Man in Hiding

Paul Henried is uncharacteristically jaunty in this early Hammer thriller set in a postwar London of bombsites, trenchcoats and impossibly glamorous females. Before she found her niche as Miss Moneypenny Lois Maxwell plays a damsel in distress, the role of sexy secretary instead going to an up and coming young Kay Kendall.

This has happened frequently in the movies, and it always happens again. The chief attraction here though is the ladies. Lois Maxwell is perfect as the professional woman who is scared to death of the return of her former husband, who has escaped from prison, after having been sentenced for a number of years for a stipulated murder, of which he has no memory, since the shock of it brought him amnesia. The other lady is Kay Kendall in an early role as the becoming wife of Paul Henreid, who is a lawyer who is asked to assist the fugitive, an artist, by a colleague of his, another artist, who believes he is innocent, and they both find it plausible that he has escaped from prison only to search out the real murderer. All they have as a lead is a few sketches by the fugitive, who never forgot the face of the murderer and made quite a number of sketches of his face. It is a small but highly efficient thriller, as the suspense keeps towering up throughout the film, culminating in a party towrds the end with everyone there, also both Lois Maxwell and Kay Kendall. Paul Henreid makes a good gentlemanly performance as always, but the chief attraction is the two ladies. Lois Maxwell was quite an actress, and Kay Kendall, soon the wife of Rex Harrison, would crown her career as the greatest comedienne British cinema has ever seen.

AKA..."Woman in Hiding"

A Few Years Before Hammer Studios Changed the Face and Tone of Horror Movies,

the Famous British Studio Dabbled in Film-Noir and Police Procedurals.

Notice the Odd Board Game that the Police Use to Move Squad Cars Around.

A Forced, Borderline Ridiculous Attempt to Elevate Law Enforcement to Omnipresence.

This Type of Over-Kill Attempt to Worship Post-War Law Enforcement Diluted Many a Film-Noir in the 1950's.

Paul Henreid's Over-the-Top Strange, Giddy Performance as a Lawyer Interested in Human Behavior, Almost Sinks this Average Who-Done-It.

Lois Maxwell (James Bond's Miss Moneypenny) is Fantastic to Look-At and Gives a Good Performance as a Worried, Nervous Wife of an Escaped Murderer.

The Other Females Mary Laura Wood and Kay Kendall also Add Some Eye-Candy to the Pedestrian Movie.

Plenty of On-Location Footage Around London Add Gravitas.

But the Male Performers are All Stiff and Uninteresting, and Along with Henreid's Breezy Antics do Nothing to Enhance the Intrigue.

Directed by Legendary Horror Director Terence Fisher.

A Good Effort by the Studio with a Decent Budget with an Outdoor Gritty Look.

But an Average Film Overall.

If it's a Hammer Movie, it's Worth a Watch.

The next film watched for the "House of Hammer" podcast is 1953's "Mantrap", alternately titled both "Woman In Hiding" and "Man In Hiding" depending on where and when you come across it.

Thelma (Lois Maxwell) is disturbed to learn that her husband, Speight (Kieron Moore) has escaped from Prison, where he was sentenced for murder. In the subsequent years, Thelma had established a new life for herself and has remarried to Victor Tasman (Bill Travers). There are serious questions though about whether Speight committed the murder and one of his friends asks Hugo Bishop (Paul Henreid) to find him before the police do.

A reasonably solid if somewhat unspectacular whodunnit. It's apparent pretty early that that despite her fear, Speight is not actually hunting his ex-wife and so that only really leaves one other option. Performances are OK. Paul Henreid is not perhaps a typical leading man, but his spark with his secretary/fiancé, played by Kay Kendall, is quite good. Hammer regular Anthony Forwood reappears as yet another upper-class cad, but again, he's got that role down.

Visually and aurally, the film is OK, if not perhaps the height of what we've seen from Hammer (This may be linked though to me seeing a Youtube version that appears to have been recorded from the television. The story is fine, but, as is often the case with Hammer films, the ending is not such more stunted as abrupt. It's also a little bit to small for what it needs to be. In hinges on one character seeing another across a dancefloor, but the room doesn't seem big enough for them not to have noticed each other previously.

It was alright, perhaps a little more invention wouldn't have gone amiss, and I doubt I'm ever going to watch it again.

With an opening sequence bearing a striking resemblance to Bogart's 'Dark Passage', convicted murderer, Kieron Moore escapes prison aboard a truck in a determined bid to prove his innocence. From this point, similarities between the two movies rapidly blur. There is no plastic surgery and Paul Henreid is a far less glamorous confidante than Lauren Bacall! More crucially, 'Mantrap' is a significantly inferior piece of work.

News that Moore is on the run, seriously ruffles the feathers of ex-wife Lois Maxwell, now a successful writer, whilst senior detective, Lloyd Lamble creates an elaborate board game from shunting police cars around the capital in an attempt to snare the convict. Meanwhile, astute lawyer, turned investigator, Henreid has rooted himself at the derelict, bomb site crime scene, where his prolonged patience is rewarded, when Moore finally returns.

Going forward, 'Mantrap' is essentially a talking picture, rather than a moving picture. Just revealing the filling in the sandwich which Henreid offers to the ravenous Moore would have boosted the interest level. The belated chase sequence looks like it was tacked on as an afterthought. The bad guy almost having to be persuaded to make a break for it, whilst everyone's attention is diverted elsewhere.

A second viewing, reveals a few previously unappreciated subtleties and nuances, at least partially lifting the movie out of the miasma of mediocrity, but it's fine margins. For real punch and potency, delivered with panache and pizzazz, check out the aforementioned 'Dark Passage'.