Pit of Darkness

This is a essentially a 45 minute film which has been painfully padded out to almost 80 minutes, and it shows, as by the end I was beyond caring about the main protagonist, William Franklyn and the whole safe cracking, amnesia saga. Franklyn is a too smooth and languid character to hold the attention of the audience. His one dimensional, underwhelming character, squeezes the life out of this crime drama and so I was left merely observing the acting of the lovely Nanette Newman and Moira Redmond who have a tough time playing opposite the wooden lead. These cheaply made films traded on the usual criminal stereotypes which popped up in countless British crime films in the 50's and early 60's, hence the appearance of Michael Balfour playing the usual low life criminal, complete with cigarette dangling from the mouth. Sorry, but this film dragged so much that I was left praying for the end.

Lance Comfort was no bad director, and he made quite a number of very sustained thriller dramas of lasting interest, although it's obvious he never could work with any sufficient budget - most of his films are of the B level, and that's glaringly obvious in this one: almost all scenes, except for a few street scenes in the dark, are indoors in flats, a cellar, the Blue Baboon night club and the cottage way out in the country, which is only used for being blown up. The weakness of this thriller is, like in so many squeezed thrillers, that so many threads are left incomplete. The murder of the blonde, for instance, is just left behind without any further questions or reports, neither in the papers nor by the police. The death of Bruno is also left without any further notice. William Franklyn at least makes a plausible case, he manages well like all the actors, and it's a relief to learn that both the doctor and the wife had nothing to do with the plot. The boy introducing the case is one of the most important parts. It's a great plot up to Lance Comfort's best standard, and he was actually best at making B-films rising up to a higher level, like the excellent "Temptation Harbour" of 1947.

William Franklyn is a normal, middle-class fellow. He's got a business installing extra-secure safes for jewelers. He's got a pretty staff, a wife and a mistress. His trouble is he just woke up in the middle of an old bomb site with no memory of what he's been doing for a long time. His wife, Moira Redmond, says he's been missing for weeks. His girl friend agrees to meet him at their cottage. When he gets there, it blows up.

It's an interesting start that suggests D. O. A., but Franklyn, alas, is no Edmond O'Brien, and despite some nice camera work by Basil Emmott, it turns into a rather ordinary crime thriller, decently directed by the competent Lance Comfort. The ubiquitous Nigel Green and Michael Balfour have reasonable supporting roles.

This is quite an engaging story of a man "Logan" (William Franklyn) who comes to on a bombed-out Wapping waste ground with a bloody head. On returning home, he discovers from wife "Julie" (Moira Redmond) that he has been AWOL for three weeks - and he has no idea what happened in the intervening time. It soon becomes clear that his mysterious disappearance is connected with his business - he designs and instals safes - and he must try and piece to gather what happened. Neither the writing (it's a bit repetitive) nor Franklyn are great, to be honest, but Nigel Green and Leonard Sachs (with Tony Booth) help chivvy things along now and again. It's pretty obvious why "Logan" was the target, but the perpetrators remain a mystery til quite near the end and as low budget Butcher's efforts go, this is up in their upper echelons with a smidgen of psychology injected into the plot, too. Could have done without Ronnie Hall and his crooning, though....!

I found "Pit Of Darkness" a reasonable film to watch but with several plot holes, not least no-one wondering if there was a connection between William Franklyn being missing for three weeks and one of his firm's safes being robbed by an expert. And the partner in the firm didn't even mention the incident when Franklyn did turn up. The gang that held him must have been very considerate in allowing him to buy some smart new clothes after they'd messed up those he'd been wearing when they captured him!

It wasn't very bright of Franklyn to accept the blonde hostess's invitation to her flat after her previous invitation to a cottage had nearly led to his death. And then the gang, after several attempts to bump him off, suddenly realised that they needed him to crack another safe.

As another reviewer has suggested, the makers seem to have taken bits of plots from other films and untidily cobbled them together.

Franklyn acted well enough and there were several interesting names in the supporting cast.