L'enquête de l'inspecteur Morgan

At first sight ,"Blind date" recalls some Agatha Christie play.Only three characters are really important and they all have. a different nationality:Baker is English,Krüger is German (Dutch in the movie!) and Micheline Presles is French.People who know Preminger's "Laura" cannot help but be struck by the way Presles's character is used.

But the essentials are somewhere else.Losey had always been fascinated by the social status,particularly the upper classes' decay:to name but three ,"the servant" ,"the gypsy and the gentleman" and "the go-between" were blatant examples.Here prole Kruger would be an ideal culprit,he who only owns one suit,thus a good way of avoiding scandal.Presles and her husband are the posh people at the top,but they are about to fall in their mire.

That said,Losey's directing is a bit static,and looks like some filmed stage production.The jaunty first and last pictures seem irrelevant.

Joseph Losey was the USA's loss and the UK's gain. He was a great director because he took chances on subject matter, and he made excellent films as well as disappointing ones. All original director's do, and ' Blind Date ' is in my opinion one of his best. Hardy Kruger playing a young Dutch artist ( brilliant acting ) meets up with a very beautiful Micheline Presle, and a murder opens the film and Kruger arrives at the right place at the wrong time. The place is ( probably ) set in Chelsea, London and I have a hunch Losey liked Chelsea as he set the famous film of his ' The Servant ' there. Cat and mouse games happen in that film, and they happen too in ' Blind Date. ' Kruger is suspected of murder and Stanley Baker plays an over aggressive policeman and a lot of the film is a game of entrapment and a rapid confession. Between these scenes we go back in time to the murder victim, played by Presle at her very best, and without explicit sex the film exudes eroticism. A lot of the visuals that Losey seemed to like a lot; mirrors, cluttered interiors etc are all there, and made as it was in 1959 it equalled any film made by Louis Malle or Claude Chabrol in France. But Losey was his own man, and as well as leaving the USA he brought over with him shades of nightmares that are there in ' M ' and in ' The Big Night. ' I give no spoilers about the end only that the last words said by Presle ( and in passion ) will resonate in my mind for a long time. This is no minor work of Losey and it should be rated far higher than it is. I dare to use that overused word masterpiece again, and it is my personal favourite of his films as it shows just how close love is to dislike, indifference and betrayal. Watch it on the UK's Talking Pictures, or on YouTube or be generous and buy it. If you own it I bet you will want to see it much more than once to catch the fine dialogue, superb acting and a London that was once achingly beautiful.

I saw this film almost sixty years ago when I was a nineteen year old "usherette" in a first run movie house in Sacramento, CA. Yes we did wear satin bell-bottoms, and carry a flashlight.

I have never seen this film since seeing it several times many years ago. It was the relationship between the older woman, and the younger man, that made me fall in love with Hardy Kruger and the film. This story line was both new and daring for the time. London was still in recovery from World War II, and it was not the city that most film viewers know now. I don't remember a story of class, I only remember a great hot love story.

I wouldn't say this is a film to stimulate the senses, not one packed with energy, but it's success lies very much in its subtlety, delivery and superb performances.

It's a wonderfully stylish film, it looks so good, from the very bright start to the rather downbeat conclusion. The story is fed out very slowly, with the story unravelling teasingly slowly. As a mystery it works well, what seems so obvious initially isn't quite the case, so much more is happening, with a twist waiting.

Great performances, Hardy Kruger was fantastic in the lead role. Very much a battle of the classes, with a hugely socialist element on show, but it fits in well.

Very enjoyable, slick movie. 8/10

The plot is pretty conventional Scotland Yard potboiler; Hardy Kruger suspected of a murder he didn't commit but the evidence looks bad. But the surprise of the film is a brilliant performance by Stanley Baker as the Police Inspector Morgan doing the investigation. Baker grew up in Wales near the home of the more famous Richard Burton, but he was every bit as good as an actor. His performance is tightly wound, with shafts of anger about the special treatment he is asked to give an upper class alternative suspect. Very different from the laid-back aristocrats that many films imagine populate the British police. It's a bit stagey and you won't find any of the car chases which litter so many police films. But the supporting cast are all good and Baker is a joy to watch.