DEAR MURDERER

DEAR MURDERER (1947). Director: Arthur Crabtree.

Lee Warren (Eric Portman of Daybreak) discovers that his wife, Vivian (Greta Gynt of The Hooded Terror), has taken a lover, Richard (Dennis Price of She Played with Fire) while he is away for months on business. Warren concocts a clever scheme to do away with his love rival, but there are numerous complications, including the fact that apparently Vivien had already moved on from Richard to new boyfriend, Jimmy (Maxwell Reed, who also appeared with Portman in Daybreak). With one lover dead and another accused of murder, what is Vivien to do? Meanwhile Lee plays cat and mouse with police Inspector Penbury (Jack Warner). Dear Murderer is based on a play, but it is neither stage-bound nor opened up too unrealistically, and the movie has real suspense. The acting is excellent from all, although one can't help but wonder what the picture might have been like had Vivien been played by a perhaps more interesting actress such as Bette Davis or Linda Darnell. Hazel Court is cast as the murdered Richard's sister, Avis, and she is fine. There is a strange moment when Lee is about to confront his wife in the bedroom not long after he returns from his business trip, but the movie cuts away to the next scene at the crucial spot. The picture has a nice score by Ben Frankel and a very satisfying wind-up.

Verdict: Some pleasant company spent with a murderer. ***.

[SEXTON BLAKE AND] THE HOODED TERROR

Greta Gynt and George Curzon

SEXTON BLAKE AND THE HOODED TERROR (aka The Hooded Terror/1938). Director: George King.

"Bombs going off. Men falling dead. What kind of place is this? A gentleman's house or a chamber of horrors?' -- Mrs. Bardell

While almost completely unknown in the United States, private eye Sexton Blake, who began life as a Sherlock Holmes clone (who even had an office on Baker Street and a Mrs. Hudson-type housekeeper) before metamorphosing into different types of action heroes over the decades, was once very big stuff in England. In this film our hero (George Curzon) is up against a secret group known as the Black Quorum, which is led by a man known as the Snake. The members of the Quorum wear masks at their meetings, but take them off to look at closed-circuit television, making one wonder why they bother with the masks in the first place. Greta Gynt plays a special agent named Julie, whom Blake is always condescending to because she's a woman, but who saves his bacon on at least one occasion. (Brave Julie is the most "modern" thing about the movie.) Blake has an assistant named Tinker (Tony Sympson) and a housekeeper named Mrs. Bardell (Marie Wright). Tod Slaughter plays a deceptively jovial figure named Michael Larron. The most interesting scene features a death chamber full of slithering snakes. This isn't terrible, just not very memorable. Curzon, Gynt and the others are fine, with Gynt especially vivacious, adept and notable.

Verdict: Stick with Sherlock Holmes. **.