Murder by Proxy

For the 2010 documentary, see Murder by Proxy: How America Went Postal.

Murder by Proxy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Terence Fisher
Written by	Richard Landau
Based on	Murder by Proxy by Helen Nielsen
Produced by	Michael Carreras
Starring	Dane Clark Betty Ann Davies Belinda Lee
Cinematography	Walter J. Harvey
Edited by	Maurice Rootes
Music by	Ivor Slaney
Production companies	Hammer Film Productions Lippert Pictures
Distributed by	Exclusive Films (UK) 20th Century Fox (US)
Release dates	19 March 1954 (1954-03-19) (US) 28 March 1955 (1955-03-28) (UK)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Murder by Proxy, released in the United States as Blackout, is a 1954 British film noir crime drama film directed by Terence Fisher. It stars Dane Clark and Belinda Lee. The screenplay concerns a man who is offered money to marry a woman.

Plot summary

Drunk and down-and-out Casey Morrow (Clark) in London is approached by a young and beautiful heiress, Phyllis Brunner (Lee), offering him much money if he will marry her. He accepts, but then wakes up the next morning in some other woman's apartment with blood on his coat from the murder of Brunner's father. Now he must unravel the mystery to clear his name, which leads him into a twisted labyrinth of encounters with various suspicious characters who seem to make his situation worse the more he learns.

Cast

• Dane Clark as Casey Morrow
• Belinda Lee as Phyllis Brunner
• Betty Ann Davies as Mrs. Alicia Brunner
• Eleanor Summerfield as Maggie Doone
• Andrew Osborn as Lance Gordon
• Harold Lang as Travis / Victor Vanno
• Jill Melford as Miss Nardis
• Alvys Maben as Lita Huntley (as Alvis Maben)
• Michael Golden as Inspector Johnson
• Nora Gordon as Casey's mother
• Alfie Bass as Ernie

Production

The film was based on a novel Murder by Proxy which was published in 1952. It was the first movie in an eight picture contact between Hammer Films and Lippert Pictures.

Dane Clark's casting was announced in September 1953. He stayed on in England to make Five Days.

Script supervisor Renee Glynne later recalled that Belinda Lee "was still very inexperienced at that time and I had to watch her quite carefully. She'd cross her legs the wrong way or turn her head at the wrong moment or come out with the wrong line, so I'd have to correct her and try to help her out. Dane obviously fancied her and got very cross with my professional interference'. He got quite nasty and was actually pushing me away from her." Glynne says she had to take medication "in order to survive the rest of the film. After that I had to give all my instructions to him through the director, Terry Fisher...after some shots he'd have to put his head under cold water because he was so enraged that I was even there. Eventually he realised how silly it all was and went down on his knees, tears streaming down his face, begging me to forgive him, But I still asked Tony Hinds to take me off the next film he was in."

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletinsaid "the treatment is sufficiently persuasive to bring a fair amount of excitement to the well tried material."

Variety called it "a gabby, overlong, import from England that has Dane Clark heading the cast as the only name known in the domestic market. Condition of the supporting feature mprket is such currently that the film will have no trouble getting bookings, even though it offers scant measure of entertain-ment.... There’s nothing the players can do . with the plot as presented under the production helming of Michael Carreras, and Terence Fish-er's direction is deliberate to the extreme, even for a British offering."

Filmink called it "an entirely decent, unpretentious film noir; the age gap between the leads is annoying, but Lee is an ideal femme-fatale-or-isn’t-she?"

External links

• Murder by Proxy at IMDb
• Murder by Proxy at the TCM Movie Database
• Murder by Proxy at Letterbox DVD
• Review of movie at Variety