Devil's Bait (1959) User Reviews

It could happen to you!

[pjl-7 · 8/10 · 6 November 2019]

I'm going on a 60 year old memory here, so bear with me! This was the B film that was the supporting feature in the UK next to Norman Wisdom's "The Square Peg", which is the only reason I happened to see it.

For a B movie to stick in your mind for 60 years, there has to have been something special about it. The plot is simple enough - the rat eliminator borrows an old, broken loaf pan to mix up his cyanide bait in a bakery, goes out to lunch planning to clean up his work tools when he gets back, and is involved in an accident that puts him in the hospital. In his absence, the baker runs out of loaf pans, and uses the cyanide laced broken pan. The rat catcher regains consciousness in the hospital, and goes into panic mode about the poisoned pan. The rest of the movie follows the attempts of the authorities to track down the poisoned loaf of bread, identifiable because the broken loaf tin makes it one of a handful of an unusual shape.

There are a number of candidates for the potential victim, and the suspense builds as we follow the purchasers of each deformed loaf to discover which one contains the fatal mixture.

The final dénoument is completely unexpected.

Too many dramatic movies rely on the scary music, the constantly repeated hidden menace, the shadowy glimpses of the unidentifiable villain to maintain the suspense. "Devil's Bait" carries you from fear to fear only because the scenario is so real. It could happen to you.

Why only 8 out of 10? Because I haven't seen it again since 1959 to know if it still has the same train-wreck power to simultaneously attract and repel.

Nifty thriller in under a hour!

[gordonl56 · 7/10 · 17 February 2008]

A small town baker, Geoffrey Keen, finds he may have some rats rooting around his flour storage-room. He gets on the phone and calls the local vermin killer. The man shows up and starts work. He mixes up his poison and baits all the likely places with cyanide traps. He places all his mixing stuff in the sink and slips out for a quick one at the pub. One of course leads to two and then three and so on. Drunk as a newt he staggers out of the pub and goes for a tumble down the railway bank. Meanwhile back at the bakery the baker figures the man has finished and left. He grabs some of the bowls etc the rat man had used to mix his poison. In goes the dough and into the oven for some real nice "POISONED" bread. The bread is then put out for sale. When the rat man is discovered he is taken to the local Clinic where he mentions the leftover poison. The police are called and out goes an alert for the bread which of course was sold. This film just zips along and is a great little low-budget gem. Excellent time-waster! (b/w)

Nice Comedy-Thriller

[boblipton · 6/10 · 29 July 2019]

Baker Geoffrey Keene has rats in his store room, and the municipal rat catchers are away on their honeymoon. He's recommended Dermot Kelly who, unknown to Keene or wife Jane Hylton, uses potassium cyanide; even worse, when he breaks the dish he was going to lay poisoned bread in, he uses a baking pan and forgets to wash it out before he goes to spend his money on a spree. As a result, there's a poisoned loaf of bread among the fresh-baked offerings the next morning.

It was a very pleasant mix of comedy and terror. Rat-catcher Kelly, is one of those twee little fellows, playing a practitioner of one of the more grisly professions as the most inoffensive of alcoholics, as one might expect an undertaker or hangman to be in a comedy.

Like my mother used to say, it's all fun and games until someone eats a lethal dose of potassium cyanide and dies in agony, and the film maintains that black comic tone until one of the gossiping women in the shop chooses the deadly loaf and there's a blare to warn the inattentive audience that it's no longer a joke.

Could it have been done better? Yes. Have the women come in a group, gossiping, gossiping; baker's wife Jane Hylton saying "Why don't you choose your own loaf," and we don't know if it's still there, like the bullet in a game of Russian Roulette, until they leave, and the empty spot is revealed.

I'm sure the film makers toyed with the idea of calling this DEVIL'S BREAD, decided it wouldn't fit, because that's specifically hemlock, and settled on the actual coy title. Still, despite a couple of small issues, there's a lot to admire in this tiny British second feature.

Effective Little Thriller

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 9 November 2013]

I first saw this film at the NFT some years ago and have remembered it ever since.I watched it again last night and enjoyed it a second time around.I will recapitulate some of the plot as it has not been accurately recorded in other reviews.Keen is unable to get the council pest controllers as they are on honeymoon.He is given the number of a part time pest exterminator.He is played by Dermot Kelly who was a stooge to Arthur Haynes.Kelly turns up with a bottle of cyanide and uses a baking tin to mix it with dough.He doesn't clean the baking tin and goes off to have a few drinks.However on his way out of the pub he is so drunk he falls down an embankment and dies from his injuries without regaining consciousness.Keen realises what has happened when he finds the label to the cyanide bottle.He does not tell the police.Instead he and his wife,go after the loaf of bread which can be recognised by its dog ear shape.They do a bit of breaking and entering to recover half a loaf and are caught by the police.They tell all and the hunt is on to find the 2 women who have the rest of the loaf before they eat it.A taut and entertaining little film which packs drama into every one of its 55 minutes.

Do you know we have rats in the cellar?

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 10 March 2022]

So said Baby Jane Hudson to her sister Blanche, and baker Geoffrey Keene might as well have said to wife Jane Hylton in this British quota quickie that is very amusing and intense. It indeed deals with rats in the cellar, getting into the baking flour which causes teen to hire an exterminator. The regular one is away on his honeymoon, so they get an alternative who uses cyanide that somehow gets into a look-alike for the baking tins that they use. When the man accidentally consumes some of the poison that he made, Keene and Hylton are questioned by the police, and the wife realizes what happened when she discovers that one of the baking tins she used was his and contain cyanide. They are desperate to get the loaf of bread back that killed him, and of course in doing so, they are covering up the truth which makes them an accessory, not quite to a crime, but to an unfortunate accident where they just should have been honest in the first place.

It's a frantic 24 hours for the baker and his wife, with a well-written script that unfolds in less than an hour. British quota quickies were often very short and seemed more like TV dramas, but this one is rather adult in nature so it makes sense as to why this would be shown as the bottom half of a double bill. It seems very true to life, often comical in spite of the serious nature of the story, and probably not for people who are deathly afraid of rats. You don't see the rats actually die but they're squeal as they devour the cyanide is readily heard. This is very well done because the plot is ingeniously constructed, so the viewer remains intrigued throughout. Even the scene with the woman going under anesthesia before a dentist procedure, unsure if she's eaten the bread, is a well-thought-out detail that leads them to the young women on their way to the beach. Good location footage and photography are a plus.

Excellent little film

[rtbcomp · 9/10 · 27 July 2010]

This was one of the very first films I saw in the cinema, I saw it twice and it was just as exciting the second time!

I was 10 in 1959 when it came out and I still remember it today. The most memorable scene for me was when the swans were poisoned by scraps of contaminated bread thrown to them by the leading lady, the look of horror on the her face when she realised what had happened and her frantic dash to warn the baker.

I would recommend this film to anyone, apart from the suspense of the plot it gives a very good insight into the late 1950s early 1960s and the chance to play "spot the actor."

Breadhunt!!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 16 March 2020]

A village baker is having a problem with rats in his bake house but his abrasive phone manner means he is put to the back of the queue when he rings the local authorities for help. He is finally given the number of a rat catcher but the man is an alcoholic and uses out dated methods - like potassium cyanide.

Pretty unusual start for a tension packed film but the stars - Geoffrey Keen and Jane Hylton make it work as a very unlikely husband and wife, he dour and uncommunicative, she attractive and trying to get the marriage over a rough patch!! I think there was a bit too much time given to the rat catcher and his behavioral quirks but I realise it was establishing just why he used such antiquated and dangerous methods!!

It's not "which is the poison bread" but one lonely loaf that has been baked in a broken pan which the workman used to mix the poison - he goes down to the pub intending to return later to clean up, becomes involved in an accident and never returns!! Gordon Jackson then makes his appearance as a harassed cop - initially Frisby muddies the waters when he realises his bakery could be shut down - then there is a bread hunt as the loaf's journey is tracked down!!!

Very recommended.

Watchable for the cast

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 12 November 2020]

DEVIL'S BAIT is a cheapie crime drama without much in the way of plot or budget, although it works well as a little snapshot of its long-forgotten era. Geoffrey Keen, one of the most interesting character actors of the 1950s, stars as a baker who finds that a bottle of rat poison has got into one of his loaves, spawning a manhunt before it's consumed. He carries the first half of this short movie while Gordon Jackson's policeman takes over for the second. It's laughable in places and quite slow and talky, but the presence of these actors is enough to make it of interest.

Outstanding programmer! Should be better known. Hitchcockian.

[mmipyle · 9/10 · 28 December 2020]

"Devil's Bait" (1959) is an exquisite little 56 minute British thriller derivative of Alfred Hitchcock in a striking way. It stars Geoffrey Keen, Jane Hylton, Gordon Jackson, and others, and though not humor by a long shot, nevertheless keeps its outer cover just shy of bumping up against a humor balloon here and there. It's slyly told, yet it's straight-in-your-face occurrences are genuinely scary. The bait is bait to catch rats - rats in a bakery - and there seem to be - many. Keen hires a man (Dermot Kelly, and named Love in the film) to come in to get rid of the rats. He comes, he baits the traps - however, he uses what he thinks is a badly damaged bread pan to mix his poison with the bait; the poison's cyanide... Well, he puts the pan back in a pile of other pans. The baker's wife comes in later and...yep, bakes a loaf of bread - with a tail in it because the bread leaks out the ripped metal part of the pan... Later, a lady comes in and buys it. Meanwhile, the owners discover the problem - and the tension's been building just like a Hitchcock thriller - and they try to find the lady. But, uh-huh, the lady's given the loaf to two other girls. Where are they????????!!!!!!!!

Remarkably good for a programmer. Recommended very highly. Why isn't this better known? Oh, by the way, Gordon Jackson plays a British cop. He's good, of course, as are all the others. This is on the new release, "Renown Crime Collection", volume 7. There are 3 DVDs and 12 films, from the 1930s-1960s.

"The Contents of This Bag in the Wrong Hands Could Be Very Dangerous..."

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 31 October 2020]

Playing like a feature-length public information film about the correct handling of poisons. This early second feature from the producers who later brought us 'The 'Avengers', in addition to giving a rare big screen leading role to Geoffrey Keen, looks good and boasts a sardonic wit and an atmospheric score by the distinguished composer William Alwyn. Well worth catching.

Excellent British b-pic with maximum suspense and good characterisations.

[jamesraeburn2003 · 10/10 · 10 September 2021]

Joe and Ellen Frisby (played by Geoffrey Keen and Jane Hylton) run a small bakery, which develops a rat infestation in the flour store. They hire an alcoholic rat catcher called Love (played by Dermot Kelly) who illegally uses potassium cyanide to kill the rats. After he leaves, Ellen accidentally bakes a loaf of bread in a baking tin that has been contaminated with the poison. After getting drunk in a pub, Love remembers that he forgot about the baking tin and tries to rush back to warn the Frisbys, but he is struck down and killed by a lorry. The Frisbys and the local police sergeant (played by Gordon Jackson) frantically try to find the deadly loaf before it is eaten and kills someone...

Excellent British 'B'-pic in which director Peter Graham Scott manages to generate maximum tension and suspense from a scenario that could conceivably happen in real life. The characterisations are better developed than is normally expected in second features and the acting is of a very good standard. Geoffrey Keen and Jane Hylton skilfully portray a hard working, lower middle class couple whose marriage isn't exactly a happy one, but they find themselves brought back together by their predicament. Gordon Jackson is also noteworthy in an early role as the young police sergeant. The film is very tightly edited by John Trumper and cinematographer Michael Reed makes maximum use of the rural small town setting creating a real sense of place which adds to the tension.

A matter of Loaf and Death.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 13 April 2023]

Joe and Ellen Frisby have a small problem at their bakery, rats, and when they are unable to get hold of their usual pest controllers, they call on Mr Alfred Love for help, Mr Love has an unconventional method of dealing with the rats.

What an unusual, unconventional, but thoroughly enjoyable film this is. Probably a B Movie, so don't go expecting huge production values, but do expect a bit of drama, and a couple of laughs.

A plot you would think was overly frivolous, or perhaps better suited to Wallace and Gromit, but it really does work. Lots of unexpected moments, twists and turns, it's almost hard to classify it, as it really does cross a few genres.

I just loved the way the camera focused on the killer loaf. Who'd have thought bread could be so dangerous. I can only imagine the puns that have been associated with this film over the years.

Some very nice performances throughout, Keen, Hylton, Kelly, Jackson all were great.

9p for a loaf of bread, wow times have really changed, I think I paid £2.25 for a loaf about an hour ago, as for the cost of potassium cyanide, you can only imagine.

8/10.