The Narrowing Circle

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'.

I quiet enjoyed this film it was very much if it's time, mid 50s and I have seen better films made around the same time but I have also seen worse. The outcome can be guessed from early on and some of the characters are one dimensional but worth a watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

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.

"Nelson" (Paul Carpenter) is a journalist who has an habit of finding corpses - and one of them is his girlfriend's other boyfriend! Despite his protestations, the police - under the suspiciously watchful eyes of "Insp. Crambo" (an effective Trevor Reid) are beginning to think there can be no smoke without fire. Meantime, fellow journalist "Rosemary" (Hazel Court) starts to share an office with him at "True Crime" magazine and after an initially awkward period, the two begin to join forces to get to the bottom of the crimes before poor old "Nelson" heads for the hangman. The story benefits from having a few quirks to it - there are even some diamonds mixed up in it all, and the dialogue is well enough written and delivered. Clearly the unremarkable Carpenter was brought in to give the box office a touch of Transatlantic glamour and Court always did manage to look the part too, so though this is never likely to be a film you will recall with enthusiasm, it's not at all a bad little afternoon feature that kills an hour without you having to scratch your head too often - and the ending isn't quite what you might expect.

Continuing my viewing of B films made as time fillers for the main A film in the UK in the 1950's and 1960's I discovered this good one from 1956. Despite what has been called poverty row conditions some of them transcend these so-called conditions and briefly ' The Price of Silence (1966), ' Burnt Evidence ' (1954) and this one are so far the best. No doubt more will follow. In ' The Narrowing Circle ' any faults in direction or camera work, or ill-judged details, cannot hide the fact that the two leads Paul Carpenter and Hazel Court give first rate performances. Both characters work in a publishing house for crime, and find themselves involved in a series of murders that appear to stem from the house itself. Together they go to work, and the chemistry between them could almost be compared to Bogart and Bacall. The sexual connection is subtle and erotic ( unusual so far in my B viewing ) and of course there is the inevitable kiss before the final fade, which is not so formulaic as the kisses have been passionate enough before. I liked the pace, the red herrings and the totally surprising killer. In all well worth watching on YouTube if nowhere else, and I hope some viewers will join me in this bargain hunt for long forgotten films in a sort of genre of their own. The genre was made to fill up an hour of time before the main feature. I wonder how many left the cinema having the B movie in mind, and thinking how dull the A film was ?