The Broken Horseshoe

THE BROKEN HORSESHOE is a low budget British thriller filmed at Nettlefold Studios and distributed by the reliable Butcher's Films. Unfortunately it's one of their lesser outings, a largely uninteresting mystery yarn which sees a hospital doctor become both a murder suspect and an amateur sleuth as he attempts to solve the mysterious death of one of his patients.

Unsurprisingly, this is a sluggish, talky affair, notable only for some of the performances of the supporting players. While the main actors are rather stiff, there's a stand-out turn from a debuting Roger Delgado playing a rather sinister character; you can see why Delgado became a familiar face on our screens in the years to come as his performance is assured and confident. There's even a role for Ferdy Mayne (THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KLLERS) playing the chap whose murder kickstarts the whole plot. But the storyline is distinctly average, the events of the plot feel rather quaint, and as a whole this hasn't dated as well as other material from the era.

Surgeon Robert Beatty operates on Ferdy Mayne with a new drug. Maybe has been in a hit-and-run and is anxious to get out of hospital, so he leave earlier than Beatty would like, especially as alluring Elizabeth Sellars had come by when Mayne was unconscious and Beatty wants to see her again. Mayne makes an appointment for a follow-up and gives Beatty a letter to hold until he returns. When he doesn't return, Beatty goes to Mayne's apartment and finds Mayne's corpse. His brother-in-law, Peter Coke, is the cop investigating the murder. Beatty doesn't mention Miss Sellars.

It's a decent mystery, and I preen a bit in that I figured it out. It's also a fair movie with film noir tinges, and a first film role for Roger Delgado. I was annoyed by Wilfred Burns' lush and busy score. Burns was a favored composer for bits of stock music, but listening to the bits constantly was a slightly onerous. That said, it's another decent B movie for Nettleford.

I enjoyed the acting performances of Elizabeth Sellars playing the alluring, sophisticated, femme fatale, Della Freeman as well as Roger Delgardo, who is cast as Felix Galegos, the slippery, dastardly villain, a role which he reprised in countless films. However, the rest of the cast are unremarkable and move around like mannequins to pad out the cast. Robert Beatty plays Roger Fenton, a chain smoking, naive and highly gullible doctor, who's drawn into a spider's web of intrigue involving the doping of horses. Fenton's fascination with the delightful Della Freeman, seriously affects his thinking with the result he puts himself in the frame as a murderer. Robert Beatty handles his role well as the spellbound doctor, but the storyline allows him and Sellars, little room for romance, not even a kiss or an embrace. Beatty was a trustworthy and solid regular of British films in the 40's and 50's who later appeared as a detective in the TV series, 'Dial 999.' 'The Broken Horseshoe' is a worthy, but cheaply made budget film, which doesn't inspire, as there is far too much talk and barely any action. One of those films to watch out of curiosity on a cold, wet afternoon.

This is an adaptation of a Francis Durbridge tv serial, which was in six half hour episodes, performed live and not recorded. It's easy to see where the cliff hangers were even though it's very compressed. Durbridge stories are full of twists. It's well worth seeing the later BBC ones that do exist. But I'm mainly writing this to correct the very annoying point in the goofs. Fenton is a surgeon and so is not addressed as doctor. Surgeons are always addressed as mister.

Notes Surgeon Doctor Fenton operates on a hit and run victim, saving his life with ground breaking, new medication. Soon after saving his life, Fenton is implicated in the man's murder.

What a thoroughly enjoyable, neat mystery this film is, another pleasing brain teaser from Francis Durbridge. This film is well acted, well paced and full of Durbridge's distinct cleverness.

It's a very elegant looking film, the cars, the sets, the fashions, it just looks wonderful, I adore the 1950's.

Robert Beattie is so good in the lead, I've been watching him in Dial 999 recently, a good presence, lots of character, and a very distinctive voice and accent.

Durbridge would go on to have many successful years ahead, Paul Temple, Melissa, The Passenger and many more. Agatha Christie's work quite rightly continues to remain current to this day, I wish someone would resurrect Durbridge's wonderful stories.

It's taken me a long time to get hold of this film, it's been out of print for some time, and never gets shown.

8/10.