Murder by Proxy

This is a Kit Parker/Hammer Film starring Dane Clark, Belinda Lee. Eleanor Summerfield, and Harold Lang.

Clark plays Casey Morrow, an American in England. One night he meets a beautiful blond named Phyllis (Lee) and she offers him a job for a big amount of money. All he has to do is marry her.

The next day, he can't remember a thing except meeting her. He's in a strange place with a a woman he doesn't know, and there's blood on his coat. It's the painter's studio of a friend of Phyllis' (Summerfield). Morrow sees in the paper that his new wife's father was murdered the night before.

Did he do it? Did Phyllis set him up? And where is Phyllis? This is an okay noirish film that has some humor in it as well as drama. Clark is very good as a confused man trying to make his way through a labyrinth of lies and people. The plot is a little all over the place and not that easy to follow.

Clark was supposed to be another John Garfield, but his career went in another direction. He was very successful in television, appearing as a regular or semi-regular in many series and guest-starring on many TV shows.

Belinda Lee unfortunately died in a car accident in the U. S. when she was 25. In this film, she is around 19 years of age and very beautiful, touted as a Diana Dors-type. A sad end.

This is a little British murder mystery, not a noir. The main character is a nice shlub, not a tough guy. There is very little tension or menace and certainly not any cynicism or existential despair. The dialog and bits of business are pretty funny and practically everyone in the film, including the villain, seems basically likable. Dane Clark does a very good job, although he will go on to do better. The plot offers a steady diet of red herring, but plot is not this film's strong suit. The whole thing is so likable that you may find yourself cringing that the plot and twists and turns seem so aimless and gratuitous, but it doesn't pretend to be more than a grade B movie with some good acting and good dialog.

****SPOILERS*** It's Dane Clark as American on a binge in London Casey Morrow's genuine state of confusion, in following the material he's been handed, that makes "Blackout" worth following to the very end. Which by then were finally told why he's going through all the brain twisting horror he's been suffering for the last 90 or so excruciating minutes on film. Getting smashed at the the swanky Cloud Room Pub in London Casey finds himself approached by this beautiful blond Phyllis Brunner, Belinda Lee, who not only offers to buy the barley sober Casey a couple of drinks but her hand in marriage as well as a bundle of 500 in pound sterling that's about $1,000.00 in US currency!

Later finding himself at artist Maggie Doone's, Eleanor Summerfield,loft apartment Casey finds blood on his suit and a portrait of Phyllis the woman he just met a few hours ago! Not quite knowing what to make of the situation he now finds himself in Casey is farther surprised, if he didn't have enough surprises already,to see in a newspaper headline that Phillis' dad millionaire art collector Darius Brunner had been murdered the night before! It now dawns on Casey that he's been somehow set up by Phillis to take the rap for her dad's murder! The film goes on to show that Phillys is using Casey to keep her fiancé family lawyer Lance Gordon,Andrew Osborn, from getting his hands of her father's money by marrying him instead! This to the strong objections, who thinks the world of Gordon, of her mom London party thrower Alicia, Ann Davies, who want's the marriage with Gordon to become official.

****MAJOR SPOILERS***It to both Phillys and Casey's as well as the audience surprise that the reasons for Momma Brunner wanting her daughter to marry Gordon has nothing at all to do with love & marriage but to cover her own behind in her husband's murder. Who sealed his own fate by finding out the scheme she had with Gordon to fleece him of his millions through a network of phony charity funds. And by doing that she was even more then willing to commit multiple murder, including that of her daughter Phyllis, to gain her objectives or ends up hanging for committing them!

Yes the cited user makes a brave attempt to explain this crime drama plot filmed in London in 1954.I was familiar with Dane Clark after watching him in "Highly Dangerous" (1950) with Margaret Lockwood and the actor who played the lawyer by watching "Angels One Five" when he played a fighter squadron leader in a very different role.Of course the tragic actress Belinda Lee (1936-1961) was not long on this earth losing her life in a motor accident in the US but she provides the film with the necessary eye candy.

Obviously the producers were influenced by American Film Noirs of the 1940s e.g. "The Big Sleep" and make a matching brave attempt at this sort of drama for the Uk market.Incidentally I heard that 1954 was the most unremarkable year in recent history when nothing much happened of shattering world importance!I rated it 6/10 along with the IMDb.com average rating.

The film begins with Dane Clark being offered a strange marriage proposal from a woman he just met. Not only that, she offers this drunk guy 500 pounds to do the deed! However, upon waking up the next morning, he finds he's implicated with murder and there's no trace of the lady! So, it's up to tough-guy Clark to investigate and clear his name.

Most fans of Film Noir will be surprised to hear that the British (not to mention, the French) made quite a few of these in the 1950s. Oddly, the Brit Noir films were made by Hammer Studios--the same folks who made tons of Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy films from the late 50s to the mid 1970s! And, oddly, this film is directed by the studio's foremost monster film director, Terence Fisher.

Overall, while this is far from a great film, it does stack up pretty well with the average American example, though I will admit that this film does have a few too many twists and turns (particularly for the character of Phyllis Brunner).