Dead Man's Chest

John Thaw and John Meillon work up a stunt to keep their paper going during the dull summer, a typical 'Silly Season' story...so they think. They're going to fake Meillon's death, stick him in a chest, drive him to a location, and set the police on Thaw. Their plan is working beautifully, until the car containing the chest and Meillon is stolen. In a panic, Thaw goes to the police and tells them about the stunt, hoping to recover the chest before Meillon suffocates. Instead, he is arrested for murder. The major problem is there's no corpus delicti. However, that should be no problem....

It's a lovely little second feature, filled with mordant humor. I thought that Graham Crowden as the newspaper editor was particularly fun, playing his role in a manner that reminded me of Alastair Sim.

These Edgar Wallace movies -- although this one only has a writer's credit for Donald Giltinan's screenplay -- are quick, have nice plot twists -- indeed, this one is entirely plot twists -- and feature actors who achieved prominence later in their careers.