A safe designer called Richard Logan (William Franklyn) awakes on a bomb site in Wapping High Street after being coshed by a gang of thugs. However, he finds that as a result of his head injury he has lost his memory and has no recollection of what has happened to him over the past three weeks. In addition, the PI hired by his wife, Julie (Moira Redmond), to find him has been found murdered and Logan has his business card in his pocket. Could he have been the killer? It transpires that a safe, which his firm designed for the owners, has been broken open and the contents stolen. It seems that he was abducted by a criminal gang and forced to break open the safe and with the aid of his wife sets out to unravel the mystery. But the gang lead by Clifton Conrad (Leonard Sachs), who owns a seedy club in Soho is intent on murdering him before he regains his memory and exposes them...
An efficient b-pic thriller from quota quickie specialists, Butcher's Film Distributors, which is briskly directed by Lance Comfort and provides enough intrigue to keep the punters entertained for the first half of the double bill. The main drawback is Comfort's own script (adapted from the novel To Dusty Death by Hugh McCutcheon), which at times borders on the absurd. But the director makes best possible use of what obviously was a shoe string budget and the proceedings have a nice feeling for the place (London and the Home Counties) and period which are much enhanced by the atmospheric lighting of veteran cameraman Basil Emmott. The film's other weak aspect is the irritating slushy pop ballad, My Heart Is The Lover, sung by one Ronnie Hall which keeps reoccurring throughout the movie as it is used as a plot device - the hero keeps on hearing it in his head but he can't think where he could have heard it as it was only recently released while he was missing. Needless to say it provides him with a vital clue later as to the gang's whereabouts. The vocalist Hall appears in a nightclub scene and trivia buffs should note that the backing band is no other than The Dave Clark Five who were shortly to become international pop stars. Pit Of Darkness also has a better cast than one would expect of a British B including William Franklyn, Moira Redmond, Nigel Green and a young Anthony Booth best known as Alf Garnett's son-in-law Till Death Us Do Part.
An efficient b-pic thriller from quota quickie specialists, Butcher's Film Distributors, which is briskly directed by Lance Comfort and provides enough intrigue to keep the punters entertained for the first half of the double bill. The main drawback is Comfort's own script (adapted from the novel To Dusty Death by Hugh McCutcheon), which at times borders on the absurd. But the director makes best possible use of what obviously was a shoe string budget and the proceedings have a nice feeling for the place (London and the Home Counties) and period which are much enhanced by the atmospheric lighting of veteran cameraman Basil Emmott. The film's other weak aspect is the irritating slushy pop ballad, My Heart Is The Lover, sung by one Ronnie Hall which keeps reoccurring throughout the movie as it is used as a plot device - the hero keeps on hearing it in his head but he can't think where he could have heard it as it was only recently released while he was missing. Needless to say it provides him with a vital clue later as to the gang's whereabouts. The vocalist Hall appears in a nightclub scene and trivia buffs should note that the backing band is no other than The Dave Clark Five who were shortly to become international pop stars. Pit Of Darkness also has a better cast than one would expect of a British B including William Franklyn, Moira Redmond, Nigel Green and a young Anthony Booth best known as Alf Garnett's son-in-law Till Death Us Do Part.