Dan Duryea stars in "Terror Street," also known as "36 Hours" from 1953. Though this was filmed in Britain and takes place there, the cars had the steering wheel on the American side for some reason.
Duryea is Bill Rogers, an American soldier, returns to London, where he was once stationed, when he hasn't heard from his Norwegian wife Katherine (Elsy Albin) in some time. He arrives at their apartment to find her gone and letters he sent to her unread. Her neighbor finally admits that Katherine is now living in an apartment in the west end.
Rogers convinces the young man at reception to let him into the apartment - mainly because he says if not, he will report that the employee is listening in on private phone calls.
Turns out the apartment is one fancy place, but before learning how it is that Katherine has moved up in the world, Rogers is knocked unconscious. When he regains consciousness, he finds that Katherine is dead, his service pistol was used, and it is in his hand.
Rogers' plane to return to the U. S. is in 36 hours - so he has that long to find out who killed Katherine. On the run from the police, he encounters a soup kitchen worker (Ann Gudrun) who believes his story and endeavors to help him.
Duryea is very good, as is the rest of the cast, including Eric Pohlmann and John Chandos.
The problem with the film is that the writing is weak. First of all, why the soup kitchen worker, whom he surprises after he sneaks into her apartment, didn't run for her life is beyond me. Also, Rogers doesn't turn to the police; he decides to investigate for himself in the typical innocent albeit wanted man way. There is also no big surprise as to who killed Katherine.
Katherine's story turns out to be somewhat interesting, however, and because I like Duryea, I'm giving it six stars.
