Review of Deadlock

Deadlock (1943)
5/10
Undistinguished quota quickie
10 July 2010
This film is on the recently issued BFI 75 missing films that they want to add to their archive.After viewing i can only wonder why.It is an archetypal poverty stricken quota quickie,There are only a handful of sets.Any action which takes place outside these sets is not shown but is reported second hand.The camera is static.there is no editing as such with scenes being joined together.Much of the film is photographed in medium shot,i don't remember one close up.The story is derivative and clichéd.Slater plays twins,although he doesn't manage to make one different to the other.He persuades the Judge at his trial for murder that he is insane and sent to a mental hospital.He escapes killing a warder and his twin brother who helped him.We don't see any of this so any dramatic tension is non existent.The film ends perfunctorily in a welter of bodies.Its only virtue is its brevity.Whilst i am a great champion of quota quickies even i can raise barely a cheer for the existence of this film.
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