MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

sg-78949 Never seen a bad John movie he was a great actor that could be a hero or a traitor funny or serious very accomplished master of the art of entertainment

JohnHowardReid Director: GERALD THOMAS. Screenplay: Francis Durbridge, based on his TV serial, "The Brass Candlestick". Photography: Otto Heller. Film editor: Peter Boita. Music composed and conducted by Stanley Black. Art director: Jack Stevens. Wardrobe supervisor: Vi Murray. Make-up: Jill Carpenter. Hair styles: Marjorie Whittle. Production manager: Basil Keys. Assistant director: William Hill. Sound editor: Richard Marden. Sound recording: Len Page. Producer: Peter Rogers.A Beaconsfield Production for Romulus. Released in the U.S.A. through Kassler Films. New York opening at the Art Theatre: 15 April 1959. U.K. release through Independent Film Distributors/British Lion: 22 September 1957. Australian release through 20th Century- Fox: 25 September 1958. 7,560 feet. 84 minutes. (Available on an excellent ITV DVD). U.S. release title: the Circle.SYNOPSIS: A German actress is found dead in a doctor's apartment. Circumstantial evidence points to the doc's guilt.COMMENT: A complicated thriller that is none too thrillingly directed, and none too thrillingly written either — thanks to poor characterization, flat dialogue and a somewhat absurd plot.Nonetheless, the movie is of more than passing interest for the mystery movie connoisseur. Thanks to his radio and TV excursions, Durbridge was enormously popular in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. He created Paul Temple, who not only starred in novels but on the radio and (to a much lesser degree) on the big screen in three Butcher quota quickies in which he was played by John Bentley.

phil-small The film is a remake of a 1956 BBC serial called'My Friend Charles',& as such gallops thru the material in a relatively short time.I found it fast moving,enjoyable & unpretentious.Did anyone else notice the scenes,towards the end,where John Mills was being gassed?-the producers obviously decided to omit the scenes-maybe censorship?,but notice when he's sat by the window of the flat,deep breathing closely followed by similar scenes with the car window open. The Francis Durbridge serials all seemed to inhabit the same universe,that of unexplained happenings,people being not what they seem & the villain being someone close to the hero/victim.A predictable universe in some ways,but one with its own rules & regulations.

bob the moo Dr Howard Latimer is late to an operatic performance with his girlfriend because he has to collect Frieda Veldon, a German actress from the airport and drop her off at his hotel. Returning to his home later that night, Latimer is horrified to find her dead on his living room floor and duly reports it to Scotland Yard. Assigned to the case is one Detective Inspector Dane, who starts to pick holes in Latimer's story with friends and patients denying every word of Latimer's alibis and statements. Starting to doubt his own sanity, Latimer does a bunk to try and work out who is setting him up. It is at this point he meets Robert Brady, a mysterious man who offers him a photograph that can help corroborate Latimer's story – but at what price, and what are the wider issues around Veldon's murder.One of the other reviewers on this site has incorrectly assumed that, with so few votes and comments, that this film is 'very unknown', but I'd just like to correct him and say it is forgotten rather than unknown. Certainly I was aware of the title in John Mills' body of work and, given the chance to see it on television recently, took it. The film is basically one of those films where we have an innocent man accused and framed for a murder, only to go on the run and try to clear himself before it is too late. This film really overdoes the degree of the setup though and, even when it is resolved, bits of it don't make sense and the film seems to have been hoping that it could just move fast enough to stop the audience picking holes in the plot – but nothing moves that quick! The series of jumps and turns it makes means that it is too hard to get into, with no nice plot development or focal point (other than Latimer) meaning that it never really engaged me.Certainly comparisons with North By Northwest only apply as far as the very vague subject matter goes, otherwise there is no comparison – NBNW is exciting, well written and engaging, whereas this film is rather uninteresting, convoluted and hard to really ever care about. Latimer drifts around aimlessly and never feels like a man pursued by anything, while the characters just pile up on one another with none really making a mark. Mills tries hard but he is too stiff to get the audience behind him, certainly he has none of Grant's 'everyman' qualities. His performance really doesn't suit the film and he is a part of it not really engaging. Culver is OK but far too calm – a bit more playful would have been better. It is for this reason that Jeffries and Hyde-White both come up as scene stealers, they at least have a bit of colour to their cheeks and play up their characters well. Despite their work, most of the cast are pretty flat and blame can be left at the door of the script which really doesn't help them at all.Overall this is a fairly average film that has a standard premise that has been done much better in many other films. Not a terrible film by any means but just one that doesn't do anything of any real merit or effort, producing a rather flat film with a listless and uninspiring plot and only one or two minor performances of any note.