Shadow of Fear

SHADOW OF FEAR is another cheap and uneventful thriller that comes to us courtesy of Butcher's Film Service. This one was filmed at Brighton Studios and makes some good use of wide open coastal photography, although the attempts to bring to life the Middle East on a non-existent budget are less than successful. The hero is the stolid Paul Maxwell (one of those unfamiliar leads with zero charisma) who is approached by a government contact in Baghdad and tasked with taking a message back to England to give to the secret service.

Unfortunately for Maxwell the contact is killed and a criminal gang show up in England to capture him. He escapes and with his girlfriend flees to the south coast, where the police plan to use the pair in a sting operation to catch the gang members. Unfortunately despite that story this short tale is anything but snappy; there's barely any action in it and, even worse, little suspense. The characters just go through the talky motions here without feeling invested in the tale. The only actor I recognised was Eric Pohlmann in support as one of the baddies. SHADOW OF FEAR is one of those films you can forget about entirely around ten minutes after viewing.