With Easter coming up,I started looking for DVDs that I could watch with my dad during the holidays. Reading an old issue of British film mag Empire,I found a review for a Film Noir from a pre-Horror Hammer studio that DVD company Network had put out,which led to me swimming across the lake.
View on the film:
Whilst they have given much smaller titles great transfers,here Network sadly miss the mark,with the outdoor scenes having a large amount of grain,and the audio needing the volume raised. Swimming just a few years before assistant director Jimmy Sangster & producer Anthony Hinds to shore, writer/director Ken Hughes & cinematographer Walter J. Harvey plant some of the stylisation that was to come, via the speedboat run across the lake having an impending doom atmosphere, and the high walls of the Forrest house giving it the appearance of a haunted mansion.
Adapting his own book, Ken (future maker of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!) Hughes dips into pulpy Noir unease,as tempting dame Carol Forrest gets lone writer Mark Kendrick to write their own murder-mystery. Going across in 65 min, the limitations of time lead to the ending feeling clipped,and unfulfilled. Headlined by the glamour of US actors Alex Nicol and Hillary Brooke, Sid James takes the wheel with a great performance as Beverly Forrest,that casts a cynical view at the house across the lake.
View on the film:
Whilst they have given much smaller titles great transfers,here Network sadly miss the mark,with the outdoor scenes having a large amount of grain,and the audio needing the volume raised. Swimming just a few years before assistant director Jimmy Sangster & producer Anthony Hinds to shore, writer/director Ken Hughes & cinematographer Walter J. Harvey plant some of the stylisation that was to come, via the speedboat run across the lake having an impending doom atmosphere, and the high walls of the Forrest house giving it the appearance of a haunted mansion.
Adapting his own book, Ken (future maker of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!) Hughes dips into pulpy Noir unease,as tempting dame Carol Forrest gets lone writer Mark Kendrick to write their own murder-mystery. Going across in 65 min, the limitations of time lead to the ending feeling clipped,and unfulfilled. Headlined by the glamour of US actors Alex Nicol and Hillary Brooke, Sid James takes the wheel with a great performance as Beverly Forrest,that casts a cynical view at the house across the lake.