Murder Can Be Deadly

I rather enjoyed Kenneth Griffith's performance here as the malevolent "Kleinie". He finds himself caught up in the amateur shenanigans of "Jo" (Liz Fraser) and "Mark" (Peter Reynolds). Now this pair have an habit of using her as a lure for young men whom she invites back to her flat only for her "husband" to arrive and try a little extortion. Well, they hit on the newly flush lad - "Tom" (Tony Wickert) - but when she returns to finish the sting, "Kleinie" calls alerting her to a shocking surprise in the bedroom. The young "Tom" is too drunk to offer much resistance to her rather ill thought-out plan and before he knows it he is being sought by the police for murder. What now ensues is a fairly run-of-the-mill British crime noir as both "Tom" and "Jo" have to stay one step ahead of the pursuing police whilst their nasty nemesis has plans for them of his own. Fraser was a competent enough comedy actress, but here she hasn't really the gravitas to engender much of a sense of danger. Wickert fares slightly better as the not-so-hapless youth - once he sobers up - but there isn't much jeopardy here and as the plot shuttles along we are well aware of how things are going to turn out. It's only an hour long, though, and Lance Comfort doesn't let it hang about - it moves along well enough with a basic but adequate production and a rather hectic score from Martin Slavin to keep it watchable, if forgettable.

Somewhat complicated British Neo Noir with two separate stories that eventually connect, connected to a murder that begins with a scheming couple who make their living taking a targeted man back home: sultry blonde Liz Fraser does the rudimentary work while her partner Mark (Peter Reynolds), plays the angry jealous husband aka the badger game...

But while Liz's Jo Lake arrives at a nightclub to find the right prey, back home Peter's killed by a brooding crippled psychopath played by Kenneth Griffith, usually cast as a wimp but not here...

And yet this isn't really his story, or even the first-billed Mrs. Fraser: instead, the young man she'd picked up before realizing her con-artist partner was dead, takes over the leading role...

Enter Tony Wickert as Tom, a plain college student who, celebrating at that nightclub, had just won a hundred bucks, loudly bragged upon by buddies including David Hemmings and Ray Smith, all picking up on three younger girls while a singer croons two spooky, reverberated songs...

One that's also the film's title, THE PAINTED SMILE (aka MURDER CAN BE DEADLY), sustaining in the young man's head after he's accused of murdering the stiff lying-in-wait in the bad girl's apartment and then, in the usual Wrong Man fashion... and with tearful girlfriend Nanette Newman fretting on the sidelines... it's a race-against-time in yet another time-filler b-crime by veteran director Lance Comfort...

Who should have spent more initial energy on the scheming couple before those poor kids got caught up in someone else's scheming ways that we never had time to relish, especially with such a potentially cunning femme fatale in the ultimately underused Liz Fraser.

Painted smile in usa... Murder can be deadly 1962

known as "painted smile" in the u.s., and "murder can be deadly" in some countries. A caper with a some suspense. Tom, engaged to be married, goes out on the town with his buddies, for one last fling. And of course, it all goes wrong for him. He picks up a girl, but when they go back to her place, someone has already been murdered. Now tom is being set up to take the rap. Over the river and through the woods. It's all pretty well done, but there just isn't much meat on the bones of the story here, compared to today's plots. How will he ever prove his innocence? And can he just stay alive before he gets bumped off too? Directed by lance comfort, who died young at 58. It's not bad. Moves right along. Some familiar faces; david hemming, a couple years before "blow up", which made his career skyrocket. Liz fraser, ken griffith, peter reynolds. Tony wickert has a pretty big role in this one, but only stuck around for six acting roles, and directed a few more.

It's only a regular B feature, but Lance Comfort had the knack for keeping even the shabbiest B plot interesting and fascinating. Of particular interest is the awkward scene of the discovery of the body, as Liz Fraser comes home with a drunken lad from her hooking club and gets that horrible phone call from 'Kleinie' who tells her to get rid of the rubbish in her bedroom. She has no idea what he is talking about and naturally gets curious, while her hooked visitor Tom follows her in and they stumble over a dead knifed body, while Tom in his besotted state grabs the knife and pulls it out, and that finishes the perfect set-up of awkwardness. All the rest is just mad chases for the truth, for the merry gentlemen at the pub where one of them got hooked by both the police and 'Kleinie's' hoodlums, and the rest will just be too obvious. One of Tom's merry companions at the club is a very young David Hemmings, while Kenneth Griffith as 'Kleinie' takes the prize in yet another of his uncanny characters of meticulous evil.

A plan to play the aggrieved husband bursting in act goes wrong, and instead a soon to be married man finds himself embroiled in a murder.

Despite a rather complex plot, this film is only about an hour long, it's an hour that you'd be well spent watching. Definitely a B Movie, so don't expect car chases or anything elaborate, just a solid mystery.

It's definitely a bit of a pot boiler, easy to imagine this shown before a main feature, but there are several plus points. Best element for me, is of course Liz Fraser, proving she's not just a pretty face, I can't actually recall seeing her cast as a similar character before, she's quite ruthless, it's a quality performance, she of course looks beautiful too, but her acting is the star element.

It's well paced, it's atmospheric, I really would recommend it, 7/10.