The Narrowing Circle

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.

"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.

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.

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 ?