The Delavine Affair

I suppose the only notable thing about this thriller is members of the cast who would go on to better things.Katie Johnson would go on to win a BAFTA for her part in "The Ladykillers".Gordon Jackson would find fame as the butler in "Upstairs Downstairs" on television and Honor Blackman would of course find fame in both "The Avengers" on television and Pussy Galore in a Bond film.Here they are just marking time in an amiable but rather involved thriller which was beloved of writers of crime fiction in the 1950sIt was the sort of film where it is quite easy to work out by a process of elimination who is the killer.It is the sort of film that would be executed far more effectively on television which would of course eventually cause the death of films of this genre at least as B features.

A light-hearted crime film that at 65 minutes ends abruptly and would actually have profited from being a bit longer.

Both Peter Reynolds and Michael Balfour are cast against type as goodies; the former as the reporter hero who stumbles across the corpse that sets the whole thing in motion, the latter as his faithful batman.

Honor Blackman as Reynolds' wife was temporarily mired in the 'B' hive before she learned judo and adopted the lioness's mane she wore for the rest of her life; while two other notable females in the supporting cast are Valerie Vernon as femme fatale Naughty Lola and Katie Johnson in one of her final supporting roles before finding screen immortality as Mrs Lopsided in 'The Ladykillers'.

A snappy little British thriller with plenty of stuff to enjoy, THE DELAVINE AFFAIR is yet another film churned out at Nettlefold Studios, with an interesting cast and a plot that never lets up. It's a film that packs plenty of twists and turns into the 64-minute running time, with an erstwhile reporter hero and a sinister villain. The lead character is played by Peter Reynolds, in a welcome departure from his typical performances as cads and bounders. Reynolds brings a cheeky charm to the role of a reporter willing to do anything for a scoop, and the opening sequence - in which he literally stumbles upon the body of an old acquaintance - is great stuff.

The story goes on from there, taking time to feature the lovely Honor Blackman in a significant role as the reporter's wife, and Gordon Jackson as a friend of the family. Valerie Vernon plays an arresting femme fatale and wears some ahead-of-the-time gear. The reliable Michael Balfour (ALBERT, R.N.) plays in support as Reynolds's photographer buddy, and sharp-eyed viewers will spot LADYKILLERS actress Katie Johnson in a minor part. THE DELAVINE AFFAIR is a fine example of the British B-movie, a well-paced and entertaining slice of escapism.

When it looks like newspaper man "Rex Banner" (Peter Reynolds) is being framed for a murder, he and his wife "Maxine" (Honor Blackman) must try to find out just what happened and who might want to frame him! It's a rather messy detective yarn with one too many red herrings and some pretty mediocre writing. Blackman stands out but that isn't hard, and Gordon Jackson really ought to have read the script before he took the part of "Florian". Katie Johnson ("Miss Bissett") steals the show, but features way too infrequently to rescue this bog-standard afternoon feature from the well trodden path of sleuthing journalists with their glamorous assistants and a less than competent policeman.

Just saw this on Talking Pictures channel (UK, old films and TV), and the critical reviews on here are rather unfair. Bear in mind what this was, a B feature, just over an hour long, and a small budget!

It tells a perfectly reasonable little story, though the time confines don't allow many choices for the actual villain?! The plot is worked out quite well, and you need to make allowances for how things were in the early 50s, but that shouldn't be so tricky.

One glaring plot error (?) has been mentioned, re taking a flash photo through a window, but then for decades we've seen press snappers taking an attempted pic through the windows of vans taking prisoners to and from courts -- don't they know better too??!!

And it was nice to see Blackman & Jackson taking their next steps up the acting ladder.