Serena

Serena is a fun and intriguing little British film that exceeded my rather low expectations. Patrick Holt and Honor Black are amongst this solid cast all of which provide capable performances throughout. The story is interesting and does offer us a surprising plot twist toward the end of the film that I did not seeing coming. The look and sound of the film a good and creates a distinct vibe and feel that is appreciated. The direction is brisk yet steady in propelling the action ever forward. At a running time of just 60 minutes, Serena manages to pack in quite a bit to make this film one worth watching.

We open with a woman walking up the stairs, turning to find a person standing in the doorway and - boom! The police arrive at the rural cottage and we discover that she was the wealthy wife of struggling painter "Howard" (Emyr Jones). Was everything in their marriage happy? Well it falls to "Insp. Gregory" (Patrick Holt) to get to the bottom fo things - a task made more complicated when one of the artist's models goes missing and that's before we get quite a twist to throw the plates in the air and leave us with a rather jumbled and overly contrived mystery. The remainder of the hour seems designed to showcase the acting talents of Honor Blackman rather than deliver a plausible mystery and by the end I'd rather lost interest. It's a low budget affair which doesn't help, but Peter Maxwell's rather staccato and lacklustre direction makes heavy weather of this, sorry.

SERENA is another erstwhile mystery yarn from low budget outfit Butcher's Films. The story is a simple one which follows the investigations of a detective investigating the shotgun murder of a man's wife. At first he has no leads, but problems with the identification of the woman's body and the search for a missing model soon puts him on an unexpected track as regards to the culprit...

SERENA is a cheapie mystery with a not-bad script and some efficient direction from Peter Maxwell, who also handled a couple of other low rent thrillers from the era like BLIND SPOT and IMPACT. At 60 minutes it doesn't really have the chance to drag and I'll admit that the twist is a clever one that ties the preceding plotting together nicely.

Cast-wise, we get a leading performance from the stolid Patrick Holt (WHEN DINOSAURS RULE THE EARTH) as the detective and a mannered turn from Emrys Jones as the bereaved husband. The most famous face here is none other than Honor Blackman's, who's playing the role of the wife. Blackman is as glamorous as ever and her assured acting helps to lift the film's spirits a little.

The late Honor Blackman (billed third), after starting out playing ingenues followed by several years in the doldrums, had by 1962 been reduced to working for Butchers. But she had by now adopted that swept-back mane that by the end of the year would be indelibly associated with Cathy Gale and the lioness she thereafter remained for the rest of her long life.

It may have been intentional that naming the film after the corpse at the centre of the action was a conscious nod to 'Laura'. But making the religion of the victim a central plot point remains an unusual touch.

Scotland Yard, in the shape of doughty DCI Gregory (Patrick Holt) and DS Conway (Bruce Beeby), are called to investigate the mysterious and brutal shotgun murder of the estranged wife of dapper and (apparently) womanising artist Howard Rogers (Emrys Jones). This takes place in the fictional rural Surrey village of Cookley- in truth, the more familiar venues of Laleham and Chertsey.

In substance, a typical Butchers B movie from Shepperton, ably directed by Peter Maxwell and it manages to hold the interest better than most; the moody jazz intro and outro (Johnny Gregory) is excellent.

Patrick Holt plays his part as a gruffly determined cop stolidly, although his repeated calls to his driver to "chop, chop" must have been grating for the poor chap. Honor Blackman looks great here and lends the film some glamour just before her big break in "The Avengers" and two years before "Goldfinger".

Emrys Jones is very good, charmingly convincing and smoothness personified; he reminded me here of a young Bryan Forbes circa "League of Gentlemen ". Mysteriously , it seems his career filtered down into TV roles only - a shame. In the bit parts, it was good to see Peter Glaze ("Crackerjack") and Vi Stevens as an hilariously hard of hearing landlady. Of absolutely no interest to anyone other than B film nerds, Gerry Duggan appears briefly here as a farmer- two years later he too was in "Goldfinger", as 007's caddie.

It's only about an hour running time so doesn't outlast its welcome and actually quite engaging and fun - highly recommended for B film fans.