When James Mason as Norman Maine walked into the sea in the second (and best) version of A Star Is Born he was merely replicating something he had done in England back in the day when he was at one level a prominent actor and on another a part of the history of early British sound film, in fact students of the period will get an extra bang out of this movie. The Ostrer family were major players behind the scenes and daughter Pamela Ostrer married a young writer-director Roy Kellino, both of whom befriended up-and-coming actor James Mason to the point where all three collaborated on the screenplay of I Met A Murderer, Mason played the leading man opposite Pamela Kellino, with Roy Kellino directing them both. In the fullness of time, of course, the Kellinos were divorced and Pamela became Pamela Mason and retired from the screen and Roy gradually slipped off the radar. As a farmer Mason is slightly less convincing than Arthur Mullard play the lead in The George Sanders Story whilst as a murderer he's a bad second to Alan Lake as Hamlet - and I write as a great admirer of Mason. Apparently the film was financed by Wrigley who supplied the stick of gum for which it was shot, which explains why for most of the time it has the feel of a silent film with music telling us what to feel. A definite curio.
Review of I Met a Murderer
