Blind Corner
| Blind Corner | |
|---|---|
 U.S. publicity poster | |
| Directed by | Lance Comfort |
| Written by | James Kelley Peter Miller |
| Produced by | Tom Blakeley |
| Starring | William Sylvester Barbara Shelley Elizabeth Shepherd Alexander Davion Mark Eden Ronnie Carroll |
| Cinematography | Basil Emmott |
| Edited by | John Trumper |
Production companies | Mancunian Films Blakeley's Films (M/C) Ltd. |
| Distributed by | Planet Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 80 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Blind Corner (U.S. title Man in the Dark) is a 1964 British second feature[2] thriller film directed by Lance Comfort and starring William Sylvester and Barbara Shelley.[3] A scheming wife finally gets her comeuppance.
Plot[edit]
Paul Gregory is a blind but very successful pop music composer, married to the beautiful Anne. Anne is having a secret affair with struggling artist Rickie Seldon, and persuades Paul to commission Rickie to paint her portrait as a pretext to enable them to spend time together. Paul agrees, but after a recording session with Ronnie Carroll he is told by his business partner Mike Williams that Anne and Rickie have been seen about town together in circumstances which leave no doubt that they are more than friends. Paul knows that Mike has always disliked Anne and suspects he may be trouble-causing, but is finally persuaded of the validity of his allegations.
Paul makes it clear to Anne that he has found out about the affair and threatens to leave her. Fearing her meal-ticket is about to disappear, she tells Rickie that they will have to arrange an "accident" to Paul by getting him drunk and pushing him off the balcony of their home. If Rickie does not agree, she suggests, their affair must end. The plan is attempted, but is botched by Rickie, whose heart is not really in it. After a struggle, he and Paul start to talk and Paul tells him to open his eyes to Anne's true nature, suggesting that she may well be double-crossing him too. Rickie, having no personal antipathy towards Paul, comes to the conclusion that he may be right. The pair end up forming an unlikely alliance, unknown to Anne, to try to entrap her into revealing her true motives. Between them they manage to set her up, and discover that the serious romance is between Anne and Mike, who have managed to hide it for so long by the public pretence of mutual antagonism and loathing. In fact the whole scheme had been concocted with Rickie in mind as a convenient fall guy, there to take the rap if suspicions were aroused about Paul's death. Paul and Rickie then set about meting out appropriate justice on the perfidious pair.
Cast[edit]
- William Sylvester as Paul Gregory
- Barbara Shelley as Anne Gregory
- Alexander Davion as Rickie Seldon
- Elizabeth Shepherd as Joan Marshall
- Mark Eden as Mike Williams
- Ronnie Carroll as Ronnie
- Barry Alldis as compere
- Edward Evans as chauffeur
- Frank Forsyth as policeman
Production[edit]
The film was publicised with the tagline: "She loved one man for kicks ... one man for luxury ... one man for murder".
Critical reception[edit]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "An unassuming thriller in which credibility is let down by the unconvincing characterisation of Rickie, and the somewhat storybook picture of Paul's professional life and blissful lack of awareness of his efficient secretary's obvious adoration. The plot is conventionally contrived, most of the characters being hardly more than puppets, but the convulsions of the later sequences and the final twist largely compensate for weaknesses elsewhere."[4]
The Time Out Film Guide describes it as "an unassuming but occasionally effective second-feature thriller."[5]
References[edit]
- ^ Torbay and South Devon Echo, 1 July 1964, p.8.
- ^ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-8445-7319-6.
- ^ "Blind Corner". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
- ^ "Blind Corner". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 31 (360): 105. 1 January 1964 – via ProQuest.
- ^ Time Out Film Guide, Penguin Books London, 1989, p.62 ISBN 0-14-012700-3
External links[edit]
- Blind Corner at IMDb
- Blind Corner at BFI Film & TV Database
