Wicked Wife

I loved this B picture, black & white from 1953 and very English of it's time. It takes place in Liverpool and involves a race horse owner (the always underrated Nigel Patrick) whose horse wins the Grand National. His blowsey but beautiful wife (Moira Lister) isn't interested in him, his lifestyle of managing horses or anything which has given them the grand lifestyle they have, other than indulging in the rewards that the money available gives her, to party all night and get drunk constantly and go around with other men. One night she comes home and a row ensues leading to a fight. She grabs a knife, and that's all we see until the following morning. The rest of the film follows the investigation of her disappearance, involving her sister, a police officer played by the excellent Michael Hordern, and various other friends. Eventually, Nigel Patrick is rumbled, he confesses to a family friend (a woman who seems to like him more than she should) and it is clear to us the audience that his number is up. I was expecting him to be led away to justice and the film to end. Just keep watching, I was totally fooled.

It's a big day for racing stables owner Nigel Patrick. His horse wins the Grand National, and his mare foals. Of course, his bored wife, Moira Lister, leaves him, and then returns to quarrel with him, and then her body is found next morning in a car in Liverpool, but these things tend to balance out. Of course, a very suspicious and ambitious Police Inspector Michael Hornden come by to quiz everyone, and it's clear enough what he thinks has happened. It's especially clear to the audience when Patrick insists Miss Lister never returned.

Even with that, there are a few surprises in this movie. It's been opened up from a stage play, and a good job of it has been done. Even so, the incredibly posh names, like Colin Gordon's upper-class twit "Babs Darling" and Patrick's sympathetic sister-in-law, "Pinkie Collins", portrayed by Betty Ann Davies, clutter the screen. With Noel Purcell and Gibbs McLaughlin.

What ought to have been night of celebration turns sour for Grand National winning owner "Coates" (Nigel Patrick) when a contretemps with his drunken wife "Babs" (Moira Lister) leaves him the subject of a police investigation. The thing is - what really happened that night and can the pernickety "Insp. Ayling" (Michael Hordern) piece it all together? Lister features but sparingly, but her characterisation of "Babs" does rather get under your fingernails, so as the police work proceeded I did start to feel just a bit of sympathy for her rather idiotic, but good natured, husband - and Patrick is on decent form in that role here. It skips along nicely and engagingly for eighty minutes with a solid contribution from the usually reliable Noel Purcell and a soupçon of glamour from the underused Beatrice Campbell too. Maybe not his "latest and greatest screen role" as it said in the publicity blurb, but it's not a bad vehicle for a star who does enough here to keep it interesting, if not exactly intriguing with what must have been a fairly limited budget.

A British film from 1953 starring Nigel Patrick as a racehorse owner and the beautiful Moira Lister as his wife Babs, this is a film about what happens after Gerald's (Mr. Patrick) horse wins the national. Babs, who doesn't seem to like horses much, parties in Liverpool without Gerald, thinks of divorce, drives home (without a license and probably a little impaired) and has a confrontation with her husband. A struggle occurs and she is killed. From there, the film becomes a detective story. This is where it gets more interesting, as the players in the film are questioned about certain aspects of their behavior. Not a long film (less than 80 minutes), it holds your interest from start to finish. Not essential, but a fairly good detective story/thriller.

This is a nifty little movie that surprised me, having come to it without great expectations. It centers about a racehorse owner and his playgirl type wife who doesn't even like horses. The Grand National for those that don't know is probably the worlds most famous steeplechase type race which is held every year at Aintree near Liverpool.Its a very demanding race bringing great kudos to the winner. The marriage of the principals and the wife storms off to a party on Grand National night and what develops from then on is a more than decent thriller with a couple of slick twists. It has a rather unexpected ending for its time, and is well worth watching if you get the chance.