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| Naomi Chance and Patrick Holt |
SUSPENDED ALIBI (1957). Director: Alfred Shaughnessy.
Editor Paul Pearson (Patrick Holt of
The Unholy Four) has been playing around with a fashion writer, Diana (Naomi Chance of
Wings of Danger), despite his having a loving wife, Lynn (Honor Blackman), and young son, Bobby (Toby Winterbottom). He is trying to call it off with Diana, and uses a buddy, Bill (Bryan Coleman) as a beard. Unfortunately Bill is stabbed to death and Paul becomes a suspect. He tells the police he spent most of his time away from home with Diana, but when questioned she refuses to give him an alibi. Just in case she might change her mind, the real killer pays a call on Diana ... and then Paul is really in trouble.
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| Patrick Holt and Honor Blackman |
In some ways
Suspended Alibi plays like something made twenty years earlier. The characters are not developed very well, and there are no scenes where the impossibly understanding wife has a strong confrontation with her adulterous husband -- he seems to get a free pass. There is a little suspense at the end as the police rush to apprehend the killer, but otherwise the film is watchable but has little tension. Another murder scene in which someone gets thrown out of a window is laughably muffed. Others in the cast include Andrew Keir as a reporter-friend of Paul's; Valentine Dyall as Inspector Kayes; and Lloyd Lamble as the neighbor Waller.
Verdict: Distinctly minor-league British mystery that could have been developed into something much more worthwhile. **1/4.
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