Serena

I am very respectful of the Butcher Studios. They put out many programmers of sufficient quality to make you forget the main feature. SERENA is no masterpiece, but it is very competently directed by Peter Maxwell, who extracts quality performances from the entire ensemble, the stunningly beautiful Honor Blackman above all.

Director Maxwell very cleverly opens the film with the murder of Mrs Rogers, doing it in such a way that it becomes clear that the spectator will only get the data that he, Maxwell, is willing to release. The murder shows neither the face of the deceased nor that of the killer, and the door into Mrs Rogers' apartment is opened by the murderer's hand. One important clue: the murderer goes right in, without using any key to get in and find its mark, suggesting someone familiar enough with the abode to know its layout.

Holt makes a very classy, clued up and insistent police inspector. He never says more than he needs, cleverly and tirelessly reading all the signs until he plays the decisive identifying card that beats the criminal(s).

Excellent cinematography by Steven Dade, crisp editing by Morrison, and pleasant music by Johnny Gregory only enhance the quality of Maxwell's direction and of the Hearne and Abraham screenplay.

Of course SERENA forces you to suspend your disbelief here and there, and you can spot holes in the plot, but it is intelligently done with a shoestring budget and within a highly economical 59 minutes.

You will not waste your time if you watch it.

SERENA is another erstwhile mystery yarn from low budget outfit Butcher's Films. The story is a simple one which follows the investigations of a detective investigating the shotgun murder of a man's wife. At first he has no leads, but problems with the identification of the woman's body and the search for a missing model soon puts him on an unexpected track as regards to the culprit...

SERENA is a cheapie mystery with a not-bad script and some efficient direction from Peter Maxwell, who also handled a couple of other low rent thrillers from the era like BLIND SPOT and IMPACT. At 60 minutes it doesn't really have the chance to drag and I'll admit that the twist is a clever one that ties the preceding plotting together nicely.

Cast-wise, we get a leading performance from the stolid Patrick Holt (WHEN DINOSAURS RULE THE EARTH) as the detective and a mannered turn from Emrys Jones as the bereaved husband. The most famous face here is none other than Honor Blackman's, who's playing the role of the wife. Blackman is as glamorous as ever and her assured acting helps to lift the film's spirits a little.

The late Honor Blackman (billed third), after starting out playing ingenues followed by several years in the doldrums, had by 1962 been reduced to working for Butchers. But she had by now adopted that swept-back mane that by the end of the year would be indelibly associated with Cathy Gale and the lioness she thereafter remained for the rest of her long life.

It may have been intentional that naming the film after the corpse at the centre of the action was a conscious nod to 'Laura'. But making the religion of the victim a central plot point remains an unusual touch.

Scotland Yard, in the shape of doughty DCI Gregory (Patrick Holt) and DS Conway (Bruce Beeby), are called to investigate the mysterious and brutal shotgun murder of the estranged wife of dapper and (apparently) womanising artist Howard Rogers (Emrys Jones). This takes place in the fictional rural Surrey village of Cookley- in truth, the more familiar venues of Laleham and Chertsey.

In substance, a typical Butchers B movie from Shepperton, ably directed by Peter Maxwell and it manages to hold the interest better than most; the moody jazz intro and outro (Johnny Gregory) is excellent.

Patrick Holt plays his part as a gruffly determined cop stolidly, although his repeated calls to his driver to "chop, chop" must have been grating for the poor chap. Honor Blackman looks great here and lends the film some glamour just before her big break in "The Avengers" and two years before "Goldfinger".

Emrys Jones is very good, charmingly convincing and smoothness personified; he reminded me here of a young Bryan Forbes circa "League of Gentlemen ". Mysteriously , it seems his career filtered down into TV roles only - a shame. In the bit parts, it was good to see Peter Glaze ("Crackerjack") and Vi Stevens as an hilariously hard of hearing landlady. Of absolutely no interest to anyone other than B film nerds, Gerry Duggan appears briefly here as a farmer- two years later he too was in "Goldfinger", as 007's caddie.

It's only about an hour running time so doesn't outlast its welcome and actually quite engaging and fun - highly recommended for B film fans.

The film opens with a woman being shot dead. The victim is assumed to be Ann Rogers, the owner of the cottage in which the body is found, and the prime suspect is her estranged husband, an artist named Howard Rogers. Although Howard claims to have an alibi, he also has an obvious motive to want his wife dead. He has been having an affair with his model, Serena Vaughan, but Ann, a devout Catholic, has refused to grant him the divorce he would need to marry Serena.

And then the situation is turned upside down by a series of coups de cinema. Taken to identify the body, Howard claims it is not that of his wife, and Ann suddenly turns up alive and well, saying that she wants a reconciliation with her husband. Howard produces a witness who can support his alibi, and Ann tells the police that the murdered woman was Claire Matthews, a friend who was staying with her and was presumably killed by mistake for Ann herself. Suspicion now shifts to Serena Vaughan, who is missing. There is, however, to be one more devastating plot twist.

"Serena" was originally made in black-and-white as a B-movie, which explains its brevity, little more than an hour in length. Yet it is an intriguing, well-plotted murder mystery which keeps the audience guessing about who we can trust and which information we can take at face value. Although it was made as long ago as 1962, it still turns up regularly on British television, a testament to its durability. 7/10

A goof. The police officer investigating the crime holds the rank of Detective Chief Inspector, but after he shows his identity badge to a potential witness, the man addresses him as "Superintendent".