''Blind Corner'' (U.S. title: ''Man in the Dark'') is a 1964 British

second feature A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second half of a double feature, s ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by

Lance Comfort Lance Comfort (11 August 1908 – 25 August 1966) was an English film director. He was a prolific maker of B movies from 1945 to 1965. Early life Lance Comfort was born in Harrow, London on 11 August 1908. Career In a career spanning over ...

and starring

William Sylvester William Sylvester (January 31, 1922 – January 25, 1995) was an American actor, chiefly known for his film and television work in the United Kingdom. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he was a star of British B-movies in t ...

Barbara Shelley Barbara Shelley (born Barbara Teresa Kowin; 13 February 1932 – 3 January 2021) was an English film and television actress. She appeared in more than a hundred films and television series. She was particularly known for her work in horror film ...

and

Alexander Davion Alexander Davion (March 31, 1929 – September 28, 2019) was a French-born British actor. He was perhaps best known in the UK for his starring role in ''Gideon's Way'' as Detective Chief Inspector David Keen. He was born in Paris, France. He die ...

. The screenplay was by James Kelley and Peter Miller. It was produced by Tom Blakely for

Mancunian Films Mancunian Films was a British film production company first organised in 1933. From 1947 it was based in Rusholme, a suburb of Manchester, and produced a number of comedy films, mostly aimed at audiences in the North of England. History Founded ...

/ Blakeley's Films (Manchester) Ltd. The scheming adulterous wife of a blind composer finally gets her comeuppance.

Plot

Paul Gregory is a blind but successful pop music composer, married to the beautiful Anne. Anne is having a secret affair with struggling artist Rickie Seldon, and persuades Paul to commission Rickie to paint her portrait as a pretext to enable them to spend time together. Paul agrees, but after a recording session with Ronnie Carroll he is told by his business partner Mike Williams that Anne and Rickie have been seen about town together in circumstances which leave no doubt that they are more than friends. Paul knows that Mike has always disliked Anne and suspects he may be trouble-causing, but is finally persuaded of the validity of his allegations. Paul makes it clear to Anne that he has found out about the affair and threatens to leave her. Fearing her meal-ticket is about to disappear, she tells Rickie that they will have to arrange an "accident" for Paul by getting him drunk and pushing him off the balcony of their home. If Rickie does not agree, she threatens, their affair must end. The plan is attempted, but is botched by Rickie, whose heart is not in it. After a struggle, he and Paul start to talk and Paul tells him to open his eyes to Anne's true nature, suggesting that she has been double-crossing him too. He tells Rickie that the real romance is between Anne and Mike, who have managed to hide it for so long by the public pretence of mutual antagonism and loathing. Rickie, having no personal antipathy towards Paul, forms an unlikely alliance with him. They entrap Anne into revealing her true motives: the whole scheme had been concocted with Rickie as a convenient

fall guy Fall guy is a colloquial phrase that refers to a person to whom blame is deliberately and falsely attributed in order to deflect blame from another party. Origin The origin of the term "fall guy" is unknown and contentious. Many sources place ...

, there to take the rap if suspicions were aroused about Paul's death. The police arrest Anne, Mike and Rickie.

Cast

as Paul Gregory *

as Anne Gregory *

as Rickie Seldon * Elizabeth Shepherd as Joan Marshall * Mark Eden as Mike Williams *

Ronnie Carroll Ronnie Carroll (born Ronald Cleghorn; 18 August 1934 – 13 April 2015) was a Northern Irish singer, entertainer and political candidate. Music career Carroll was born Ronald Cleghorn in 116 Roslyn Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1934, th ...

as Ronnie * Barry Alldis as compere * Edward Evans as chauffeur *

Frank Forsyth Frank Forsyth (19 December 1905 – 2 May 1984), sometimes credited as Frank Forsythe, was an English actor, active from the 1930s. He was born on 19 December 1905 in London, England. He appeared in several TV programmes, including '' Department ...

as policeman

Production

The film was publicised with the tagline: "She loved one man for kicks ... one man for luxury ... one man for murder".

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' wrote: "An unassuming thriller in which credibility is let down by the unconvincing characterisation of Rickie, and the somewhat storybook picture of Paul's professional life and blissful lack of awareness of his efficient secretary's obvious adoration. The plot is conventionally contrived, most of the characters being hardly more than puppets, but the convulsions of the later sequences and the final twist largely compensate for weaknesses elsewhere." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote: "Despite its tried-and-true formula and telegraphed plot, film manages to be fairly entertaining, mainly because its deftly directed. ...William Sylvester is quite competent as the blind composer while Barbara Shelley proves adequate as his faithless wife. Elizabeth Shepherd thefts many scenes as the composer's efficient if beautiful secretary, who secretly is in love with him. Alex Davion suffices as the portrait painter, being well cast as the he-man lover of the composer's wife. Mark Eden, as the composer's friend and agent, does splendidly in a contrasting role. Direction by Lance Comfort goes far in making a routine story quite palatable." The '' Time Out Film Guide'' describes it as "an unassuming but occasionally effective second-feature thriller." In ''Sixties British Cinema'', Robert Murphy wrote: "''Blind Corner'' ... looks like a reversion to the worst type of 50s (or 30s) jealous husband drawing-room thriller. But it is fascinating as a perfectly preserved fossil of a long dead form, and Sylvester's character – a blind composer continually distracted from his serious music by the need to write pop songs in order to pay for his wife's extravagant lifestyle – is firmly anchored in the 60s. The transfer of his affections from Barbara Shelley, his selfish, malevolent wife, to Elizabeth Shepherd, his stoically loving secretary, charts a satisfying path from indulgence and obsession to creativity and respect."

References

External links

*
''Blind Corner''
at BFI Film & TV Database {{DEFAULTSORT:Blind Corner 1963 films 1960s thriller films British thriller films British black-and-white films Films directed by Lance Comfort Films about blind people Films shot at Pinewood Studios 1960s English-language films 1960s British films English-language thriller films