Man Bait

J. A. Pearson's Bookshop evokes little of the warmth, cosiness or hospitality presided over by Anthony Hopkins in '84 Charing Cross Road'. Stern, pompous Raymond Huntley is frequently falsely accusing chirpy, good-natured Harry Fowler of not doing his job. It's hardly surprising that dutiful, beautiful Marguerite Chapman has no interest in joining him for an after work drink. Whilst ravishing Ruby Bruce (Diana Dors), is a largely late arrival, much to the displeasure of her colleagues. Dapper and decent George Brent ably runs the store, but with a disabled wife (Isabel Dean) to care for, he's clearly feeling the strain.

In a moment of weakness, Brent commits a minor indiscretion with Dors, for which he is profusely apologetic. The matter seems closed until the voluptuous sales girl informs love interest, Peter Reynolds, whose leering, smug, self-satisfied facial expression seems to be constantly inviting.....a deftly aimed fist, to at least temporarily wipe off that nauseating smirk! It is a measure of his despicable character, that rather than being the jealous lover, '£' signs light up in his eyes and he manipulates the naive Dors along a path of extortion and blackmail towards her boss.

A murder on the premises and the accidental, but mysterious death of his wife makes Brent the target of an intense police investigation and he receives little sympathy or support from the humorless Huntley. In what begins to play out like Phase two of 'The Phantom Lady', it's left to the doting and devoted Chapman to clear Brent's name, even at the risk of endangering her own life.

In an era of movie making when justice had to be seen to be done, it's unsurprising that 'The Last Page' concludes with a long sentence. The film is hardly overflowing with novel ideas, but there is sufficient action between the covers to maintain interest.

...First thing he does is go to a bookstore. He tries to steal a book. That is how logical this movie is throughout. When we see shelves of books at a time, later, the books seem to be attached to each other. They're like room decorations some people buy in bulk.

The proprietor of this bookstore is, of all people, George Brent. He had a long career. Though this is a noir of sorts and I therefore can't give it a bad rating, let's just say this is hardly a career highlight for him.

Marguerite Chapman is attractive and convincing as his employee. She's stylish and pretty and comes off as nice.

This is an early Diana Dors film. She's decent in it. She gets pulled into some very bad behavior. But she's not a truly terrible character. She's chronically late to work and weak willed.

This isn't a memorable or distinguished film. But it isn't terrible, either. Nor does it hold to any formula. It's mediocre in a unique way.

Although the wonderfully sultry Diana Dors receives a full frame "introducing" credit, this was actually her 16th movie. She was in fact credited in 13 of her previous appearances and in at least half of them had major roles. So much for "introducing"! Needless to say, Diana effortlessly walks away with the movie even though her role is not as large as the title implies. Most of the action is held down by sleazy Peter Reynolds who contributes most of the noirish plot twists, assisted by opportunistic blonde, Eleanor Summerfield. The middle-aged hero is adequately presented by George Brent, although both he and his fellow American, Marguerite Chapman, appear so overawed by their U.K. surroundings, that even when Dors and Reynolds are not around, they allow everyone else in the cast, including Raymond Huntley, Meredith Edwards and most especially Harry Fowler—and even Leslie Weston and Nelly Arno—to steal scenes from them! In all, however, this is a reasonably gripping little thriller, provided you don't expect another Dial M. for Murder from writer Frederic Knott. The atmospheric bookshop set is both unusual and highly effective.

That was worth it just to see a 20 year old Diana Dors looking stunning with lips to die for.

Apart from the bottle blonde she looked largely natural at this time and more to my taste that the over made up Marilyn Monroe.

Her character attemps a clumsy seduction in the back of crusty George Brent's book shop office that along with her slimy male accomplice played by Peter Reynolds leads to blackmail and tragedy.

George Brent had his Hollywood moments I particularly liked him in Temptation playing an Egyptologist alongside Merle Oberon but here he is passed his prime.

An early Hammer thriller movie for a rainy winter's afternoon , now available in the public domain on Youtube.

A very young Diana Dors, who looks very much like Margaret Lee, it's like they are twin sisters. She also looks like a young Marilyn Monroe. She's not bad in the role of the naive young woman, killed by the villain played by Peter Reynolds. George Brent and Marguerite Chapman are very good in two sensitive roles. The film is slower in the first half, becoming alert and thrilling towards the end. Terence Fisher, the later expert on horror films, did a good job in this film made early in his career.