The Narrowing Circle

This stars 2 favourite leads for British B films of the 1950s,Paul Carpenter and Hazel Court.It seems that anyone who has contact with Carpenter is found murdered and that within a very short time Carpenter is found adjacent to the murdered person.What I did not quite like about this film was that you were not likely to be able to guess who was the killer,as the killer was not on screen for very long.Furthermore the reason for the killings only became apparent at the very end.So you are not really given any clues as to whom it might be.The only way you will get it is if you guess,which obviously one of the other reviewers did.

Paul Carpenter and Hazel Court make a handsome couple investigating who killed the corpses he keeps stumbling over in this diverting potboiler with amusing dialogue and supporting characters, a jaunty music score and the usual agreeable views of London sixty years ago.

Based on a novel by Julian Symonds using office politics as it's starting point and turning into a new version of 'So Long at the Fair'. Ferdy Mayne plays a character ironically called 'Straight', the hero signs himself into a hotel under the name 'Smith' and Ronnie Stevens also ironically plays a barman everybody calls 'Jack' who prefers to be called 'Jimmy' back in the days when he himself was billed as 'Ronald'.

As another reviewer on this site has noted, THE NARROWING CIRCLE is a somewhat disappointing B-movie thriller. Compared to other films of the genre from this era - like OPERATION DIPLOMAT, say, or even the cheapie Butcher Films movies of the early '60s - it feels sloppily written in places, and as a mystery it cheats the viewer by preventing them from being able to guess the identity of the villain thanks to some mediocre writing.

Paul Carpenter essays the role of an unsympathetic writer for the pulp magazines who finds himself framed for murder by persons unknown. The only ally he has on his side to help him is the pretty Hazel Court, a year before she hit the horror big time with Hammer's THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Together the pair move through a plot involving detectives, multiple murder, and a rather convoluted back story with more than a few plot holes if you look too closely.

THE NARROWING CIRCLE features the likes of Ferdy Mayne, Basil Dignam, and Hugh Latimer in support. Trevor Reid is very good as the acerbic detective and gets all the funniest lines. Carpenter feels pretty wooden and there's a bit of a vacuum where his character is involved. The film was directed by B-movie specialist Charles Saunders (WOMANEATER) and made by Fortress Films, who put out 8 B-movies during the 1950s before disappearing into obscurity.

I must admit my complete ignorance about Director Charles Saunders' work, but he certainly does a fine job with this B picture. Relying on an Hitchcock-like screenplay whereby an innocent journalist (Paul Carpenter) keeps finding dead bodies and rating increasingly the prime suspect to Scotland Yard inspector Crambo (superior supporting show from Trevor Reid), the film posts strong dialogue and an interesting plot with a villain that I had not seen coming.

Splendidly simple photography, good fight sequences, clever twists and turns - all help make THE NARROWING CIRCLE a worthy watch, with the added bonus that Hazel Court has the loveliest eyes and a deliciously plump figure.

Recommended B noir.

It's the usual plot of getting framed for crimes you didn't commit, and they keep piling up no mater what you try to do to get out of a constantly dwindling spiral and mess of implications and troubles. It's a well written script elegantly treated into a well directed film, but none of these characters will make any lasting impression. They are simply just types set up for a suspense thriller, not even imitating Hitchcock and falling far off the professional stream of thrillers. The people murdered here are no less than three, and they are all quite innocent but just happened to know some loose ends of a story that never even would have interested them. Fortunately the film is not too long, just about some minutes more than an hour, the action is intensive all the way with even some space for a romance, so you will enjoy it enough for its duration and then forget all about it.