigh Brackett. And the film is an amazingly faithful adaptation of the book.

The main character was probably written with Sanders in mind, but William Sylvester (best known for "2001: A Space Odyssey") is excellent in the role of the stranger who came home. This is not a must-see film, but definitely worth checking out if you have the opportunity.

Neither Hammer studios nor director Terence Fisher are best known for their film noir style efforts; and after seeing this film, it's not difficult to work out why. The Unholy Four works from an intriguing plot line, and I was sure it would lead to an at least decent slice of British noir. The plot focuses on a man returning home three years after being hit on the head during a fishing trip with friends, and presumed dead. He actually just had amnesia all that time, and he returns home for revenge. It's an interesting plot on paper; but it doesn't translate to the screen well and that is largely down to a turgid script that fails to generate any interest in the main characters or their situation. The acting doesn't go above average and nobody in the cast particularly stands out, This film was made three years before director Terence Fisher would have his breakthrough hit with the horror classic The Curse of Frankenstein; and on the basis of this film, it has to be said that thrillers weren't his forte. Overall, this film might be worth a look for Hammer aficionados that want to see everything that ever came out of the studio; but for most people, this won't be of interest and should be avoided.

A man with a rather unfortunate haircut shows up after being missing for three years. Turns out he had amnesia due to a blow on the head and has just recently recovered his memory. He confronts his wife and his friends, convinced one of them tried to kill him three years earlier. On the same night he returns, one of his friends winds up murdered and bad haircut guy is the prime suspect.

Talky, mostly dull mystery from Hammer with the added appeal of having Paulette Goddard in it. This is called a film noir by some but frankly I don't see it. Sometimes it seems every movie involving murder or sex from the '40s and '50s is labeled film noir. There has to be a more specific meaning than that. For me there is and this doesn't fit my definition. Anyway, the biggest draw to this is Paulette Goddard. She's fine, as is the rest of the cast, but nothing to write home about. She was in her forties at this time and still looked good but that is NOT her on the movie poster and DVD cover. She does not appear in this movie scantily clad in lingerie. Sorry! Oh, and for some reason they tried to pass this off as being written by the actor George Sanders, when it was actually written by Leigh Brackett. Not sure why the deception. Were audiences in 1954 really craving George Sanders or something?

English suspense film with a very solid British cast, along with lone American Paulette Goddard. Sylvester, Maben, and Napier are all quite good, but it's Goddard who doesn't quite fill her characters larger than life shoes. She plays Angie, a woman all the men in the film seem to love and adore, as well as Maben's Joan, who is completely devoted to Angie. Goddard is fine but is unable to create a character of great wit, dynamism, beauty, or uniqueness to make such admiration from everyone even remotely plausible. This unfortunately undercuts large parts of the story. The direction is also a bit pedestrian and lacks vision. Despite the many flaws and weaknesses, The Unholy Four is not without suspense was still mildly entertaining.