SPACEWAYS

Eva Bartok and Howard Duff

SPACEWAYS (1953). Director: Terence Fisher.

Dr. Stephen Mitchell (Howard Duff) is an American scientist working on a top-secret British rocket base. One day his wife Vanessa (Cecile Chevreau) disappears with her lover, Dr. Philip Crenshaw (Andrew Osborn). A repellent investigator named Dr. Smith (Alan Wheatley) suggests that Mitchell killed wife and lover, drained some fuel from a rocket, and put their dead bodies inside it to create the perfect murder -- it has been determined that the rocket may not fall back to earth for many decades. Now Mitchell decides the only thing he can do is risk life and limb by taking a manned rocket into space and bringing back the other rocket to prove there are no corpses on board ... Spaceways has an interesting and unusual plot, and it's well-acted and suspenseful enough to be reasonably entertaining. Director Fisher, responsible for several zesty Hammer horror flicks, does a briskly-paced job, and the beginning of the picture really pulls you in, even if the rest is somewhat disappointing. Duff [Dante] is more than okay as the leading man; Bartok, who is better as the leading lady, also gives a good performance. Michael Medwin plays another scientist named Toby, and Philip Leaver is the fatherly Professor Koepler. Bartok makes a very different impression in this movie than she does in Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace.

Verdict: Good story line with so-so execution. **1/2.

PAID TO KILL

Dane Clark

PAID TO KILL (1954). Director: Montgomery Tully.

In a variation of the old plot about a man hiring someone to kill him and then wanting to call it off, James Neville (Dane Clark) is convinced that a business deal gone south will not only ruin him but the company he heads, so he blackmails an associate, Paul (Paul Kirby) into killing him so his wife can collect the insurance money. But then the deal is back on again, and Neville is saved, only someone is still trying to kill him -- and it doesn't appear to be Paul. Suspects include his apparently loving secretary, Joan (Cecile Chevreau), his wife, Andrea (Thea Gregory), and his friend, Peter (Anthony Forwood), among others. Paid to Kill is well-acted and suspenseful, and with a little more care might have really amounted to something; as it is it's entertaining. Clark gives a very good performance as the not terribly likable Neville, and the others in the cast are good as well.

Verdict: Not bad Hammer mystery film. ***.