Signpost to Murder

Many great thrillers are based on stage plays. Just think about Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder" or "Rope", or "Wait Until Dark", or "The Bad Seed". This "Signpost to Murder" is also an adaptation of a play, and it's clearly noticeable by the limited number of sets and the extended dialogues. The plot is quite original and compelling, but the film-version badly suffers from a lack of action and spectacle.

Alex Forrester is desperate when his request for parole unexpectedly gets rejected. After serving several years in a mental asylum, and displaying excellent behavior, Alex and his loyal friend and physician Dr. Fleming were convinced he would get released. So, instead, Alex violently escapes and seeks shelter in the house with the millwheel that he could see from his cell. He finds the lady of the house all by herself, but she - Molly Thomas - may not be as defenseless as she looks.

Great performances, moody shots of the ominous house with the millwheel, and a downright fabulous & unforeseeable end-twist cannot prevent "Signpost to Murder" to be an overall disappointment. There is just too much talking, and too little action.

I would recommend this thriller/film-noir to anyone who enjoys a diabolical murder mystery film. The three main actors/actress were absolutely outstanding in their respective roles. Stuart Whitman plays a convicted murder named Alex Forrester who is placed in a prison for the mentally insane, accused of murdering his wife. His only friend in the world is the psychiatrist who is treating him in prison, a man named Dr. Mark Fleming played by Edward Mulhare. After Alex's release is once again suspended by a panel of doctors and a parole board, Alex takes the first opportunity to make a daring escape to the nearby farm house he has admired for the past five (5) years from his jail cell.

The farm house is owned by a lovely young woman (and her absent husband) named Molly Thomas played by Joanne Woodward. Alex overtakes Molly by gunpoint and convinces her to hide him out just for two weeks which is the exact time required to allow him to request a retrial according to his psychiatrist, Dr. Mark Fleming.

This is an excellent cat and mouse game, but the plot is thicker than a London fog, and Molly Thomas's luxurious farm house is the perfect hiding spot for the three main characters to eventually show who is the cat and who is the mouse.

It is a captivating black and white film-noir which I have placed on my Christmas wish list to obtain a copy of the film, for my personal film library. I wish the Criterion Collection would release a 4K Blu Ray version as it is most deserving of being included in this elite collection.

Shown August 2011 on TCM's "Joanne Woodward day", this production by Marten Pictures stars Joanne Woodward as "Molly" and Stewart Whitman as "Alex". Woodward had done mostly TV during the 1950s, then started in films. Whitman had been quite the boxer in the service, and had also done a lot of TV in the 1950s, then on to films in the late 1950s/1960s, now getting credited for his roles. "Signpost" is a combination of prison escape, a who-dunnit, and even a bit of a 1970's psychological "thinker film". Pretty well done, its not at all a "murder noir" - its much too bright, blunt, and in- your-face to be a noir. When the escaped prisoner hides out in someone's house, the police keep popping in, sure that the escaped prisoner is still around. There are some surprises, and all the excitement is in the last 20 minutes. Also keep an eye out for Alan Napier (ALFRED, from the Batman TV Show!) Based on a play written by Monte Doyle, this was only the second film directed by George Englund. He seems to have done most of his work as a producer, and worked on the very successful Golden Girls TV show in the 1990s. Not a bad movie, but nothing real special.

I also give this b/w thriller high marks. The story is good and as mentioned in another comment, the set is terrific and the atmosphere of suspense and intrigue sustains your interest. You begin to suspect that something's not quite right, but you're still surprised when it is revealed. One of my favorite actors, whom I had the pleasure of knowing briefly, was Edward Mulhare, and this is one of the few chances he was given in this country to show his appeal. Whitman reaffirms that he was a very underrated actor, despite his Oscar Nomination for "The Mark", having ultimately been relegated to B-Westerns and some unexceptional, though frequent, TV guest appearances. All in all, a very well-spent 74 minutes or so.

This film is a bit too neat for its own good. After a plausible set-up with Stuart Whitman as a murderer in an insane asylum, and hiding out after escaping to the creepy residence of Joanne Woodward, who lives nearby in a quaint English village. The film escalates into a romance between the two, as it revealed that Woodward's marriage is not quite up to par.

I could have bought the fact that Whitman was unjustly charged with the murder that had put him away. I might have even bought the premise that a love-starved woman would hide him for the two weeks he needed to get a new trial (his parole had been denied). But when the corpse of Woodward's husband is found on the water ferris wheel of death, the plot moves from believable to much less believable, and the ending, as far as I was concerned, was contrived, and not believable at all.

A little misdirection and one red herring is fairly acceptable for a mystery, but gross misdirection (by the writer) and two red herrings is bound to give you indigestion. Worth watching to see Woodward and Stuart, but not very believable.