The Glass Tomb (1955) User Reviews

Pel Pelham Opening Soon With Starving Man Act.

[hitchcockthelegend · 6/10 · 12 June 2012]

The Glass Tomb (AKA: The Glass Cage) is directed by Montgomery Tully and adapted to screenplay by Richard Landau from the story The Outsiders written by A. E. Martin. It stars John Ireland, Honor Blackman, Geoffrey Keen, Eric Pohlmann, Sid James and Sydney Tafler. Music is by Leonard Salzedo and cinematography by Walter Harvey.

Pel Pelham's carnival is in town and the star attraction is Sapolio, a man prepared to be locked in a glass cage and starve himself for 70 days. But when a couple of murders occur at the carnival, the police become involved and suspicion starts to point its ugly finger.

Part of the Hammer Film Noir series released by VCI Entertainment, The Glass Tomb is an odd little picture that's more a collection of noirish traits and ideas than a fully fledged movie. Running at just under an hour in length, film hinges on the flimsiest of stories but just about gets away with it on account of solid performances and some spiky themes in the piece. In the mix are carnival outcasts, blackmail, murder, carnal desires, gluttony, addiction and a macabre party scene with a body upstairs kept company for some time by the murderer?! These are nicely presided over by Tully and Harvey where shadows are often prominent and a neon light and subway train serve the atmosphere very well. You do wonder what world we live in when people pay to watch a man just not eat? While the murderer is known to us from the first killing, thus there's no mystery aspect to hang your coat on. Though clearly the makers want us to observe how the murderer easily moves about this carnival group undetected and above suspicion.

Not comfortably recommended as a whole, but enough parts of the quilt for the noir fans to appreciate. 6/10

The Starving Man

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 28 May 2019]

The carnival barker Pel Pelham (John Ireland) borrows some money with his friend Tony Lewis (Sidney James). In return, he convinces his friend Rena Maroni (Tonia Bern), who was Tony´s mistress, to stop blackmailing him. Pet wants to promote a side show with her neighbor Henri Sapolio (Eric Pohlmann), who is a starving man. Sapolio and his wife decides to give a party at their apartment and Sapolio glances at a man leaving Rena´s apartment. Later they find that Rena was murdered and the police suspect that one guest is the killer.

"The Glass Tomb", a.k.a. "The Glass Cage", is a mystery film by Hammer that was classified as film-noir in a recently released DVD Box. The storyline and the screenplay are flawed and weak but fortunately the movie is short and watchable. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Gaiola de Vidro" ("The Glass Cage")

John Ireland is fine, but he doesn't have much to work with

[Terrell-4 · 5/10 · 2 February 2008]

"I want more chocolate!" says the sticky-faced tyke. "A clout is what you'll get!" says his frazzled mum. "Now turn around and watch the man starve like a good boy." The man is the great Sapolio, who is locked in a glass crypt determined to go 70 days without food. Pel Pelham (John Ireland) is selling tickets to this carny sideshow. He figures the pickings will be rich for 70 days as people pay to see whether Sapolio can hold out, give it up or die trying. However, there is one person who is going to opt for the last option. This man killed a young woman and he believes Sapolio may have glimpsed his face. Sapolio tells Pel and the police he cannot remember, but Pel knows Sapolio is a man who will never let things drop. Sooner or later Sapolio, locked in the glass cage with dozens of people staring at him, will finger the murderer. Sapolio may have considerably fewer than 70 days ahead of him. Except for John Ireland, a handful of interesting British actors, and an amusing but unlikely setup, this is all there is. There's no mystery; we know the killer. And because the writing and directing are so matter-of-fact, there's little energy and even less suspense.

Ireland made this British movie in 1955. It takes only 59 minutes to tell the tale but it often seems longer, especially when we're dealing with Ireland's precocious little boy and his loving but tremulous wife, played by Honor Blackman. Bits of the movie are just fine. Pel Pelham is an outsider, an unsuccessful promoter with something of a chip on his shoulder. He goes to wealthy bookmaker and old friend, Tony Lewis (Sid James) for some money to finance the Sapolio show. Tony writes him a check right then, but asks Pel to drop the "freaks" and come back and join him in the business. Pel takes the check and says, "I like being my own boss, Tony, and I like freaks." Ireland says that line with style. There's a party in Sapolio's apartment to celebrate the stunt he and Pel are setting up. There's a midget playing piano, a gorgeous woman who's effete husband has painted wings on her back, a very large man who sometimes sounds Russian and several more. They're all Pel's friends, all his "freaks," and they come across as happy, nice people. There's a scene in a subway where the killer is considering whether or not to push a blackmailer under the wheels of an oncoming train. He almost does it, and the play of emotions on the actor's face is wonderful. But when those 59 minutes are up, there's not much to look back on one way or the other.

Glass Tomb with a view

[FilmFlaneur · 16 May 2009]

One of the must-sees out of the films produced by Robert Lippert in partnership with UK's Hammer studios. Taking advantage of arrangements favoured by the UK's Eady levy (a state film subsidy established after the war) in 1950, the producer formed a business alliance under which he would provide American acting talent - frequently shop-worn stars or just supporting actors who fancied a profitable trip out of the country - while Hammer would supply the rest of the cast and the production facilities. Together they would split the profits. Famous for his concern with the bottom line, Lippert produced over 140 films between 1946 and 1955, characteristically genre pieces such as I Shot Jesse James or Rocketship XM. For the British deal, most of the films were noir-ish thrillers. None were entirely of the first rank, but they remain never less than entertaining.

Noir narratives set in and around carnivals have a small but proud heritage, stretching back to Nightmare Alley and beyond. They frequently juxtapose deformed outcasts of the sideshow with the twisted psychology on show elsewhere. The Glass Tomb concerns Pal Pelham (John Ireland), and his forthcoming attraction Sapolio 'The Starving Man', whose act is to go foodless for 70 days whilst locked, Blaine-like, in a glass booth. "I like being my own boss. I like freaks," says Pal at one point, clearly preferring the company of his performers to some others around him. When big-hearted bookie Tony Lewis (Sidney James, a characteristic performance) asks Pal to speak to a woman who has been blackmailing him, she shortly ends up dead, and the killer thinks Sapolio can identify him. Pal, who previously knew the victim, needs to solve the case. Geoffrey Keen, much more familiar to British cinema-goers from numerous stolid establishment roles, gets to play an unsympathetic role as Stanton the murderer.

What's interesting about The Glass Tomb is that it is built almost entirely around recurring displays of appetite and denial. Whether it's Sapolio, greedy at home, and finally poisoned by strychnine-covered ham, or the fridge raid of Pelham's young son, the ticket-booth man secretly coveting his bottle of booze, then those who eat so unconcernedly in front of the incarcerated Starving Man, it's a world clearly defined. At a necessarily less explicit level there's also the carnal desire of Stanton and Lewis for the girl - Stanton's two hours alone with her corpse, for instance, is never explained. Tully manages some striking scenes on a budget, notably the performer's party, held while the body of the freshly killed girl lays undiscovered upstairs in her squalid room. The Glass Tomb has its weaknesses - it could have done with a few more freaks - but is baroque and perverse enough to be better known. Ireland gives an adequate performance, and Honor Blackman, in a demure role, plays his wife. Some will also notice Arthur Howard, the brother of Leslie, later to appear in the minor British nudie cult item Paradisio (1961) in a small part. Part of the Hammer Noir box set series where it enjoys audio commentary.

The Starving Man

[boblipton · 5/10 · 28 July 2020]

John Ireland is a carnival barker starting out with a show on his own. It's a "starving man" act, in which Eric Pohlman is put on exhibition; for seventy days, Ireland tells the crowds gathered in front of the big tent, he will not eat. One shilling for adults to see him, six pence for children. It all seems rather foolish and tawdry, but Ireland has a lot of friends, and they get together to throw a party as he moves up in the world. Everyone is having a great time.... until a girl upstairs is murdered. Inspector Liam Redmond asks Ireland to keep his ears open.... but Ireland thinks he knows who did it.

It's an intriguing venue for a murder mystery, and the set-up reminds me of some of Fredric Brown's murder mysteries from the 1950s. However, there's no sense of a separate society among the carney people and the public; the latter may be suckers, but society is viewed as a continuum; Ireland is married to Honor Blackman, and they have a son. Everyone lives in flats, and Redmond thinks it's all perfectly ordinary. It's what you get when you remove the technique from film noir, and place it in an ordinary world: rather disappointing.

Short and snappy

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 24 February 2018]

THE GLASS CAGE is a brief and snappy murder thriller from those chaps at Hammer Films. It's a bit cheaper than most of their productions but it's nonetheless a solid addition to the sub-genre of murder mystery films with a circus or fairground setting. American import John Ireland plays a carnival proprietor whose latest act is to showcase Eric Pohlmann's starving man, who literally sits in a glass cage and doesn't eat for months while the crowds flock to see him. In a slightly artificial plot, a murderer is at work, bumping off peripheral characters left right and centre, with Ireland at the heart of it. This film is too short and low budget to do little more than join the basic dots, but the excellent cast sees it through nicely. Honor Blackman and Sid James appear early on and never do so again; Sam Kydd gets to do more than his usual cameo; Ferdy Mayne and Bernard Bresslaw are fellow 'exhibits'; Sydney Tafler and Geoffrey Keen a pair of hangers-on. Liam Redmond's drawling Irish detective is the highlight here.

Even John Ireland couldn't save this British noir film.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 23 March 2022]

In the 1950s, a lot of second-tier American actors were hired to star in films abroad. The notion was that a well known American could improve box office receipts...particularly if the films were shown here in the States. The two countries that seemed to do this the most were the UK and Italy, but Germans and others hired various Americans for their films during this era. Unfortunately, despite having John Ireland in the lead, Britain's "The Glass Cage" was a disappointment when I watched it.

The glass cage in the title refers to a small glass room where a sideshow act lived. It seems that the guy agreed to be locked inside and eat nothing for 70 days...a feat which seems impossible. Well, during this same time, folks associated with the sideshow begin to die.

There were a couple major problems with the film. The biggest is that there is zero suspense, as the movie lets you know early on who the murderer is! This seemed pretty dopey and made for a less than thrilling story. The other problem was the trap to catch the killer...it's been done so many times that it's really a cliche! To make things worse, the characters aren't really fleshed out well and the story never offered much to recommend it.

Glassy tomb.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 6 November 2019]

Getting back from a late screening of Doctor Sleep (2019-also reviewed) I decided to end the night with a Noir. Recently catching the excellent Hammer Noir Cash on Demand (1962-also reviewed)I got set to view another Noir from Hammer, by opening the glass tomb.

View on the film:

Left to sit on the shelf for a year before getting taken out of the tomb, Richard H. Landau's adaptation of A.E. Martin's novel keeps this Film Noir fresh despite the delays made on it, thanks to a quirky edge. Holding the Noir mystery under a carnival tent of The 70 Day Starving Man act, who from being locked in a glass cell which the public gawk at, that brings in other strange carnival folk and murders slammed on top of the tomb.

Entering this public gallery freak show lit in raw low-lighting by director Montgomery Tully & cinematographer Walter J. Harvey, John Ireland gives a fine, hard-nose turn as Pelham. Joining Pelham,Sid James and Honor Blackman give fun turns,along with cheerful cameos by Frank Williams and Bernard Bresslaw, who all join in locking up the tomb.

Everyone loved Uncle Harry.

[brogmiller · 5/10 · 5 November 2023]

It would be foolish to expect much from a Hammer low-budget, B-programmer and all one one can really say about this one is that it could have been far better.

A previous reviewer has suggested that a certain Joseph Losey may perhaps have contributed to the direction and if that is the case, credited director Montgomery Tully cannot shoulder all of the blame. Cinematographer William Harvey has provided oodles of high contrast lighting to impart the 'Noirish' look whilst Leonard Salzedo's score is suitably carnivalesque.

The customary Hollywood import here is John Ireland, whose glum persona one either takes to or one doesn't whilst quintessentially English Honor Blackman as his highly unlikely wife is obliged to adopt an American accent of sorts. Excellent support from Sid James as a bookie, Sydney Tafler as a blackmailer and Geoffrey Keen for once on the other side of the law whilst an assortment of colourful fairground characters make a lot of noise, notably Eric Pohlmann whose macabre 'starving man' act is one that hordes of gullible irks are prepared to part with money to see. The climax is ludicrous but the film had to end somehow.

Bound to have its devotees, this one is really for Hammer completists.

Strange, but very watchable British-US crime waster

[mackjay2 · 6/10 · 5 January 2023]

An odd crime film with an American star and some players using American accents, no doubt a product of the UK-US film making agreement of 1948. Set in London, the story concerns Pel Pelham (John Ireland), a carny barker with a bright idea for show to pack in crowds. Believe it or not, his idea is to have spectators watch a man starve himself for 70 days, while enclosed in a glass cage (The Glass Cage is an alternate title of the movie). Suspending disbelief, we watch people line up to see this overweight man (Eric Pohlmann) deny himself food. But that's just background for the narrative. The interesting part begins when a young woman who lives upstairs from Pohlmann and his wife is murdered. Those of us watching the film know who the killer is, but it's up to police and Pel's ingenuity to uncover the perpetrator, not only of the woman, but of the Starving Man himself who has also been murdered since he was a possible witness. Featuring Sid James, Sidney Tafler, Honor Blackman as Pel's wife and young actor playing their son whose voice sounds like he's been dubbed by a woman. Preposterous? Yes. But it's rather fun to watch it all play out in 59 minutes.

Seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater only in 1972

[kevinolzak · 2/10 · 1 November 2020]

1954's "The Glass Tomb" was an early Hammer effort called "The Glass Cage" in Britain, directed by Montgomery Tully rather than Terence Fisher and scripted by Richard H. Landau ("Stolen Face," "Spaceways"). It can't be called a whodunit because we see the killer (Geoffrey Keen) enter and exit his victim's apartment, a blackmailer forced to strangle his female accomplice when she threatens to expose him. Top billed Hollywood import John Ireland looks understandably bored as showman Pel Pelham, a lifetime of working in circuses with freaks and entrepreneurs, figuring to now make his fortune by showcasing a 'Fasting Man' (a defiantly overweight Eric Pohlmann) for lucrative public consumption. As if that doesn't sound laughable enough, Pelham finds his act scuppered, wife (Honor Blackman) kidnapped, and best friend (Sidney James) murdered. The actual glass tomb or cage is constructed inside a large tent where patrons pay for admission, but as to why anyone would lose one red cent to watch an overfed glutton NOT eat makes for delirious viewing, and at under one hour it proved a problematic release some 12 months after its completion. To say that the villain gets his just desserts is like saying that Godzilla is bound for Tokyo! Only three months before Hammer fortunes changed for the better with "The Quatermass Xperiment," they at least found a few cast members who would go on to greater glory, Sam Kydd appearing in "The Quatermass Xperiment," "Invisible Creature," "Island of Terror," and "The Projected Man," Ferdy Mayne playing Count Krolock in Roman Polanski's "The Fearless Vampire Killers" before being victimized by Ingrid Pitt in Hammer's "The Vampire Lovers."

Did Joseph Losey work on this picture?

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 16 October 2017]

Thanks to the enterprise of Kit Parker Films, much of Hammer's noir output in now available on excellent DVD transfers from VCI.

Pick of the bunch is "The Glass Tomb" (1955), starring an appropriately glum John Ireland, and superbly photographed in a stunningly noirish manner by Jimmy Harvey (who once told me he was Lilian Harvey's brother). And most importantly of all, in my opinion, directed (at least in some scenes or maybe all of them) by Joseph Losey, who was actually working for Hammer at this time.

Frankly, there's no way in the world that the stunningly noir lighting, set-ups and acting could have been supervised and/or directed by Montgomery Tully.

But I'm not surprised Losey made no move to claim this movie, because the story, while decidedly macabre, is somewhat unbelievable.

Nonetheless, the script does feature perennial minor villain, Sydney Tafler, in his best role ever; and it also offers some riveting opportunities for Geoffey Keen, Sid James and Liam Redmond. Even Sam Kydd has a good part, though it must be admitted that the lovely Honor Blackman is wasted in a nothing role.

The Tomb of the Starving Man

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 26 July 2022]

The only Hammer film in which Honor Blackman appeared is one of their more fanciful productions featuring several circus performers. The jaunty score by Leonard Salzedo was an early example of musical director John Hollingsworth's eye for talent.

Disjointed

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 6 August 2014]

This film is only 59 minutes long,but it feels as if it has been edited down from 90 minutes.Knowing the producers ,this is not likely.They probably hoped that audiences would not notice the joins.The problem with this film is that so much is just left unexplained.So many actors come and go they each must have been employed for just a day or two.Sid James,receives a blackmail note.John Ireland goes to see the girl and persuades her against going ahead.However subsequently James murders her.In turn he is killed by Sydney Tafler,who has previously roughed up Honor Blackman for no given reason.It would appear that Taffler is arrested.Then Geoffrey Keen kills Eric Pohlman again for no reason.So you just end up scratching your head and wondering what it was all about.

Carny Blarney

[carolynpaetow · 6 April 2003]

John Ireland wanders through this B movie like a penniless child in a nightmare candy store! As a freak-show promoter, he is compelled to bankroll a corpulent carny who, billed as The Starving Man, draws crowds to watch him go foodless for 70 days! Instead of turning on the two like hungry lions, mobs of curious Brits pour continuously forth to goggle the decidedly ungaunt attraction while he shaves, sleeps, and so on. Somehow, two murders occur in the midst of the mess, and so the rub. One has to wonder if the whole production (the movie, not the sideshow) is a joke on the audience, since the film is peppered with crude carnality symbolism and (for the fifties) sly sexual innuendo and double entendre. If one has a taste for oh-so-awful flicks and fool-the-rubes humor, this might be worth a peek.

Why?

[plan99 · 4/10 · 3 September 2023]

The motive of the murdered was not explained and as they were identified near the beginning of the film it was a bit pointless watching it to the end, but I did.

Honour Blackman was billed high but her total screen time was just a few minutes in a couple of brief scenes, anyone could have played the brief part.

Entertainment for the masses in 1955 was a bit restricted but believing that people would queue up to see a fasting man in a glass box was difficult to believe especially at one bob for entry, a shilling.

Only worth watching if at a bit of a loose end with nothing better to do. Not a classic of 1950s UK cinema.

Freak show the society's underground!!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 21 April 2019]

This picture touchs wisely in the society's underground self called freak show, which the mankind has an irresistible attraction to the bizarre, the unknown, the occult, John Ireland has in his veins this obsession to take ahead this odd entertainment taking a top billing "the Starving Man" a private party was made by the mates to celebrate opening show, but a murder was committed in upper floor has been realize by Starving man, now in danger, strangely besides a low budge production this one hold us like a magnet due so weird happenings, a British noir largely ostracized over the bad press in such field, whatever happens has their enchants, underrated here but has enough elements to enjoy the picture, needs a restoration!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

The Outsider

[kidboots · 7/10 · 22 November 2018]

"Pel" Pelham is an outsider, determined that his little boy will succeed in life through books and not by his wits, as his father has had to. At the moment he is all fired up with a new scheme - Sapolio, "The Champion Starving Man" is going to try to break his own record!! Pel has already hired a waste ground and is building a glass tomb so Sapolio can be observed by ticket holders. The tomb is erected like a house with everything from his mattress to cigarettes being given publicity and endorsements. Threaded through this bizarre plot is a murder - a girl down on her luck and known to the main players is found murdered in a flat above where a party is going on!

I don't know whether the editing was clumsy or if it was Lippert's version of a red herring but even though the murderer wasn't a mystery (in fact the plot really revolved around the murderer keeping two steps ahead of everybody else) during the party, one of the characters, a tattooist, made a hasty exit and didn't come back into the movie again!! I just kept expecting him to come back and spend the rest of the movie trying to clear his name!! Also Sidney James plays Tony Lewis, a book maker friend of Pel's, who advances him the money to put up the show but advises him to drop the "freak show" and turn legit. For much of the movie Ireland believes Tony to be the killer - until he turns up murdered!! Now the murderer is getting sloppy and is out to silence Sapolio who he believes can identify him.

John Ireland seemed to fit in so well into these British quickie crime movies (so many Americans didn't), lovely Honor Blackman had the thankless role of his wife except for a few seconds when she becomes the victim of ....... Sidney Tafler, where would sophisticated spivs be without him. And good old Geoffrey Keene, so often playing no nonsense police/detective parts but here he plays good old Uncle Harry, the friend to all, the greatest heart in show business.....you can see where this is going can't you!!

The Glass Cage

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 14 November 2022]

Eric Pohlmann is "Sapolio", quite a large fellow who declares that he is going to have himself locked in a glass room for 70 days without food. Can he survive? Well it turns out, in this short thriller, that he might be a damn sight safer than some of those outside - as murder is afoot. "Pel" (John Ireland) who has promoted this affair - and who hasn't two pennies to rub together - is initially a police suspect but as the investigation narrows, it looks like only the man in the glass box might really know what happened! John Ireland is adequate in this hour-long film as is his on-screen wife Honor Blackman ("Jenny"); Geoffrey Keen ("Stanton") has a bit more than usual for him to get his teeth into and a stalwart cast of British reliables all help keep it rumbling along well enough. I found the ending a bit daft, but I suspect most of whatever budget it had went on Ireland, so that's maybe to be expected. Basic, wordy but still watchable.

Some freak show

[clanciai · 8/10 · 8 January 2023]

It isn't a bad story or intrigue, but it hasn't been properly developed. Hitchcock could have made something up to his standard, he liked show intrigues, and this is out of the ordinary as it is entirely about freaks, and the murder intrigue must be regarded as extremely bizarre. There is not just one murder but they keep mounting, as the murderer has to cover up his crime by new crimes, as they always do, but we never learn his motive, if he had any. The real vicious character is the circus detective who is constantly on the alert for victims to blackmail, and the line of them is growing. The one attraction of the film is Tonia Bern as the lovely Rena Maroni, with whom everyone is having a relationship, she is also a freak but we never learn of what kind. Pity that so many had to be sacrificed for nothing but fishy business circumstances about a grotesque freak show, which apparently no one got anything out of. Still John Ireland tries to appear convincing when he insists that the show must go on.

Silly, Full of Holes, Yet Watchable

[daoldiges · 6/10 · 25 November 2023]

John Ireland, Honor Blackman, and a title like The Glass Tomb, how could I resist checking out this little farce of a film. John Ireland plays a bit somber here but he's still effective and brings a much needed credibility. As for Blackman, her part is so small that makes her billing seem like false advertising. There's a large cast of supporting actors all of which do a nice job with their parts. The issue here is the script/story. So many things happen but with to reason or explanation as to Why? Several killings take place and except for the starving man himself, one is left wondering why anyone else had to die. The concept of folks waiting in line to see a large man not eating, and the colorful cast of carnival folks is kind of fun. Despite some plot holes and all, at 59 minutes, The Glass Tomb is still fairly watchable.

Glass Onion

[southdavid · 6/10 · 11 March 2024]

Another film watched for the "House of Hammer" podcast, which I am still around six months behind the release dates with. This is a strange film, both in terms of setting but also, it's the rare film that I want to be longer, so something more could happen.

Pel Pelham (John Ireland) is asked by his friend Tony Lewis (Sid James) to talk to a girl that he's been having an affair with and is now who is threatening blackmail. By co-incidence the woman, Rena (Tonia Bern) lives above Pelham's friend Sapolio (Eric Pohlmann) with whom, Pelham is planning to rerun his "starvation act", a carnival turn where Sapolio is locked in a small glass windowed apartment and is unable to have food for a number of days. Rena agrees to withdraw the blackmail, as it wasn't her idea, however, as Pelham and his friends organise an impromptu party, she is murdered. Suspicion falls on both Pelham and Lewis.

Despite the pretty horrific professional reviews the film has, I didn't think what was there was too bad. Pelham is an interesting character, not quite as personable as you might need to be to run a carnival sideshow, but not so awful as other Hammer leading men we've had recently. The film also has a number of stars I've heard of, Honor Blackman, Sid James, Sydney Tafler - Wikipedia even suggests that Bernard Bresslaw was the 'Cossack', though I wasn't able to confirm that in the viewing. There's also a return for Hammer favourite Eric Pohlmann.

The problem isn't so much with what's there, as what's not there. It's unclear whether the film was cutdown to make the B-Movie hour slot, but there are elements of the story that either happen off screen and are subsequently talked about or just don't happen at all. Some of this is particularly strange as the film doesn't keep the identify of the murderer from us, the audience, so it's not like there is a big reveal at the end.

I quite like the carnival set up, the elements as Pelham gets the show off the ground (though why you'd come to the opening night of this is perhaps up for some debate) I liked the performances and the version available of Youtube actually looks and sounds pretty good. It's just missing the central elements to make this into a thriller I actually cared about.

Solid, workmanlike and unpretentious Hammer 'B'-pic.

[jamesraeburn2003 · 15 June 2018]

A travelling showman called Pel Pelham (John Ireland) calls on his close friend, the bookmaker Tony Lewis (Sidney James), to discover that he is being blackmailed by a former girlfriend who calls herself Dolores. As he is engaged to be married he does not want to bring the police in for fear his wife-to-be will call off their engagement. So Pel agrees to pay the girl a visit to try and get her off Tony's back. In return, Tony puts up the money for Pel's latest act. By chance, Dolores's address is the same apartment block where the star of Pel's show lives, Henri Sapolio (Eric Pohlmann), 'The World's Famous Starving Man', who locks himself in a glass tomb and fasts for seventy days. Pel calls on Dolores and recognises her as the daughter of a famous circus owner who gave him his first job. She has had an argument with her father and has run away to London where she is struggling to make a living so has resorted to blackmail. That night as Pel and Sapolio hold a celebration party with all their circus friends to mark the opening of their new act, someone calls on Dolores at her flat and kills her. Sapolio is a chief witness since he saw the figure of a man on the darkened stairway enter her flat. But, the Scotland Yard man, Inspector Lindley (Liam Redmond), considers everyone at the party a suspect. Meanwhile, Rorke (Sidney Tafler) tries his hand at blackmailing all the principal suspects. Two more deaths follow at the circus, Tony and Sapolio, before the killer can be unmasked. Pel and the inspector set a trap by announcing that Sapolio is not actually dead, but in a coma and invite the public to see him being cared for in his cage. But, how and when will the killer make his move and will they catch him in the act?

Solid, workmanlike and unpretentious Hammer second feature that is very typical of the kind of stuff the studio was making before they shot to international stardom with the horror films and reinventing that genre in the process. Directed at a fair lick by veteran 'B' picture director Montgomery Tully who succeeds in generating some tension like when Rorke taunts the killer in a tube station and as the latter's mind drifts debating whether or not to push him under an approaching train, the noise from it drowns out Rorke's voice in a suspenseful moment. The killer's identity is known to us from the start so this is no mystery movie, but its attractive and unusual setting of a traveling circus act lifts this likeable little picture to heights well above the average British 'B'. There are many familiar faces in the cast including Eric Pohlmann, best known as the voice of the unseen Blofeld in the early James Bond movies, who provides the humour as the suffering circus performer who makes his living by starving himself for 70 days (really?!) in 'The Glass Cage' of the title. Sidney James is excellent as the straight talking, down to earth and streetwise businessman; Sidney Tafler is noteworthy in one of his many slimy villian roles and the imported American leading man John Ireland is also quite good as Pel Pelham. He is most effective in the scenes with his family like when his young son, Peter, pays more attention to his father's show than his school work longing to be the next Sapolio. Although he loves it that his son is proud of him, Pel wants his son to succeed through his academic work and not be an "outsider" like him in some nice believable insight into his home life. Honor Blackman also offers a pleasant performance as Pel's wife Jenny although, despite being billed second, gets very little to do and is only in a small handful of scenes. Liam Redmond deserves praise as Inspector Lindlay and there is a great little scene where he attempts to plug Pel for information. "Look Lindlay, you do your job and I'll do mine. If I did your job I'd be on the side of the underdog" he says annoyed that he is being asked to spy on his friends. "Sometimes that's a very dangerous dog", Lindley replies. Look out for Sam Kydd as a drunken circus doctor and Bernard Bresslaw's in there too in a small unaccredited appearance. The film benefits from Walter J Harvey's atmospheric camerawork, which takes in some nice London locations around Trafalgar Square and Westminster enhancing the period atmosphere and feeling for place.

Only B movies can provide such plots

[searchanddestroy-1 · 30 October 2023]

One more example of what B movies can provide us, in terms of twisted schemes, inventive stories. This one is totally surprising, crazy, exciting. And seeing John Ireland and Honor Blackman can't be uninteresting. Plus, the sideshow setting, carnival surroundings are always perfect unexpected plots, such as this very one. Monty Tully was a prolific British film maker who brought us so many movies, not all at the same scale of quality though. But this one remains one of his ever best. Only the ending could have been a bit better; I expected something different, I don't know why. I recommend this film. Totally.