''Murder by Proxy'' (U.S. title: ''Blackout'') is a 1954 British 'B'

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

crime drama film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but al ...

directed by

Terence Fisher Terence Fisher (23 February 1904 – 18 June 1980) was a British film director best known for his work for Hammer Film Productions, Hammer Films. He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explic ...

for Hammer Films and starring

Dane Clark Dane Clark (born Bernhardt Zanvilevitz; February 26, 1912September 11, 1998) was an American character actor who was known for playing, as he labeled himself, "Joe Average." Early life Clark was born Bernhardt Zanvilevitz (later Bernard Zanvill ...

, Belinda Lee and

Betty Ann Davies Betty Ann Davies (24 December 1910 – 14 May 1955) was a British stage and film actress active from the 1920s to the 1950s. Davies made her first stage appearance at the Palladium in a revue in 1924. The following year she joined Cochran's Yo ...

. The film was based on the 1952 novel ''Murder by Proxy'' by Helen Nielsen. The film was first released in the United States by

Lippert Pictures Lippert Pictures was an American film production and distribution company controlled by Robert L. Lippert. History Robert L. Lippert (1909–1976) was a successful exhibitor, owning a chain of movie theaters in California and Oregon. He was frust ...

on May 21, 1954, and later released in the UK by Exclusive on March 29, 1955. This was the first of an eight-picture deal between Hammer and Lippert Productions signed on Sept. 24, 1954. Production began on Sept. 28, 1954. Jimmy Sangster was assistant director, J. Elder Wills was Art Director and Phil Leakey handled Makeup. Belinda Lee died at age 26 in a car crash, ending a promising career.

Plot

Drunk and down-and-out Casey Morrow in London is approached by a young and beautiful heiress, Phyllis Brunner, offering him much money if he will marry her. He accepts, but then wakes up the next morning in some other woman's apartment with blood on his coat from the murder of Ms. Brunner's father with a fire poker. Now he must unravel the mystery to clear his name, which leads him into a twisted labyrinth of encounters with various suspicious characters who seem to make his situation worse the more he learns.

Cast

as Casey Morrow * Belinda Lee as Phyllis Brunner *

as Mrs. Alicia Brunner *

Eleanor Summerfield Eleanor Audrey Summerfield (7 March 1921 – 13 July 2001) was an English actress who appeared in many plays, films and television series. She is known for her roles in ''Laughter in Paradise'' (1951), '' Final Appointment'' (1954), '' Odongo'' ...

as Maggie Doone * Andrew Osborn as Lance Gordon * Harold Lang as Travis / Victor Vanno *

Jill Melford Jill Melford (23 November 1931 – 21 February 2018) was an English actress. Early career Born in 1931, she was the daughter of the actor Jack Melford. She attended the Ballet Arts School in New York and made her theatre debut in 1949 as a ...

as Miss Nardis * Alvys Maben as Lita Huntley * Michael Golden as Inspector Johnson * Nora Gordon as Casey's mother *

Alfie Bass Alfie Bass (born Abraham Basalinsky, 10 April 1916 – 16 July 1987) was an English actor. He was born in Bethnal Green, London, the youngest in a Jewish family with ten children; his parents had left Russia many years before he was born. He a ...

as Ernie * Delphi Lawrence as Linda * Arnold Diamond as Mrs. Brunner's butler *

Cleo Laine Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth (born Clementine Dinah Hitching; 28 October 1927) is an English singer and actress known for her scat singing. She is the widow of jazz composer and musician Sir John Dankworth and the mother of bassist Alec D ...

as singer *

Olive Sloane Olive Sloane (16 December 1896 – 28 June 1963) was an English actress whose film career spanned over 40 years from the silent era through to her death. Sloane's career trajectory was unusual in that for most of her professional life she was e ...

as landlady

Production

Dane Clark's casting was announced in September 1953. This was the 2nd of three films he starred in for Hammer. He stayed on in England to make '' Five Days'' (1954). The film was shot at Hammer's Bray Studios in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

with sets designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

J. Elder Wills. Script supervisor Renee Glynne later recalled that Belinda Lee "was still very inexperienced at that time and I had to watch her quite carefully. She'd cross her legs the wrong way or turn her head at the wrong moment or come out with the wrong line, so I'd have to correct her and try to help her out. Dane obviously fancied her and got very cross with my professional interference. He got quite nasty and was actually pushing me away from her." Glynne says she had to take medication "in order to survive the rest of the film. After that I had to give all my instructions to him through the director, Terry Fisher ... after some shots he'd have to put his head under cold water because he was so enraged that I was even there. Eventually he realised how silly it all was and went down on his knees, tears streaming down his face, begging me to forgive him. But I still asked Tony Hinds to take me off the next film he was in."

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: "The treatment is sufficiently persuasive to bring a fair amount of excitement to the well tried material. Dane Clark, playing with effective restraint, makes a credible character out of the bail hero, aided by Eleanor Summerfield as the wisecracking Maggie Doone. Belinda Lee's voluptuous charms are more stimulating than her acting. Technically the film is competently made, and the dialogue is agreeably convincing." '' Variety'' called it "a gabby, overlong, import from England that has Dane Clark heading the cast as the only name known in the domestic market. Condition of the supporting feature market is such currently that the film will have no trouble getting bookings, even though it offers scant measure of entertainment.... There's nothing the players can do with the plot as presented under the production helming of Michael Carreras, and Terence Fisher's direction is deliberate to the extreme, even for a British offering." In ''British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959'' David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Grim, slightly dull thriller with some witty lines along the way." Chibnall and McFarlane in ''The British 'B' Film'' described the film as: "a pretty hackneyed story." ''

Filmink ''FilmInk'' is an Australian film magazine published by FKP International Exports. It was founded by current publisher Dov Kornits and Colin Fraser in July 1997, in Sydney. The magazine has been through many changes over the course of its exist ...

'' called it "an entirely decent, unpretentious film noir; the age gap between the leads is annoying, but Lee is an ideal femme-fatale-or-isn't-she?"

References

External links

* * *
Murder by Proxy
at Letterbox DVD
Review of movie
at ''Variety'' {{Terence Fisher 1954 films 1954 crime drama films British crime drama films Films directed by Terence Fisher British black-and-white films Film noir Films based on American novels Hammer Film Productions films Lippert Pictures films Films shot at Bray Studios Films set in London 1950s English-language films 1950s British films Films scored by Ivor Slaney English-language crime drama films