Five Days

The next film covered by the "House of Hammer Podcast" was "Five Days" or "Paid to Kill", if you prefer. The version I watched was the one currently available on Youtube and there were some sound issues, at the start of the presentation particularly. The last few films have essentially been murder mysteries cloaked in different skins, so I liked this one for doing something different.

James Nevill (Dane Clark) is a businessman managing a London based Investment firm. Having gone in big on a deal that goes sour, Nevill strikes a deal with an old friend Paul Kirby (Paul Carpenter), from shadier times, to kill him at some point in the next five days, so that is wife can collect on the insurance payment. However, the business deal undergoes a last-minute change and proceeds securing the finances of the firm going forward. Nevill tries to locate Kirby, to call off the deal but he is nowhere to be found. He must now try and find his friend and explain the situation before he finds him.

A second film for Dane Clark, having been in "The Gambler and the Lady" which I watched last year and in which he co-starred with Anthony Forwood, who appears again in this one. I thought Clark was a bit better in that film though, where he portrayed a former gangster struggling in society circles, than he was here. There's a touch more nuance required for this one and I never really bought that Nevill loved his wife enough be so practically suicidal. He also seems to be pushing his wife to the possibility of moving on (with Forwood) after he's gone too, which again is a theme from an earlier Hammer film.

The film is also notable for having Charles Hawtrey in a small non-speaking role.

Whilst I wouldn't, in any way, describe "Five Days" as a lost gem, it was watchable enough to hold my attention, despite some less the great performances, and the arrival of a different plot was welcome.