Paul Banner, a "noozeman" of the Daily Comet in England, is an American (he's Canadian, actually) working in England. He happens on a murder that leads him on a complicated trail. He has a ex-love - Jill Adams, who puts on a passable US accent - and she's attempting to get him back - Meanwhile, another lady vies for his affections. Needless to say, he solves the crime. It was only about 1 Hr. 5 minutes and the pace continues along quite well. The photography was quite good and the acting wasn't as bad as many other films. All-in-all, quite acceptable. Paul Carpenter, who plays Banner, was only 33 at the time.(Looks a lot more). He only had 10 more years to live (I'm unsure of the cause of death - maybe someone out there can tell me.) Jill Adams, who plays the blond bombshell, is still alive as at 2002.
13 Reviews
Classic British Mystery
nova-6311 June 2011
A small boy playing at a ruined churchyard follows a mysterious woman into the bowels of the church. She opens a secret compartment behind a brick wall. As the boy secretly watches, she is struck down and murdered by a mystery man. The frightened boy flees and the killer chases after him. The boy escapes but loses his cap in the process. The killer picks up the cap, which has a boys name tag sewn in the underside.
The killer sets out to silence the only witness. But fate is on the young lad's side. He had switched caps with a friend and it is his friend who the killer has mistakenly hunted and murdered. A clever reporter (Paul Carpenter) pieces together the clues and comes to realize the boy who witnessed the crime is still alive.
This would be considered a low budget British mystery. I found it to be little above average and a quite enjoyable 65 minutes.
The killer sets out to silence the only witness. But fate is on the young lad's side. He had switched caps with a friend and it is his friend who the killer has mistakenly hunted and murdered. A clever reporter (Paul Carpenter) pieces together the clues and comes to realize the boy who witnessed the crime is still alive.
This would be considered a low budget British mystery. I found it to be little above average and a quite enjoyable 65 minutes.
If the Cap Fits
richardchatten4 July 2019
The second of three crime quickies based on novels by Robert Chapman featuring roving reporter Banner; originally played by Peter Reynolds but in this and 'Behind the Headlines' (1956) by Paul Carpenter.
Despite it's fairly light-hearted tone, three people die (including a blackmailer and an eleven year-old witness). Although set in a relatively innocent Britain in which kids could still get into cars with strange men and the tenants in blocks of flats were prepared to display signs stating that they were not in, the underside of supposedly law-abiding post-war Britain is laid bare with its matter of fact depiction of adultery & blackmail (commonly seen in British films of this period on the understanding that it was usually sternly punished). Carpenter's dalliance with married Jill Adams doesn't prevent him from having the gorgeous Diane Hart in tow as his fiancée, though.
Despite it's fairly light-hearted tone, three people die (including a blackmailer and an eleven year-old witness). Although set in a relatively innocent Britain in which kids could still get into cars with strange men and the tenants in blocks of flats were prepared to display signs stating that they were not in, the underside of supposedly law-abiding post-war Britain is laid bare with its matter of fact depiction of adultery & blackmail (commonly seen in British films of this period on the understanding that it was usually sternly punished). Carpenter's dalliance with married Jill Adams doesn't prevent him from having the gorgeous Diane Hart in tow as his fiancée, though.
Another assignment for Paul Banner
howardmorley6 February 2017
Paul Carpenter the Canadian actor who died early aged 42, appears here with another actor and ex-boxer who died early Freddy Mills, in another investigative role for his screen persona of Paul Banner, see also Behind the Headlines 1956.Whereas he is a reporter on The Daily Comet in One Jump Ahead, in the former film he is running his own news agency.Other reviewers have already explained the plot so I will confine myself to other matters.
Yes it was a mystery how Freddy Mills came to die with a shotgun by his side in a turning off Oxford Street in 1965 - a bigger mystery than this film!Was it suicide or a gangland killing?The cheeky schoolboy who appears at the beginning and barely escapes with his life, I remember seeing doing commercials on t.v. in the 1950s for Rowntrees Fruit Gums.As in Behind the Headlines with Hazel Court, Paul has a faithful and helpful British girlfriend who puts up with the rigours of his job.It was an adequate length of time approx 60 plus or so and would have constituted a B film back in the 1950s.It was an interesting enough film and I enjoyed seeing some old 1950s actors in British cast films again.I rated it 6/10.
Yes it was a mystery how Freddy Mills came to die with a shotgun by his side in a turning off Oxford Street in 1965 - a bigger mystery than this film!Was it suicide or a gangland killing?The cheeky schoolboy who appears at the beginning and barely escapes with his life, I remember seeing doing commercials on t.v. in the 1950s for Rowntrees Fruit Gums.As in Behind the Headlines with Hazel Court, Paul has a faithful and helpful British girlfriend who puts up with the rigours of his job.It was an adequate length of time approx 60 plus or so and would have constituted a B film back in the 1950s.It was an interesting enough film and I enjoyed seeing some old 1950s actors in British cast films again.I rated it 6/10.
Tight Noir Marred By Wishy Washy Ending
kidboots18 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This movie started so strongly - a young woman is killed by an unknown
assailant as she retrieves some jewels she has hidden in a church, a young
boy on roller skates sees the murder and a few days later a boy's body is
found but in a grisly shock the police realise that the wrong boy has been
murdered. It seems, days before they had swapped caps and the cap the
killer found left behind at the church was not that of the boy who had
actually seen the act. Police realise they are dealing with a homicidal
maniac!!
Paul Carpenter was a Canadian who moved to Britain to sing with the Ted Heath Band. He soon moved on to movies where he had an edginess that a lot of British actors at the time could quite muster. In this one he plays Banner, a newspaper man, who while on the spot of the first murder, finds the child's cap in the bushes and starts to investigate down another track!! Carpenter had a very breezy style that critics liked and had some witty repartee with his sleuthing girlfriend and his femme fatale ex. This was were the film came a bit unstuck for me - Banner was so down to earth and all business but once he became entangled with his ex he became putty in her hands. Jill Adams was good in a poor man's Diana Dors way but the ending with her proving to be the brains behind a black mailing ring stretched credibility especially when she was found to have killed the child and then blithely gone on to try to murder the right one AND that Banner had to think long and hard about turning her in. Very tight, gritty movie marred by a cliched ending!!
Paul Carpenter was a Canadian who moved to Britain to sing with the Ted Heath Band. He soon moved on to movies where he had an edginess that a lot of British actors at the time could quite muster. In this one he plays Banner, a newspaper man, who while on the spot of the first murder, finds the child's cap in the bushes and starts to investigate down another track!! Carpenter had a very breezy style that critics liked and had some witty repartee with his sleuthing girlfriend and his femme fatale ex. This was were the film came a bit unstuck for me - Banner was so down to earth and all business but once he became entangled with his ex he became putty in her hands. Jill Adams was good in a poor man's Diana Dors way but the ending with her proving to be the brains behind a black mailing ring stretched credibility especially when she was found to have killed the child and then blithely gone on to try to murder the right one AND that Banner had to think long and hard about turning her in. Very tight, gritty movie marred by a cliched ending!!
"You don't want to worry about dames. They come and they go"
hwg1957-102-26570418 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
A fairly gripping mystery story where a crime reporter Paul Banner follows up on the murder of a schoolboy which leads to somewhere closer to home. It kept me watching though by two thirds of the way through I spotted the murderer. The cast acquit themselves well but I particularly liked Diane Hart as the long suffering Maxine, Peter Sinclair and Freddie Mills as the pugnacious Tarrants and David Hannaford (I think?) as the boy Banner interviews in his car. It's a hilarious scene and the young actor steals the movie. There didn't seem to be a hole in the plot and even the romantic sub-plot wasn't too intrusive partly due to the well written sparkling dialogue. I enjoyed the film.
Reporter Pursues Oddball Murder Mystery
boblipton23 June 2019
Reporter Paul Carpenter is pursuing a story about a corpse found in a bombed-out church, and children scared out of their wits on the site. He's also in a tentative relationship with fellow reporter Diane Hart, but still stuck on a former lover, Jill Adams. She married a rich man, but has a habit of dropping in at his apartment when her husband is out of town.
It's a decent but uninspiring second feature directed by Charles Saunders, shot on a series of cheap sets. By the three-quarters mark, it's clear who did it, although not why. Also some of the dialogue near the end is too formal and overwritten. Still the performances are pretty good. Carpenter would play a reporter with the same name -- albeit in a supporting role -- for the some production company the following year. His career, which included 52 movie credits over 16 years, would with his death in 1964 at age 42.
It's a decent but uninspiring second feature directed by Charles Saunders, shot on a series of cheap sets. By the three-quarters mark, it's clear who did it, although not why. Also some of the dialogue near the end is too formal and overwritten. Still the performances are pretty good. Carpenter would play a reporter with the same name -- albeit in a supporting role -- for the some production company the following year. His career, which included 52 movie credits over 16 years, would with his death in 1964 at age 42.
Very routine thriller
malcolmgsw22 April 2017
I do remember Paul Carpenter,star of this film.A Showbiz football team were playing a charity match at Finchley F C on a Sunday.Carpenter was giving a commentary over the rabbit till the residents complained and he was silenced.Here he stars in a typical fifties crime film.With his American accent he was a cheap substitute for the usual fading American star.The film starts quite well but runs out of ideas early on,particularly with his romantic entanglements.The only other point of interest is the appearance of ex world champion boxer Freddie Mills.Quite apart from his death in mysterious circumstances it is also believed that he was a serial murderer.
an exciting yarn that always keeps it's dark secrets one jump ahead of the viewer!
Weirdling_Wolf15 October 2021
An innocent boy larking about near a spookily deserted church witnesses a murder, and then finds himself the very next victim of the callous, cold-hearted killer, desperate to cover their bloody tracks! Capable director Charles Saunders's limber, far-from lugubrious crime thriller is a tautly written, sprightly little British-made B-Picture with more than enough shadowy intrigue to blissfully envelop ardent thriller fans within its dark and desperate mysteries, and stalwart, quick-quipping, street savvy journalist Paul Banner (Paul Carpenter ) makes for an engaging, stoically sleuthing hero, one not only after the plaudits gleaned from breaking a major story, but morally driven to bring this nefarious, cold-hearted murderer to book. Charles Saunders's 'One Jump Ahead' remains an exciting yarn that always keeps it's dark secrets one jump ahead of the viewer, and I greatly enjoyed the knock-about scene with the charismatic hard nut Freddie Mills!
When murder hits a little too close to home.
mark.waltz5 November 2019
Warning: Spoilers
A little boy witnesses a murder, only seen through his eyes, not the audience's, and the next thing you know, another little boy is killed, the victim of a hit and run, and unfortunately, completely innocent of any knowledge of the crime. It turned out that the witness to the crime was wearing and dropped the hat of the other boy, and it's up to detective Paul Carpenter to interview the families of both boys and other possible witnesses.
This leads to a complex triangle involving both Diane Hart and Jill Adams, two completely different types of women, and not the type to be betrayed or scorned. It gets awfully convoluted in spots, but remains tense up until the end of the film. Great photography and editing are a plus, but for a short film with a ton of twists and clues dropped, it seems that the film required an additional reel to flesh itself out.
This leads to a complex triangle involving both Diane Hart and Jill Adams, two completely different types of women, and not the type to be betrayed or scorned. It gets awfully convoluted in spots, but remains tense up until the end of the film. Great photography and editing are a plus, but for a short film with a ton of twists and clues dropped, it seems that the film required an additional reel to flesh itself out.
Typical 50's detective thriller.
footballfanno26886923 November 2005
While most of the cast of this film are now deceased, Paul Carpenter and Freddie Mills died shortly after the filming of this movie in mysterious circumstances.
Paul Carpenter, who plays Paul Banner in the movie was born in Canada before moving to England where he was a singer and actor. His cause of death was unclear but he was found dead in his dressing room on 12 June 1964 after a rehearsal. He had just recovered from injuries sustained in a car accident. He was 42 years old.
Freddie Mills, who plays Bert Tarrant in the movie died of gunshot wounds on 25 July 1965 which authorities deemed to be self inflicted, however many people believed he was murdered. He was 46 years old.
Paul Carpenter, who plays Paul Banner in the movie was born in Canada before moving to England where he was a singer and actor. His cause of death was unclear but he was found dead in his dressing room on 12 June 1964 after a rehearsal. He had just recovered from injuries sustained in a car accident. He was 42 years old.
Freddie Mills, who plays Bert Tarrant in the movie died of gunshot wounds on 25 July 1965 which authorities deemed to be self inflicted, however many people believed he was murdered. He was 46 years old.
Quota quickie crime drama
Leofwine_draca10 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
ONE JUMP AHEAD is one of those quota quickie British crime thrillers that's over in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scenario. Canadian import star Paul Carpenter plays a cynical reporter who becomes involved in the brutal murder of a schoolboy and finds himself on the trail of a mysterious killer. The working class backdrop is an interesting one for sure and I've always had a soft spot for Carpenter; the highlight of the movie is his amusing encounter with tough-but-jovial Freddie Mills who shows up in an excellent cameo role.
One jump ahead of the dole queue
nickjgunning28 March 2020
Wooden performances telling in their act, a script that meanders away. Trying to remake one of those wisecracking Cary Grant movies of an earlier period, but none of the performers have any charisma at all. Jill Adams couldn't be more wooden if she was fitted with castors. The rest of the cast belong in toilet roll commercials.
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