Night of the Prowler

Reasonable Butchers thriller.The title is misleading.There is a night and there is a prowler but not together and not at the same time. Although it has a lot of predictable moments there is nonetheless one jaw dropping moment in the bedroom of a hotel run by the ubiquitous Marriane Stone. Bodies keep dropping like flies and enough red herrings swim around to fill the North Sea. There are a lot of clichés to be found.A lot of people phone up with information only to be told they can't give it over the phone. Anyway it passes a reasonable hour or so. Not much more that you can say about it.Difficult to find ten lines to write about it.

Some time ago, a man was convicted of stealing money from the racing car company that Patrick Holt runs with his partners, Claudette Wilde and Bill Nagy. He's been released from prison and is taking pot shots at the company's personnel..... and sometimes killing them. Police inspector John Horsley can't seen to find him, even though the released felon has no trouble finding his prey.

It's a nice little thriller, and the acting by the cast is fine, particularly Miss Wilde as the rather adventurous woman. I found that the way it was shot pointed out the final outcome, but that's often the way of these little thrillers. The result is fun, exciting -- there'sa nice sequence in which Nagy is shot at while testing out a race car --and while no world-beater, still a decent way to spend an hour.

NIGHT OF THE PROWLER is another cheap thriller from the Butcher's studio and another effort from director Francis Searle who seemed to churn out one picture after another during the period. This one's a little rough around the edges, marred by some weak writing and even weaker performances, although at just an hour in length it's a watchable enough picture.

The action is set in and around an engineering firm in which the directors are being mercilessly bumped off one by one by a mysterious hat-wearing figure. Old-time copper John Horsley suspects an ex-con with a grievance but the plot thickens when bizarre incidents begin to occur to the remaining directors. I have to say that I found this story quite predictable as I managed to work out the end about twenty minutes in, but it remains watchable in spite of this.

The title is a bit of a misnomer as it makes this film sound like a proto slasher when it isn't. There isn't really much in the way of prowling around at all, certainly no more so than in other thrillers from the era. Patrick Holt is good value as the rather unlikeable lead, juggling his ex-wife and new girlfriend along with his business. There's some early car racing stuff which is quite interesting although the lack of a real budget is always apparent. Marianne Stone has her usual cameo. Anne Clune as Holt's new girlfriend threatens to derail events with an appalling performance but thankfully she doesn't have too much screen time.

A cool title, but since it takes place over several nights - and days - they should have used it on a film where it matched the action better. ('The Sniper' might have been more appropriate to this particular film except that whoever it is at large is such a lousy shot the only killing that goes according to plan is the one carried out at point blank range.)

Normally it's the microphone or it's shadow that destroys the illusion. This time around it's the fact that the scenes in Langton's office always sound as if they were recorded in an empty warehouse that betrays that the set is occupying a small corner of a soundstage at Shepperton.

With better direction and editing, this could have been a neat mystery-thriller. The experienced leads turn in professional performances - especially John Horsley as the detective - but the minor characters and the production values are well down to the standard of the budget.

"Quincy" and "Ironside" did this sort of thing much better a decade later.