Blind Corner

This is a really excellent black and white film from 1963... everything top notch... script, story, acting, camera... a really good watch. Enough said, no spoilers here... well worth a watch.

The blind man can be an "excellent "victim in the thriller genre : see David Eady's "faces in the dark" (1960 )and Henry Hathaway's " 23 paces to baker Street "(1956): "blind corner " borrows the "in the dark,we are equal " from the latter (a trick which would be used again in "wait until dark" (1967))

That said ,the screenplay is not as exciting as the aforementioned movies : it drags on in the first part ,and the syrupy songs are filler .But it hits its stride in the second one,full of sudden new developments ,with a good cast including excellent William Sylvester ,people outside England recall as "2001" doctor Floyd. He is very convincing as a blind man who's got some kind of "sixth sense" .

William Sylvester is a blind man. He's also a successful composer of pop hits, because serious music doesn't pay enough. He's married to Barbara Shelley, who's carrying on an affair with Alexander Davion, a painter who's barely keeping his head above water. Miss Shelley refuses to leave her husband, because she's grown used to the luxuries he can buy her. She says that if Davion kills Sylvester, he can have her and Sylvester's half million pounds. He says that he draws the line at murder. However, Sylvester's friend and producer, Mark Eden, lets him know he's spotted the two of them at a cozy restaurant, so Miss Shelley has to lie her head off to assuage her husband's supicions, and cut off Davion.

It's a nice script, with a couple of twists in the third act, and well acted, particularly by Sylvester. A couple of nice pop numbers by Stan Butcher and Syd Cordell fill out the ambience, and Elizabeth Shepherd is present as Sylvester's secretary, who loves him hopelessly. Director Lance Comfort does a good job with a strong script.

The 1961 film PIT OF DARKNESS amounts to all I recall watching done by English Director Lance Comfort. I quite liked it, too, in fact I preferred it to BLIND CORNER, aka MAN IN THE DARK, which I find to be the more fitting and descriptive of those two titles.

William Sylvester plays the role of the blind musician well, Ronnie Carroll sings the songs he composes competently enough, and Barbara Shelley offers no comfort as Sylvester's stunningly elegant and classy scheming, cheating, gold-digging wife en route to a triple life, using and discarding lovers like so many undergarments.

Thankfully, beautiful Elizabeth Shepherd is on hand to offer love to the blind lead, and Alex Davion is a potential murderer with a conscience, so in the end this is one murderless murder tale.

No great names in the cast, but credibly acted. Generally tight, simple, effective script and cinematography, better than usual for a B picture.

Well worth your time, though I will only rewatch it if I come across it and I do not remember seeing it. 8/10.

I thought the story line was well thought out by the writer, dornford Yates. Maybe not one of the best he ever wrote, but i really liked it because my father-in-law, Frederick Munday, was in it. Although he never had a speaking part or was recognised in the credits, he was the policeman that led the murderer off to serve his sentence. He appeared, as an extra, in many movies including those magnificent men in their flying machines. He died on 4th April 2006 aged 77. Also known in the U.S. as man in the dark, There were times during the film i wished that they could enlarge on the characters a bit more and i felt the story line quite flimsy, William Sylvester and his character, Paul Gregory,made up for it. A very watchable afternoon matinée movie.