Meurtre sur un air de rock

This is another 50's low budget film that parachutes an ageing American actor, Pat O'Brien into a limp drama, hoping to inject interest and a wider audience. The problem here is with the casting of slow moving O'Brien, who looks overweight and seems frankly bored with the storyline. Credibility is further strained when you see the age of O'Brien's young son in a hospital bed, fighting for his life. The lack of reality is further ratcheted up when elderly and paunchy O'Brien defeats the lantern jawed, Freddie Mills, ex world light heavyweight in a fist fight! Richard Pascoe, plays a doctor but his lifeless performance seems to sum up the film. Also, Ronald Adam, a stalwart of countless British films, is wasted by being miscast as the newspaper editor. The tedious storyline wasn't exactly livened up by the then British rock 'n' roll, toothy, blond Tommy Steele, who appears in a cameo part. His two songs are totally forgettable. Overall, a very dull and ploddy film.

KILL ME TOMORROW is a low rent British thriller from a decade chock-full of such pictures. Many of them were, like this one, rather undistinguished, but still interesting to film fans thanks to their casting of famous and not-so famous faces alongside familiar production figures from the industry. Despite the nondescript storyline, KILL ME TOMORROW is worth a watch thanks to Hammer director Terence Fisher's assured handiwork.

The story is about a washed-up reporter, on the verge of losing his job, whose life falls apart still further when his kid falls seriously ill. Before long he falls in with a criminal gang and must strive to set things right in an increasingly complex and mean-spirited world. The writing isn't exactly stellar here, but it's fun to see American star Pat O'Brien (ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES) in a low rent British film and the supporting cast includes the familiar faces of Freddie Mills, Ronald Adam, and George Coulouris. Lois Maxwell's here too, looking lovely in the decade before she became famous as Miss Moneypenny. Tommy Steele contributes a musical number.

'B' picture mainly interesting to me as I saw Tommy Steele's name listed first and I have tickets to see him in 2016!! Rock on. However, back to the picture. Directed by Terence Fisher and starring American gangster actor Pat O'Brien, near the end of his illustrious supporting career to stars like James Cagney. Quite how Terence Fisher went from this dud to the wonderful The Curse of Frankenstein with Peter Cushing in a matter of months is beyond me. Anyway, O'Brien plays a booze riddled newspaper man who needs a £1000 to get his son cured of an eye tumour that will almost certainly kill him if it's not fixed pronto. He gets involved with gangsters led by George Coulouris and the whole thing becomes a bit convoluted but O'Brien still somehow ends up getting the girl, played by Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny from the early Bond films) who looks young enough to be his granddaughter. Ug! gross, particularly when he tries to kiss her in the final scene and Lois appears to turn her head away. Still, it was funny seeing Tommy Steele rocking away like an idiot which is how these young stars were presented in this type of picture back then. Another reason I love watching these old films is to see the character actors and actresses, most of them long dead. Boxer Freddie Mills, Al Mulock, Robert Brown, Richard Pasco, Ronald Adam, Wensley Pithey, all familiar faces to me. Always worth a look.

This UK, homegrown, studio based movie, was not one of the best films of the period. The great American star Pat O'Brien, who often played a priest or a good guy in his roles, many opposite his real life friend James Cagney, was in life, the nice man he betrayed. On the set of Kill Me Tomorrow, he gave me his dedicated photo and wrote to my mother when he returned to the states. I doubt if movie stars of today would have the time or thought to be so nice to child actors. Lois Maxwell of Miss Moneypenny fame, was also wonderful in her role. However, the film was rather disjointed and Tommy Steel's introduction was marred by his over-long performance. The film can be rented from Amazon and the poster is now available on the Internet. Good fun if you like to see black and white London in the 1950's. Raymond Russell, boy in hospital bed.

I won't bother you with the plot, as other reviewers have given plenty of detail.

As so often in films like this, an fading American star was imported. Pat O'Brien was 58 at the time, with what one reviewer's described as a turnip face (given his Irishness, potato face seems nearer the mark.) He looks tired, though given the character is a drunken, depressed widower, that's quite appropriate.

Despite his age and lack of dynamism, O'Brien flattens three villains in a fist fight. Since one of them is played by Freddie Mills, who'd only lost the world light-heavyweight championship seven years before, that scene wasn't totally convincing (English understatement working overtime.)

The heroine is played by the lovely Lois Maxwell, 30 at the time. The character is rather silly (she interferes without knowing the facts, thereby putting O'Brien's son in danger.) The film's main problem is that the leads make a very ill-matched couple, and have zero chemistry.

This is the last of a string of low budget B movies Terence Fisher made in the '50s, all competently made without being inspired. Who would have thought that his next film, "The Curse of Frankenstein," would lead to a whole series of Hammer horrors, mainly directed by Fisher. The budgets for these were probably pretty low too, but he showed a real flair for Gothic horror, though the law of diminishing returns inevitably set in.

A couple of footnotes. The villains operate from the office of a coffee bar in which Tommy Steele performs, too much for my taste. Steele got his start in such a place. And I think this was one of the last films made in Southall studios: the area has changed an awful lot since those days.