Blackout (1954) User Reviews

For a British Film Noir movie, this is pretty good

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 8 July 2008]

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).

nice performance by Dane Clark

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 23 January 2014]

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.

Watchable, despite the incomprehensible plot.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 3 November 2022]

Down on his luck, and stranger in town, Casey Morrow, meets a beautiful young woman, and agrees to marry her for £500.

I'm not sure I'd have needed the fee to have agreed to marry Belinda Lee, she was genuinely jaw dropping here, not just that she steals the show with a killer performance.

My title may be a a little too far, but when you try to put the various pieces of the plot together, it genuinely doesn't make any sense, the behaviours of the character, their actions and motives, make no sense, and as for the killer's identity, that truly does come straight out of left field.

Despite the plot, it's enjoyable enough, it's atmospheric, and for a British noise, it actually looks impressive, even to this day.

One day I'll rewatch it, and maybe try to interpret the plot better, but as it stands, it's the main detractor here, 6/10.

Brit "noir" is of mild interest.

[youroldpaljim · 1 September 2001]

Dane Clark plays an American drifter in London who meets a stunning blonde while on a bender at a bar. The girl tricks him into marrying him while he is in a drunken stupor and he wakes up with 500 pounds in his pocket. He then discovers he is involved in a murder and an inheritance scam.

MURDER BY PROXY (a.k.a. BLACKOUT) is one of several British attempts to duplicate the American "film noir." Sometimes they even cast a genuine American "noir" star, in this case Dane Clark. Clark was in this as well as the British "noir" PAID TO KILL. However, the results were almost always that these "Brit Noir's" were never as satisfying as the American films. MURDER BY PROXY has fairly interesting plot, but things begin to get confusing, and like most "Brit Noir's", MURDER BY PROXY builds up to its climax to slowly. There is an overly long and pointless scene where Clark visits his mother and English step father and introduces himself to his new "bride." They then throw a party. This takes ups to much time and adds nothing to story.

Fun, pleasant and silly, but not a noir

[karen5778 · 7/10 · 23 June 2014]

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.

An all-over-the-map film noir with assorted sinister folk and convoluted story telling.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 17 May 2013]

Drunken Dane Clark is picked out one night by a British socialite (Belinda Lee) who wants a marriage of convenience in order to receive an inheritance. This results in the murder of her father and the exposure of a sinister scheme for the villain to get control of the estate. Clark gets more than he bargained for as he tries to keep his name out of the list of suspects, questioning witnesses before he learns the not-so-surprising truth. A notch above the usual puzzling structure of similar tales (a staple of noir), this retains interest through a variety of eccentrics, dropping clues here and there to keep you guessing. Nobody is a shoe-in when it comes to being revealed to be the mastermind behind all the intrigue, and nobody is obviously innocent, either. That makes things much more intriguing and keeps the element of surprise always at a high. It softens a bit when Clark introduces Lee to his estranged family, but it doesn't remain soft for long.

Blackout

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 3 January 2023]

As was common in the fifties, a jobbing American B-lister was brought over to add a bit of box office to a mid-budget British crime thriller. This time it was Dane Clark who portrays the down at heel "Morrow". In a bar he meets the glamorous "Phyllis Brunner" (Belinda Lee) who gets him a bit drunk then offers him £500 to marry her. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he acquiesces to this perfectly reasonable demand from a women he had known for four hours (?!) but gets quite a shock when he wakes up next day, somewhat thick headed, in an artist's studio covered in blood. Whose blood? It does not take him long to discover that his brand new father-in-law was murdered less that 12 hours earlier and that he is the prime suspect. Can he fathom out what happened before the police hear - and obviously don't believe - his story? Clark is actually not bad, here, but the plot is far too unnecessarily complicated - it could easily trip over it's own cloak and stab itself with it's own dagger - and that rather robs it of any punch. It's also really quite slow, too - quite a few scenes that add little and further decelerate the story. Not bad, but too long and never something you will remember watching.

Kapelusznik 18 (US) Makes brave effort to explain plot

[howardmorley · 6/10 · 15 May 2015]

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.

Proxy murder.

[DoorsofDylan · 7/10 · 17 January 2023]

Talking to my dad about what he has watched over the Christmas period, I was intrigued to learn about a Film Noir directed by Terence Fisher being on Talking Pictures free online catch-up service. Discovering the title was soon going to leave the site,I got set to meet the proxy.

View on the film:

Revealed in the excellent book Terence Fisher: Master of Gothic Cinema by Tony Dalton that just before the 5 weeks of filming, extensions had been done at Bray Studios, which allowed for lighting to now hang from the ceiling when shooting.

Taking full advantage of this new creative ceiling, directing auteur Terence Fisher & The House in Marsh Road (1960-also reviewed) cinematographer Walter J. Harvey (and future regular Fisher collaborator Jimmy Sangster working here as assistant director) mark a smoke covered Film Noir atmosphere with stylish push-ins on Morrow, jagged first-person panning shots displaying the new wider location Hammer had on offer at Bray, and soft-focus close-ups on Morrow's dream Femme Fatale Brunner.

Waking up from being blackout drunk to a hangover of being framed for murder, (who made unwanted advances towards the much younger Lee during filming) Dane Clark gives a great performance as Morrow, who Clark has rush in a robust manner to clear his name, while having a Film Noir loner black mark, over doubts of what took place during his blackout.

Tragically just one of a few credits she made before dying in a car crash at just age 25, Belinda Lee gives an excellent performance in her first lead role as Phyllis, thanks to Lee binding a youthful nativity, with a Femme Fatale ambiguity which keeps Morrow on his toes.

Released just a few years before Hammer Horror would begin, Richard H. Landau adapts Helen Nielsen's novel by spinning the Film Noir's Hammer had been producing, to point towards the run of psycho Thriller's that the studio would be making at the same time as their Gothic creations, via each fragment Morrow finds from his blackout, bringing into focus the "Mummy issues" ( a recurring major theme in Hammer Thrillers) that cloud the Phyllis family home, as Morrow finds the proxy.

who-dunnit from hammer films

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 10 April 2023]

American casey morrow meets phyllis in london. She tells him she will pay him five hundred pounds if he will marry her. For some unexplained reason. But he.... blacks out..before we find out why. When he wakes up the next day, she's gone, and he's in a strange apartment with maggie. Did he just get drunk, or was he given knockout drops? And suddenly he's wanted for moidah! For the first time ever in movies, maggie isn't scared of someone who could be a murderer. Morrow doesn't seem to find that odd, but he'd better find the real murderer before the cops track him down! Some flaws. Lots of time spent on his bad relationship with his mother and brothers. You'd think the coppers would have tracked down morrow's mother, but they have not been to visit her. And there's a bar full of people who aren't concerned that a wanted murderer is dancing around the bar. Directed by terence fisher. Novel by helen nielsen. It's kind of slow, and plods along to the end. Never really much of a sense of danger or suspense. Just the usual who-dunnit and why, i guess. Produced by hammer films, which has been in business since 1934. The company was sold recently to a dutch group. Belinda lee appeared in five full length films that year, but died young at 25 in a car accident. Dane clark was probably best known for his wartime films, pride of the marines and destination tokyo. Blackout is called "murder by proxy" in some countries. It's okay.

A bit saggy, but Belinda Lee is exceptional

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 20 February 2018]

BLACKOUT is a typical British noir flick of the 1950s with a fairly good turn from American import Dane Clark, who starts off being drunk out of his head and seduced by a blonde femme fatale (the exceptional Belinda Lee). When he wakes up the next morning he finds himself enmeshed in a murder plot and must fight to extricate himself. This film was one of the thrillers that Hammer made before moving into the horror genre and it's fairly average, not quite as good as others they made during the era (such as the underrated CLOUDBURST). Clark is a bit of a weedy hero and constantly out of his depth while the plot gets a bit bogged down during the middle stages, lacking that spark of suspense to keep it moving; the classic 'saggy middle'. Still, things do pick up for the twist-upon-twist climax, so at least it ends on a high, and the tragic Lee helps to make this worthwhile.

Best of the Hammer noirs

[boirin · 8/10 · 25 November 2014]

Although these dozen or so pre-horror Hammer noir films of the early 50s are largely forgotten, they are making something of a comeback through TCM and other vintage film outlets. Of these, 'Blackout' is definitely the best of them.

It's well acted and (despite complaints here about the convoluted plot) well written with plenty of humour. Obviously the producers had to struggle with a low budget that inevitably compromised its production values, but the film makes the most of what it had. Still, it's a treat for Dane Clark fans and those who can see an unrealised talent in Belinda Lee before dying far too young. Their on-screen chemistry is terrific and so are Clark's scenes with Eleanor Summerfield (one of my favourite British supporting actors).

One of 'Blackout's most interesting elements is that, unlike most film noirs, that usually involve male protagonists with a token femme fatale, the plot of 'Blackout' is mostly female-driven.

That's the man!

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 12 September 2014]

****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!

Not a film noir

[Gregory Reed · 15 May 2009]

While interesting for the footage of London circa 1954, this is an absurd movie. The story line is almost impossible to follow. There's almost no dramatic tension. The situations and supposed relationships are so unrealistic that even willing suspension of disbelief doesn't work. The protagonist is gullible and hard to swallow as a supposed tough guy when he spends so much time playing the fool to beautiful women and whimpering like a small boy to his mother, etc. And to top it off, it really doesn't strike me as a film noir at all, just a confusing murder mystery. The best thing about it is Belinda Lee, previously unknown to me, a beautiful woman who was killed a few years later, at 26, in a California car accident.

Window on 50s London

[lfisher0264 · 2/10 · 24 November 2007]

It's too long and confusing and all the tension ebbs away while you try to follow the convoluted plot. The fun part is revisiting London of the time, especially the genuine interiors - from Chelsea Studio to furnished (in 1900 taste) flat to shagpile'n'modern sculpture penthouse. The beautiful girl acts as well as the artist's wooden lay figure. Why couldn't Dane end up with painter Eleanor Summerfield? I suppose we're meant to think "Oh ho, the cops are following him because they think he'll lead him to the real killers!", but this is very clunkily done. And yes, the scene in the Polish pub (Polish pub???) is utterly unnecessary.

Kinda disappointing

[lucyrfisher · 5/10 · 15 July 2022]

Dane Clark acts well, but he has an unfortunate resemblance to Kenneth Connor. In fact, it's a Kenneth Connor kind of a part. Why didn't they get Kenneth Connor!

Drunk man in bar is offered £500 by a beautiful blonde to marry her. Then things get a bit blurry, but Eleanor Summerfield is always there to provide a bed for the night and a cup of tea. For a couple of seconds, it looks like Clark may end up with her instead of the now you see her now you don't Belinda Lee.

Some lovely characters pass through, particularly Alfie Bass and Olive Sloane as a landlady, who isn't even credited! She was so wonderful in Seven Days to Noon.

Just as well Hammer went into horror

[malcolmgsw · 4/10 · 8 October 2022]

This film was part of the deal with Lippert films from America. Lippert supplied the leading actors and co produced the films with Hammer. Most of the leading players were actors on the descending rung of their careers. Clarke was one such. He had been a star in the forties but his career was descending into B movies and eventually into television.

The film starts well enough but descends into what can only be described as a labyrinthine plot. The problem is that it becomes so intricate that it is rather an effort to try and follow. It has to be said that the only bright spark in an increasingly dull film is Eleanor Summerfield.