Blackout

This is a Kit Parker/Hammer Film starring Dane Clark, Belinda Lee. Eleanor Summerfield, and Harold Lang.

Clark plays Casey Morrow, an American in England. One night he meets a beautiful blond named Phyllis (Lee) and she offers him a job for a big amount of money. All he has to do is marry her.

The next day, he can't remember a thing except meeting her. He's in a strange place with a a woman he doesn't know, and there's blood on his coat. It's the painter's studio of a friend of Phyllis' (Summerfield). Morrow sees in the paper that his new wife's father was murdered the night before.

Did he do it? Did Phyllis set him up? And where is Phyllis? This is an okay noirish film that has some humor in it as well as drama. Clark is very good as a confused man trying to make his way through a labyrinth of lies and people. The plot is a little all over the place and not that easy to follow.

Clark was supposed to be another John Garfield, but his career went in another direction. He was very successful in television, appearing as a regular or semi-regular in many series and guest-starring on many TV shows.

Belinda Lee unfortunately died in a car accident in the U. S. when she was 25. In this film, she is around 19 years of age and very beautiful, touted as a Diana Dors-type. A sad end.

The film begins with Dane Clark being offered a strange marriage proposal from a woman he just met. Not only that, she offers this drunk guy 500 pounds to do the deed! However, upon waking up the next morning, he finds he's implicated with murder and there's no trace of the lady! So, it's up to tough-guy Clark to investigate and clear his name.

Most fans of Film Noir will be surprised to hear that the British (not to mention, the French) made quite a few of these in the 1950s. Oddly, the Brit Noir films were made by Hammer Studios--the same folks who made tons of Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy films from the late 50s to the mid 1970s! And, oddly, this film is directed by the studio's foremost monster film director, Terence Fisher.

Overall, while this is far from a great film, it does stack up pretty well with the average American example, though I will admit that this film does have a few too many twists and turns (particularly for the character of Phyllis Brunner).

This is a little British murder mystery, not a noir. The main character is a nice shlub, not a tough guy. There is very little tension or menace and certainly not any cynicism or existential despair. The dialog and bits of business are pretty funny and practically everyone in the film, including the villain, seems basically likable. Dane Clark does a very good job, although he will go on to do better. The plot offers a steady diet of red herring, but plot is not this film's strong suit. The whole thing is so likable that you may find yourself cringing that the plot and twists and turns seem so aimless and gratuitous, but it doesn't pretend to be more than a grade B movie with some good acting and good dialog.

Casey Morrow (Dane Clark) is a broke American in London. Phyllis Brunner (Belinda Lee) joins him at his nightclub table with an offer. She pays him £500 to get married. The drunken Morrow wakes up in a strange loft to Maggie Doone (Eleanor Summerfield). There's a painting of Phyllis. He assumes that it has all been a dream. News is that Phyllis is missing and her rich father has been murdered.

This is Hammer Films doing a film-noir. I guess that they haven't figured out the horror thing. This is generally rather average. The opening premise holds some interest, but the tension never gets that elevated.

I loved the St. Louis Blues jazz intro of this British noir, sung by Cleo Laine it sets the mood in this gorgeous cloud room opening. There we find Dane Clark's character Casey Morrow heavy in his cups when he meets the young and enchanting heiress Phyllis Brunner (Belinda Lee). Phyllis is the kind of girl who doesn't take no for an answer and she doesn't care that Casey is falling down drunk. Casey wakes up from being blackout drunk in the want-to-be artist Maggie's studio, after having a dream that Phyllis paid him 500 pounds to marry him. Maggie has kindly cleaned the blood out of his coat while he was sleeping. Maggie plies Casey with coffee and sends him out in the world where he discovers not only the five hundred pounds, but the cover story of his wife's father having been murdered. He runs back to Maggie and her art studio where she convinces him to investigate the murder himself to figure out who really did it and where Phyllis is. Eventually he locates Phyllis who joins in their investigative team.

The plot and the motives get a little complicated, but it's a decent mystery when the who done it isn't who did it. But one of the best parts of this film is the ending when refreshingly a character doesn't want to know the murderer's motive...they just want to make sure their name is clear and then they just want the detective to get out!

I enjoyed this noir and think noir fans should add it to their must see list.