User reviews

Paul Carpenter gets passed over as the editor of the company's new true-crime magazine. Worse than that, the guy who gets the job takes his girl, who's more interested in someone who can afford her. So Carpenter slugs the guy, and goes on a binge. Along the way, he picks up a blonde drinking companion, who dumps him in a fleabag hotel, and signs him in under a fake name. Then she leaves. When he wakes up, he goes home and discovers the corpse of his romantic rival.

Matters turn nastier, as the hotel clerk doesn't recognize him, and the police say they cannot trace the woman. Only Hazel Court is sympathetic as he keeps finding the corpses of people who might alibi him.

Charles Saunders shows what he can do with a well-written script (except the part where Carpenter has figured out whodunnit, but refuses to share the name with Miss Court or the police; that must be the strict libel laws in Britain). There is some good humor, and a lead character who makes bad decisions and realizes it moments later is nice writing. Plus Carpenter and Court have good chemistry.

Julian Symons wrote an excellent mystery which was also revealing about British social attitudes of the time. It was always going to lose something in its translation to the big screen but this film is below average even by contemporary British 'B' movie standards. It just becomes a run-of-the-mill whodunit with the characterization so thin that the unmasking of the guilty party is distinctly underwhelming. The budget apparently wouldn't stretch to the usual second division American star so the over-familiar Paul Carpenter turns out once again. Glamorous Hazel Court is some compensation as always and Trevor Reid is accomplished as the cynical detective.

I quiet enjoyed this film it was very much if it's time, mid 50s and I have seen better films made around the same time but I have also seen worse. The outcome can be guessed from early on and some of the characters are one dimensional but worth a watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

I must admit my complete ignorance about Director Charles Saunders' work, but he certainly does a fine job with this B picture. Relying on an Hitchcock-like screenplay whereby an innocent journalist (Paul Carpenter) keeps finding dead bodies and rating increasingly the prime suspect to Scotland Yard inspector Crambo (superior supporting show from Trevor Reid), the film posts strong dialogue and an interesting plot with a villain that I had not seen coming.

Splendidly simple photography, good fight sequences, clever twists and turns - all help make THE NARROWING CIRCLE a worthy watch, with the added bonus that Hazel Court has the loveliest eyes and a deliciously plump figure.

Recommended B noir.

As another reviewer on this site has noted, THE NARROWING CIRCLE is a somewhat disappointing B-movie thriller. Compared to other films of the genre from this era - like OPERATION DIPLOMAT, say, or even the cheapie Butcher Films movies of the early '60s - it feels sloppily written in places, and as a mystery it cheats the viewer by preventing them from being able to guess the identity of the villain thanks to some mediocre writing.

Paul Carpenter essays the role of an unsympathetic writer for the pulp magazines who finds himself framed for murder by persons unknown. The only ally he has on his side to help him is the pretty Hazel Court, a year before she hit the horror big time with Hammer's THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Together the pair move through a plot involving detectives, multiple murder, and a rather convoluted back story with more than a few plot holes if you look too closely.

THE NARROWING CIRCLE features the likes of Ferdy Mayne, Basil Dignam, and Hugh Latimer in support. Trevor Reid is very good as the acerbic detective and gets all the funniest lines. Carpenter feels pretty wooden and there's a bit of a vacuum where his character is involved. The film was directed by B-movie specialist Charles Saunders (WOMANEATER) and made by Fortress Films, who put out 8 B-movies during the 1950s before disappearing into obscurity.

It's the usual plot of getting framed for crimes you didn't commit, and they keep piling up no mater what you try to do to get out of a constantly dwindling spiral and mess of implications and troubles. It's a well written script elegantly treated into a well directed film, but none of these characters will make any lasting impression. They are simply just types set up for a suspense thriller, not even imitating Hitchcock and falling far off the professional stream of thrillers. The people murdered here are no less than three, and they are all quite innocent but just happened to know some loose ends of a story that never even would have interested them. Fortunately the film is not too long, just about some minutes more than an hour, the action is intensive all the way with even some space for a romance, so you will enjoy it enough for its duration and then forget all about it.

This stars 2 favourite leads for British B films of the 1950s,Paul Carpenter and Hazel Court.It seems that anyone who has contact with Carpenter is found murdered and that within a very short time Carpenter is found adjacent to the murdered person.What I did not quite like about this film was that you were not likely to be able to guess who was the killer,as the killer was not on screen for very long.Furthermore the reason for the killings only became apparent at the very end.So you are not really given any clues as to whom it might be.The only way you will get it is if you guess,which obviously one of the other reviewers did.

Yes, what they all said. It's really not very good. There are a couple of funny characters, though. The camp barman who eventually remembers Carpenter despite it being "out of hours". And the twittering, spinsterish office worker who keeps coming in looking for a lost file. Is she sure it's lost, has she logged who had it, asks Carpenter. "I have a pink form! I'll show it to you if you like." "That won't be necessary."

Just wanted to share that joke with you. Rather "Round the Horne".

Continuing my viewing of B films made as time fillers for the main A film in the UK in the 1950's and 1960's I discovered this good one from 1956. Despite what has been called poverty row conditions some of them transcend these so-called conditions and briefly ' The Price of Silence (1966), ' Burnt Evidence ' (1954) and this one are so far the best. No doubt more will follow. In ' The Narrowing Circle ' any faults in direction or camera work, or ill-judged details, cannot hide the fact that the two leads Paul Carpenter and Hazel Court give first rate performances. Both characters work in a publishing house for crime, and find themselves involved in a series of murders that appear to stem from the house itself. Together they go to work, and the chemistry between them could almost be compared to Bogart and Bacall. The sexual connection is subtle and erotic ( unusual so far in my B viewing ) and of course there is the inevitable kiss before the final fade, which is not so formulaic as the kisses have been passionate enough before. I liked the pace, the red herrings and the totally surprising killer. In all well worth watching on YouTube if nowhere else, and I hope some viewers will join me in this bargain hunt for long forgotten films in a sort of genre of their own. The genre was made to fill up an hour of time before the main feature. I wonder how many left the cinema having the B movie in mind, and thinking how dull the A film was ?

The Narrowing Circle is a routine and anodyne crime thriller. A quickly knocked off low budget B film.

Dave Nelson (Paul Carpenter) is a crime reporter hoping for a promotion. He finds out that his colleague Bill Strayte gets the job and later discovers that his girlfriend has been carrying on with Bill behind his back. Dave rather rashly punches Bill and tells him that he will sort him out later before drowning his sorrows and meeting a floozy in a bar.

Dave later finds Bill's dead body in his flat and Inspector Crambo (Trevor Reid) suspects him as no one else could confirm his alibi.

At every turn as Dave tries to clear his name, he finds himself with more dead bodies.

The denouement is rather convoluted, silly and far fetched. Only wily Inspector Crambo makes an impression with some laconic wit.

Paul Carpenter and Hazel Court make a handsome couple investigating who killed the corpses he keeps stumbling over in this diverting potboiler with amusing dialogue and supporting characters, a jaunty music score and the usual agreeable views of London sixty years ago.

Based on a novel by Julian Symonds using office politics as it's starting point and turning into a new version of 'So Long at the Fair'. Ferdy Mayne plays a character ironically called 'Straight', the hero signs himself into a hotel under the name 'Smith' and Ronnie Stevens also ironically plays a barman everybody calls 'Jack' who prefers to be called 'Jimmy' back in the days when he himself was billed as 'Ronald'.

This film tells an intriguing story which holds the viewer's interest, but I was left feeling that it would have benefited from a more serious, hard boiled approach. As it is, the director, screenplay writer, and lead actor Paul Carpenter all play it for laughs, so there is never any real sense of menace or tension. Some aspects of the story lack plausibility - for example the scene where the main character is trying to clear his name after being framed, but then proceeds to punch the detective in charge of the case in the face to avoid arrest. It's hard to understand the motivation for this, or to empathise with someone who would behave so self-destructively. If you approach the film as a comedy thriller, rather than a tense crime drama, any initial expectations are less likely to be disappointed.

"Nelson" (Paul Carpenter) is a journalist who has an habit of finding corpses - and one of them is his girlfriend's other boyfriend! Despite his protestations, the police - under the suspiciously watchful eyes of "Insp. Crambo" (an effective Trevor Reid) are beginning to think there can be no smoke without fire. Meantime, fellow journalist "Rosemary" (Hazel Court) starts to share an office with him at "True Crime" magazine and after an initially awkward period, the two begin to join forces to get to the bottom of the crimes before poor old "Nelson" heads for the hangman. The story benefits from having a few quirks to it - there are even some diamonds mixed up in it all, and the dialogue is well enough written and delivered. Clearly the unremarkable Carpenter was brought in to give the box office a touch of Transatlantic glamour and Court always did manage to look the part too, so though this is never likely to be a film you will recall with enthusiasm, it's not at all a bad little afternoon feature that kills an hour without you having to scratch your head too often - and the ending isn't quite what you might expect.

There were hundreds of schemes as this one in the movie and series history. This one is predictable, boring, lousy, and only the late fifties atmosphere can justify the watching for old timers or gem diggers. This is a small British thriller which is fortunately very short, so the time you'll waste will be short too. I purchased it only because it is rare, but this is never a guarantee of quality. Charles Saunders was a prolific director for the UK film industry but he had no ambition at all. He made better films than this one though. I have many many UK movies from the late fifties and early sixties in my library, all in black and white, and will try to find a good gem to talk about.