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IMDbPro

L'homme en noir

Original title: The Dark Man
  • 1951
  • 16
  • 1h 31m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
317
YOUR RATING
William Hartnell, Natasha Parry, Maxwell Reed, Edward Underdown, and Ernest Haines in L'homme en noir (1951)
Serial KillerCrimeDramaThriller

A serial killer targets aspiring actress Molly Lester after she witnesses his crimes. Detective Viner investigates the murders while the killer stalks Molly.A serial killer targets aspiring actress Molly Lester after she witnesses his crimes. Detective Viner investigates the murders while the killer stalks Molly.A serial killer targets aspiring actress Molly Lester after she witnesses his crimes. Detective Viner investigates the murders while the killer stalks Molly.

  • Director
    • Jeffrey Dell
  • Writer
    • Jeffrey Dell
  • Stars
    • Edward Underdown
    • Maxwell Reed
    • Natasha Parry
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    317
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Jeffrey Dell
    • Writer
      • Jeffrey Dell
    • Stars
      • Edward Underdown
      • Maxwell Reed
      • Natasha Parry
    • 18User reviews
    • 3Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos21

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    Top cast40

    Edit
    Edward Underdown
    Edward Underdown
    • Detective Inspector Jack Viner
    Maxwell Reed
    Maxwell Reed
    • The Dark Man
    Natasha Parry
    Natasha Parry
    • Molly Lester
    William Hartnell
    William Hartnell
    • Superintendent of Police (Harry)
    Barbara Murray
    Barbara Murray
    • Carol Burns
    Robert Long
    • Charles Burns
    Cyril Smith
    Cyril Smith
    • Samuel Denny
    Leonard White
    • Detective Sergeant Evans
    Ernest Haines
    • Mostyn
    Walter Horsbrugh
    • Commander (Scotland Yard)
    Denis Webb
    • Inspector (Scotland Yard)
    John Derrick
    • Sergeant Wells (Scotland Yard)
    Gerald Andersen
    • Inspector (Walsham Bay)
    Geoffrey Bond
    • Police Sergeant (Walsham Bay)
    Geoffrey Sumner
    Geoffrey Sumner
    • Major
    John Singer
    • Captain
    Sam Kydd
    Sam Kydd
    • Sergeant Major
    Grace Denbeigh-Russell
    • Hotel Proprietress
    • Director
      • Jeffrey Dell
    • Writer
      • Jeffrey Dell
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews18

    6.2317
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    Featured reviews

    8shaggydoo1

    first video and childhood memories

    This was the first video i bought to go with my new video player about a decade ago. Having spent a part of my childhood in the area where it was filmed it was fun to spot the locations, the heroine getting on the bus to go to the beach at what looks like Hastings only to get off near the Romney marshes, which is some way to go for a quick bit of sunbathing. The story of the criminal classes up to no good and an innocent bystander in danger has been told many times before,and since. Maxwell Reed as the moody Dark Man is worth the price of the video alone, William Hartnell ( future Dr who)always watchable. But the main reason is seeing the final scenes at the "pre-nuclear" Dungeness coastline. The only negative is with the UK video release which has part of the story missing, I assume this is a copy of the US release which was shorter.
    7boblipton

    Superior B Movie

    Actress Natasha Parry is bicycling on the road when she hears a couple of shots, and sees a dark man emerge from the woods to stand by a standing auto. She thinks nothing of it, but in the dressing room that night, her fellow actress tells her the police are looking for witnesses. Miss Parry says she saw nothing useful, but her friend points out that it's always useful for an actress to get her name in the papers. Miss Parry reports the very little she knows to the police, and thinks that will be the end of it... until Superintendent of Police William Hartnell sees the item. With the unknown man having committed two murders, he thinks she's in for it, so he sends down Detective Inspector Edward Underdown to guard her, and possibly catch the dark man before he can kill her.

    It's a handsomely shot movie, directed and written by Jeffrey Dell, with an intelligently plausible arc of action that ends in a chase across the seashore in the darkling. It's photographed in long takes by Eric Cross; the lengthening shadows convert a taut policier into a shadowy noir at the end.
    7howardmorley

    Harry Chelm Solves Murder Mystery

    I noticed the weighted average user rating on IMDb.com for this film was only 5.6 and mainly voted for by males/females aged 45+.I thought it a cracking murder mystery and watching it tonight on YouTube.com and I voted 7/10.I had just started infants school when this was filmed in 1951 (I am now 65) but was attracted to it by seeing Edward Underdown in the cast list and seeing it was a wholly British film.The afore mentioned actor (1908-1989) played "Harry Chelm" in the cult John Huston 1953 film "Beat The Devil" playing the husband of my personal sex goddess film favourite, the late Jennifer Jones.

    Like another reviewer I enjoyed seeing England as I remember it in my childhood.We too holidayed in Kent in the late 1940s/early 1950s.I particularly enjoyed seeing the almost complete absence of private cars and how one could park almost anywhere without seeing those wretched double yellow lines/no parking/"resident parking only" signs we see today.Maxwell Reed seems to be a favourite of the few reviewers above and I too have the DVD of him in "The Clouded Yellow" (1951) starring another of my raven haired favourite film actresses, the late Jean Simmons.

    I was intrigued by the user comment that Edward Underdown (1908-1989) was much older than Natasha Parry who plays "the love interest" and indeed she is apparently still with us being born in 1930 and so was only 21 when this was filmed, while Edward was 43 during filming a sizable age difference.You rarely see detectives kissing the heroine on films of this age but Edward made a wry comment that "little detectives have to be born sometimes"!
    8voicebox-3

    Filming locations!

    A terrific British B movie of the period! One of the filming locations listed is Camber Sands, but the denouement takes place at Dungeness where the Lighthouse and the Railway Station of the Hythe/Romney and Dymchurch Narrow Gauge Railway feature strongly - the line swings around the Dungeness terminus and can be seen quite clearly.
    7richardchatten

    Early Stalker Thriller

    A frequently incoherent but extremely well photographed drama in which tall dark Maxwell Reed, having demonstrated how ruthless a killer he is despatching his first two victims then makes a complete pig's ear of silencing Natasha Parry, who happened to be cycling past just after the second murder.

    Many of the plot contrivances (including a very perfunctorily engineered romance between Miss Parry and the rather elderly looking detective played by Edward Underdown) and character vignettes by the likes of Barbara Murray and William Hartnell seem thrown in just as filler between cameraman Eric Cross's vivid noirish night scenes and enterprising use of the South Coast in bright sunshine to surprisingly sinister effect that anticipates 'And Soon the Darkness' nearly twenty years later.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      The play being performed at the Walsham Bay Repertory Theatre is "Night Alone", starring Hugo Bale, Molly Lester, John Flaxton and Carol Burns. This was a genuine play from the late-'30s and is an in-joke as, like this film, it was written by Jeffrey Dell.
    • Goofs
      When the Army officer is giving his briefing in medium close up Sam Kydd can be seen to his left.In a longer shot Kydd has disappeared.
    • Quotes

      Detective Inspector Viner: You had a black market deal with Mostyn.

      Samuel Denny: Well, I wouldn't say black exactly. More what they call sepia.

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 27, 1953 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • The Dark Man
    • Filming locations
      • Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK(Walsham Bay)
    • Production company
      • Independent Artists
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 31m(91 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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