Urge to Kill

While it would be fair to say that a great many Edgar Wallace mysteries aren't all that mysterious, quite a number are too formulaic to prove viable as gripping entertainment today, but most prove to be entirely watchable whodunnit's, and in spine-chilling serial killer thriller 'Urge to Kill, a sadistic, black-hearted, nattily white-gloved killer is sinisterly stalking the doomy, crepuscular city streets, a twitchy, murderous psychopath with a perverse yen for pitilessly strangling, and murderously slashing women to death! Sewell's gritty thriller is an adequate time-waster, competently written, well-acted by a solid cast, and experienced director director Vernon Sewell tautly executes a lean, frequently tense B-thriller that credibly maintains interest right until the sinister climax. The prolific Edgar Wallace's teasingly twist-headed, menacingly be-gloved maniac being a clear precursor to the sexier, black-leathered variety so garishly fetishized in the Italian Giallo of the 60s and 70s, and I genuinely found the darkly fascinating 'Urge to Kill' to be one of the more superior Edgar Wallace crime thrillers.

Presented in some countries as an Edgar Wallace Mystery, this tale rarely rises above the ordinary and obvious. In a boarding house run by mumsy Auntie B we find her nephew Hughie, a 'mental case', and a smooth suited chap, as well as a former teacher (Wilfred Brambell, pre Steptoe.

Someone is murdering young girls: of course, Hughie is suspected because he collects broken glass and the victims are usually slashed - but is he really responsible? The solution is obvious early on so there's no real suspense. Still it is watchable, if not essential.

Performances are generally OK; stalwarts like Patrick Barr as chief copper appear - and the story attempts to put a little grit into the situation. But the heart isn't really in it, and this film feels resolutely middle-class.

The Edgar Wallace Mysteries were a 46 film series made by Merton Park Productions. They concluded in 1965, with "Dead Man's Chest", and began here with "Urge to Kill" five years earlier.

Or did they?

"Urge To Kill" lacks the revolving bust opening titles of the Edgar Wallace series. Also, it isn't based on anything that Wallace wrote. Despite it being listed on IMDb as the first film of the series, it was probably only retitled as "Edgar Wallace Mysteries: Urge To Kill" for the USA and wasn't part of the series at all.

No matter. A lunatic is running amok in what looks like a particularly grim small town. No green hills in these parts, as someone remarks – even though I watched a green tinted version of this film, which makes everyone look a bit sicklier than they no doubt were. There's a small town mentally to many of the villagers, or towners, in the shape of some large talk down The Anchor (that's a pub) of mobbing up and sorting out Hughie (Terence Knapp), the educationally subnormal young man (or "mental case" as the Police refer to him – charming!) who lives with his Auntie, Auntie B (Ruth Denning) the landlady of a modest boarding house. Huey likes roaming round by the docks and derelict sites to find "pretty bits like flowers" – pieces of old broken bottles and such. Some local Judy will be bumped off and Huey will arrive home soaking wet or covered in mud. Other suspects emerge in the form of Auntie B's boarders: kindly (or is that cowardly?) Mr Forsythe (Wilfrid Brambell, yes, that one) who has a habit of quoting the Bible - and Charlie Ramskill (now there's a clue) played by Howard Pays as an unctuous sales rep who's outward confidence masks an alarming inadequacy with the ladies. Oh and there's Mrs Willis (Anna Turner) who likes to pop in with her glad tidings. Mrs Willis sounds like one of those TS Eliot women from the Wasteland: "Have you seen the paper? Have you seen it? It's Jenny. You know: Curly's daughter. Got herself done in. Strangulated. Here! See for yourself! Murdered and gashed! Gave me quite a turn. I wouldn't say no to a cup of tea."

It all adds up to something less than a mystery as it's pretty quickly revealed who the real madman is.

Unusual for the era for the way it places a – erm - murdering lunatic in an everyday setting - rather than the Grand Guignol mannered style of horror films – "Urge To Kill" came bang in the middle of Merton Park's heyday when they chugged along at the rate of one feature per month - before tailing off into TV production by the late 60s.

"Urge To Kill" runs contrary to the usual second features of the time, Butchers' productions of feeble glamour in London apartments/ nightspots for example, and outwardly has more in common with early Coronation Street. Merton Park Productions, who had their studios opposite – erm – Merton Park in London, were notorious for using locations in and around SW19 in order to keep their production costs down. This one is all quite studio bound; most of it set round the kitchen table. The writers presumably imagined that they were creating quirky, eccentric characters but very little about "Urge To Kill" rises above its mundane setting.

Young woman is murdered one night on her return from the cinema followed by a further murder of a young lady whose body was found in shed. Hughie, a local youth with special needs and who goes out at night is suspected as the girls were brutally murdered in an unusually brutal and sadistic manner and he has a penchant for collecting broken glass, believed to have been used in at least one of the attacks.

Eventually the police realize that he is being framed and the true culprit, is a lodger at his Aunt's house where he lives.

Urge to Kill is an ok thriller that is adequate enough to keep one interested, however it can be talky, sometimes feels like an episode of Coronation Street than a killer thriller and also the identity of the killer is revealed too early; sort of killed the mystery aspect.