Walk a Tightrope

Dan Duryea is Lutcher, an unstable and violent drifter. The good news, which he tells his girlfriend, is that he has a job. The bad news, which he doesn't, is that it is to kill someone. Patricia Owens plays Ellen, the devoted wife of Jason, who is traumatised when Lutcher bursts in and shoots him, and even worse, insistently accuses her of paying him to do it.

This is a gripping and suspenseful thriller that keeps you guessing right to the end. Dan Duryea is at his best, particularly in the scene in the magistrates' court; no matter how unsympathetic his character may be, he can't help but make you smile. Owens is convincing in the difficult role of Ellen, while the unfortunate Jason is Terence Cooper, one of the least known Bonds, in the Sixties' CASINO ROYALE. Canadian born actor Neil McCallum, responsible for the script from a story by New York writer Mann Rubin, as well as playing prosecuting counsel, was shortly to become a household name as one of the stars of the BBC Mafia series, VENDETTA. There's also the perennial plain-clothes officer of British B movies, Trevor Reid, a role he tended to share with the not dissimilar Ballard Berkeley. A poverty row production, maybe, but a compelling and entertaining little film as well.