La mujer que no quería morir

... or so some insurance commercial says. And this great little forgotten British film is exhibit A. Ellen Garth is a thin fiftyish woman of extreme wealth and business acumen. Georgina Cookson plays her and gives her character the eery look of a cross between a mannequin and a female impersonator. Ellen is very wealthy, and her bad decision is to think that money can buy her anything - love in the case of her younger husband Raymond (Gary Merrill) and loyalty in the case of her employee Richard (Neil McCallum), on whom she has evidence of an attempted embezzlement. What it is really buying her is duty sex from Raymond and indentured servitude from her employee. And they commiserate when alone as to how much they'd love to be rid of her. Now Raymond can take being a kept man and boy toy until Ellen's beautiful niece, Alice (Jane Merrow) arrives for a visit all grown up. Suddenly Raymond realizes what he's been missing out on. Or to put it bluntly... boing!!.

When the niece reciprocates Raymond's affection, suddenly it is homicide blueprint time between Raymond and Richard. They plan to murder Ellen in England, have an actress impersonate Ellen in Italy - she had planned a trip there without Raymond - and then murder the actress and make it look like Ellen's tendency to speed finally got the best of her when she dies in a fiery crash in the Italian hills. There are a few kinks in the plan, but it basically looks like it has worked out EXCEPT...Raymond must live in the cottage where he killed his wife for the rest of his life or forfeit his inheritance. And suddenly there are bumps in the night that make it appear Raymond's wife is still alive.

Now why would Raymond think this? Ellen was the follower of some unnamed Eastern religion that believed in coming back from the dead and plus she had the ability when living to put herself in a trance whenever her unspecified hip injury got to be too painful. Was she just in a trance when Raymond thought he killed her? Is somebody trying to run Raymond out of the cottage so he forfeits his inheritance? Something else entirely? Watch and find out.

This is a low budget film as so many British films were for the first twenty years after WWII, but it scares the audience very effectively with what they do not see and what they don't know. I highly recommend this little thriller.