A low budget b-movie from Britain's poverty row specialists - Butcher's Films. Patrick Holt (a former leading man in British films of the 1940's), plays Inspector Gregory of Scotland Yard who investigates the murder of an artist's wife and the disappearance of his model which coincided with the murder. Serena is very good for the type of picture it is , without a doubt. While the story is your routine murder mystery, director Peter Maxwell directs at a good pace and the b/w photography of Stephen Dade is very newsreel like and invests the proceedings with a nice feel for 1960's London . George Provis's art direction is also noteworthy. For instance, in a nod to film noir, we only ever see Serena throughout Holt's investigation in a painting by the artist. This nice touch reminded me in a sort of way of Otto Preminger's classic film, Laura, and it adds to the mystery and intrigue of the story line. All in all its a cut above the usual quality one normally expects of these things. The cast features Honor Blackman who at that time was a star on television as Cathy Gale in The Avengers espionage series. This film used turn up late at night on ITV back in the 1990's along with other b-movies like this, which vary in quality from above average to absolutely abysmal. It has since enjoyed a DVD release paired with director Maxwell's other Butcher's second feature Impact.
An artist's wife is shot dead at her country cottage and Inspector Gregory (Patrick Holt) is called in to investigate. The artist, Howard Rogers (Emrys Jones), goes to identify the body, but it turns out not to be his wife. So who was she? His wife Anne (Honor Blackman) shows up at his flat and she reveals that her close friend, a struggling actress called Claire Matthews, had been lodging with her at the cottage. In addition, Anne reveals that she was being followed by a woman with long dark hair - a private inquiry agent looking for divorce evidence or somebody more sinister? - and, in order to lose her, she paid Claire to dress in her clothes and walk into town while she quietly slipped away. It looks as though the murderer shot her mistaking her for Anne. Gregory's chief suspect is Rogers' model, Serena Vaughn, who matches the description of Anne's stalker, but she has vanished. Miss Vaughn was in love with Rogers, but despite being separated from Anne for the past few years he was on the verge of making up with his wife. Did Serena kill Claire and when she realises that she shot the wrong woman will she make another attempt on Anne's life in a bid to get the man she loves? Or is Gregory dealing with an elaborate smokescreen designed to divert attention away from another murderer?
