Walk a Tightrope (1963) User Reviews

More talent in front the camera than behind it

[XhcnoirX · 6/10 · 8 June 2016]

The husband of Patricia Owens is shot at point blank range in their home by Dan Duryea, in front of her. Duryea then acts as if Owens ordered the hit, and asks for her the rest of his money. Owens has no idea what he's going on about, but before things escalate any further, the dead husband's business partner Richard Leech intervenes, and Duryea makes a run for it. When he calls her, insisting she needs to pay for the job she paid him to do, Leech and her get the police to set a trap. During the pay-off, Duryea is easily apprehended. He decides to defend himself during the trial, and insists that if he's guilty, so is Owens for hiring him to kill her husband. But nobody believes him, especially not after it is revealed he spent some time in a mental institution...

The plot summary on IMDb's page this movie gives away everything that isn't fully revealed in the movie until the final 10 minutes. I've tried to avoid this trap, even tho I admit it's rather difficult, and part of it should be clear from the start, but hey... In any case, it's a pretty routine crime thriller that benefits from good performances from the always reliable Dan Duryea ('The Big Clock', 'Scarlet Street') and Patricia Owens ('Mystery Junction'). The movie is based on a story by Mann Rubin which had already been used as the basis for an episode on the 50s TV show 'Climax!', with Neville Brand as the killer! I would love to see that episode.

Director Frank Nesbitt and DoP Basil Emmott film things in an unimaginative way and there is a lack of tension, which is unfortunate. A few of the movie's set-up's seemed like nice fits for some good visuals and strong set pieces, but they just never happen unfortunately. In any case, it's a decent movie with some good performances, but it had potential for more. 6/10

Desperate Dan

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 4 March 2018]

I was a great fan of Dan Duryea.He was one of the best screen actors.This film was one of 9 he made in 1964.When he is on screen he is simply dynamite.The climax suffers from his absence.It is just as well he is so good as it helps paper over the cracks in the plot.He kills the wrong husband,the question is whether the correct target had ever been properly identified.Incidentally the pub The London Apprentice is in Isleworth not by the sea.Wonder what the cinema was

good

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 20 September 2021]

"Walk a Tightrope" from 1964 is a British B film starring Dan Duryea and Patricia Owens.

Duryea plays a criminal, Lutcher, who tells his girlfriend (Shirley Cameron) that he has a job. We see him shadowing the wife of an architect, Ellen (Owens). She arrives home with her husband and his partner. The partner goes upstairs. Lutcher walks in and shoots Ellen's husband (Terence Cooper).

Ellen collapses, which causes Lutcher to act surprised. He wants the rest of his money - after all, she's the one that hired him to kill her husband. The devastated Ellen vehemently denies this.

Duryea is wonderful, and this will keep you guessing until the end. As far as the actress playing his girlfriend, Shirley Cameron, I didn't understand one word that came out of her mouth.

Otherwise really interesting.

just for Dan fans

[happytrigger-64-390517 · 6/10 · 9 May 2016]

Walk A Tightrope isn't a very strong thriller, no real action in a very few sets, the main attraction being Dan Duryea, always so terrific as an insane killer.

And the whole mystery of the movie is, is Dan Duryea the main responsible for the killing? The sequence at the court with Dan assuming his own defense is exceptional : beginning on a very comic tone, as if Dan is obviously not the main responsible, it suddenly turns into madness. Just for that sequence, the movie is a must see, Dan Duryea has an exceptional elocution, you laugh then you're frightened by madness, don't miss it.

Glum b movie wastes its star.

[Mozjoukine · 10 January 2003]

If the makers had known what they were about, they'd have had Dan Duryea sit in a chair and read the script to camera. Every time they shift to the stiff British players or the obvious studio settings, attention drops.

This one is no worse than the run quota filling first half thrillers that were being poured out of British studios at the time though it has the same glum view of human nature and unconvincing intonations. These were, despite the protestations of those who saw a living out of them, made by people who'd rather do something else, for theaters who'd rather show something else and played to audiences who considered coming in at interval to just see the big picture.

Apart from Duryea, WALK A TIGHTROPE has Pat Owens memorable for her lead in LAW & JAKE WADE and unforgettable in her number in HELL TO ETERNITY and is filmed by the cameraman of DRIFTERS. The makers' attempts to induce style, in material like the sustained shot of Owens with voices over, fail miserably. Details like the London cab are jammed in to catch a U.S. audience. The first time director does his best.

Crazy stalker or truth teller?

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 3 May 2022]

When you've got Dan Duryea committing murder, the setup is ripe for a very tense film noir, and here, he's blackmailing the widow of the man he killed, claiming that she paid him to kill her husband. His harassment of her continues until he's caught in a trap, and on the witness stand defending himself as his own attorney, he questions her in a very mad manner that indicates that he is insane beyond healing. Patricia Owens, as the grieving widow, has the testimony she needs to clear herself, claiming that she never met him, and his insane outbursts in court came to confirm all that. But of course, there's more to the story, and the twists and turns are delicious.

This is the type of film that as things are revealed makes the viewer say, "Wow!" Nobody plays crazed better than Dan Duryea which he proved in several British thrillers in the mid-1960's. Owens, having dealt with the fly, now has to deal with a different type of insect, one of the humankind. They are both excellent, creating complex characterizations that thanks to a very intelligent screenplay will keep the audience on the edge of their seat. The direction and production design is super, and for a low-budget British quota quickie (just lasting a little over an hour), this is the type of film that sends the audience out shocked by what they've just seen, that being in a good way.

A good plot gets lost inside a terrible movie.

[MOscarbradley · 1/10 · 4 March 2021]

Americans Dan Duryea and Patricia Owens made this truly dreadful little programmer in Britain in 1964 and it's almost certainly the worst thing either of them ever did. The British cast includes one-time James Bond wannabe Terence Cooper and Richard Leech. Cooper's married to Owens. Duryea is the hitman hired by who to kill who and Leech is the friend who witnesses the hit and they are all dreadful; this movie may have the worst acting to be seen in the sixties. The plot itself isn't bad and director Frank Nesbitt makes good use of his London locations, (which is about all you can say in his favour; he only made three films of which this was one), and while it only lasts 69 minutes it feels much, much longer. It is, in fact, the kind of Z-movie that gives Z-movies a bad name. To be avoided at all costs.

Shot in ten days, edited in six

[JohnHowardReid · 2/10 · 20 November 2012]

"Shot in ten days, edited in six!" Paramount's publicity manager proudly told me at the trade screening. It certainly didn't look that way to me. I'd say it was shot in four days, edited in three. Aside from Dan Duryea's professional playing, this dreary British "B" has absolutely nothing to recommend it. Every device known to Poverty Row movie makers has been used to pad out the running time to quota length. The players take forever to walk across a room and reaction shots from bystanders are cut in to make the walk even longer.

All Miss Owens's scenes were obviously filmed in a rush. She is not even present in most of the episodes in which is supposed to interact with the other players, e.g. all the court-room scenes. Crude film editing tries to disguise this fact, but to no avail.

In addition to the movie's dull and totally unengaging direction, the photography is often fuzzy and even occasionally out of focus. In fact production values are so minimal and the budget so tight, it didn't even stretch to paying a couple of extras to sit in the back of an obviously empty taxi.

Dan Duryea on top form in taut thriller

[wilvram · 8/10 · 28 May 2015]

Dan Duryea is Lutcher, an unstable and violent drifter. The good news, which he tells his girlfriend, is that he has a job. The bad news, which he doesn't, is that it is to kill someone. Patricia Owens plays Ellen, the devoted wife of Jason, who is traumatised when Lutcher bursts in and shoots him, and even worse, insistently accuses her of paying him to do it.

This is a gripping and suspenseful thriller that keeps you guessing right to the end. Dan Duryea is at his best, particularly in the scene in the magistrates' court; no matter how unsympathetic his character may be, he can't help but make you smile. Owens is convincing in the difficult role of Ellen, while the unfortunate Jason is Terence Cooper, one of the least known Bonds, in the Sixties' CASINO ROYALE. Canadian born actor Neil McCallum, responsible for the script from a story by New York writer Mann Rubin, as well as playing prosecuting counsel, was shortly to become a household name as one of the stars of the BBC Mafia series, VENDETTA. There's also the perennial plain-clothes officer of British B movies, Trevor Reid, a role he tended to share with the not dissimilar Ballard Berkeley. A poverty row production, maybe, but a compelling and entertaining little film as well.

Very average

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 7 March 2020]

WALK A TIGHTROPE is a short British thriller (69 minutes) with a simple and slightly contrived plot that feels aboute ten years older than it actually is. Other than some of the lower necklines to distinguish it as a mid-'60s picture, this type of film could - and often was - churned out during the early '50s, featuring domestic drama and mild, small scale thriller aspects. This one has an imported American star in Dan Duryea, playing a hitman hired by a wife to take care of her ex-husband. However he gets the wrong guy and the plot goes from there. It's a rather tepid little thriller that doesn't really achieve much, although Patricia Owens is fine as the female lead. The story only really comes to life in the courtroom climax and the twist ending, but before then it's very average.

Oh dear. Such a good storyline, shame about the film...

[j_paul_murdock · 3/10 · 21 May 2021]

A woman thinks she is being followed by a hit-man. She wanders the streets in desperation only to land by chance at a café over the road from a pub where her husband and his business partner are about to entertain a client. Inside the café, the woman faints and, watched by another shadowy figure, is taken into the manager's office and out through the back door. The woman, the husband and the business partner return home by taxi but not long afterwards the hit-man forces his way in, kills the husband and claims the wife hired him, which she denies, and so wants his money for the job.

To cut a long story short (again, this film is barely longer than an hour), the woman (and the hit-man) are American. The other shadowy figure is also American as he turns up to see her after everything has blown over, only to reveal himself as the woman's first husband, who she is still technically married to. He has been blackmailing her to keep schtum about her bigamy. The woman DID hire the hit-man, but to kill her first, American husband. The chance meeting at the café where the woman fainted meant that the hit-man got the wrong husband...

You see? A clever little story. The only thing is that the film is awful. Both main leads and parachuted-in American Dan Duryea as the hitman and Canadian Patricia Owens as the woman are truly awful and complete misfits for the rest of the cast, if not cimematic history. Duryea, even though he was 55 at the time of the filming - looks at least 10 years older. (He actually died of cancer 4 years later.) He was known for this kind of part but found slim pickings in his later years. Owens, who apparently did a good line in distraught wives, displayed very little acting ability in this film. While she plays 'the quiet woman' for obvious reasons, she displays no depth of character at all, not even in the reveal at the end. The first husband is played by David Bauer who was born in Chicago and fled the anti-Communist hysteria of the US in the 50s. Usually reliable, he only gives a convincing portrayal of someone who, in roughly 10 years, has completely forgotten how to play an American. Even his ridiculously false five o'clock shadow doesn't save him from having no edge whatsoever. You can't really blame him, though, as he only has the last five minutes of the film to establish his character, and he is up against Owens' complete inability to connect.

The film otherwise is a weird mishmash of American and British that ruins the edgy storyline. The start with Duryea stalking Owens is pure American, spoilt by the fact that it is carried out on the hardly mean streets of suburban London. Production values (and budgets) are low. The court room scene where Duryea is committed to trial is evidently written by someone who has either no idea of how the British law and order system works or wasn't paid enough to do any research. Duryea, who has elected to defend himself because the film's budget couldn't run to another actor, is allowed to make a lengthy statement from the dock in which he spills all the beans from his side. Anything else lengthy in the court scene is provided by shots of the hit-man's very simple girlfriend weeping. Maybe it's to cover up the fact that Owens isn't even on the courtroom set most of the time. Most of the rest of the film is taken up with Owens being moody and contrary which, looking back, should make us suspicious of her actions... but doesn't. There is a compete lack of suspense which is only to be expected from the claim that the film is said to have been shot in ten days, edited in six!

The lack of suspense means we don't understand why Owens chooses to walk the streets of London stalked by the hit-man instead of finding somewhere familiar and safe. And the most ridiculous scene is where she returns home after the courtroom scene only for us to see the tape outline of her late husband's body still on the hall floor!

Director Frank Nesbitt only made two other films (one of those being 'Dulcima', which has always left me with a funny feeling, too) and, I'm afraid, it shows...

The Prowler

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 26 February 2020]

Five years earlier Patricia Owens was found next to the corpse of her husband in 'The Fly'. The law are called in again when she suffers a similar misfortune in this enjoyable potboiler shot on attractive early sixties London locations with an atmospheric piano score by Buxton Orr.

I was watching out for twists along the way, and found the final revelation when it eventually came highly satisfying.

A spine Tingling Thriller

[deanofrpps · 8/10 · 10 February 2008]

Meet Ellen Shepherd (Patricia Owens), an American living in Britain, the femme fatale of Walking The Tightrope, once shown in America under the title Tightrope. Her English husband Jason Sheppard (Terrence Cooper), has been killed and she's under suspicion despite the appearance of a happy marriage. Jason's friend assists Ellen go over the facts to see if they can find the real killer.

The path leads from her entry into Britain and the reappearance of her former American husband. Is this murder an act of jealous revenge? One might think so until Ellen confronted by her former husband concedes she hired a the gunman who killed the wrong man.

The story is riveting throughout.

Ignore the spoliers and enjoy the twist

[drb-65442 · 10/10 · 21 January 2024]

Ignore the bad reviews, most of which seem to be written by people who just don't like grim B&W thrillers from 1960s England. This is, in fact, a briskly paced but gripping British film noir with an amazing final scene twist that forces you to see the whole film from a different perspective. With strong performances from the great Dan Duryea and Patricia Owens, the film explores the class and gender biases of the early 1960s British judicial system, as well as telling a great story with many twists and turns. Also of great interest is the fact that much of the film was shot on location in and around Strand on the Green and Isleworth in south west London. I don't know if the white pub is still there, but if so I would love to visit it. I first saw this gem of a film on Talking Pictures TV, but I only caught the second half so missed much of the narrative detail. A couple of years later I finally managed to track it down and was delighted to discover it is still available on DVD.

This gun's for hire?

[ulicknormanowen · 28 January 2024]

An underrated thriller, with a final twist which would not be out of place in an Agatha Christie's whodunit.

The beginning of the movie may puzzle the viewer and may seem confused and off-putting;but further acquaintance generates a tense suspense : the crummy flat where Dan Duryea and his mistress live, "I've got something to do " says he ; then the bizarre atmosphere in the street and the posh people who are in direct contrast to the first characters "Seems I've been being followed" Jason says ,connecting both worlds.

Jason is murdered ; the killer claims that he was paid by his wife Ellen to do away with him; but she denies it and cries over her late man's body ;but is she really the weeping widow? Or is she putting an act? And her attentive escort ,Doug , who stands by her : is he her accomplice? "Now, you're alone ,and so is she" says the cop. Or ,unbeknown to her, did he want to get rid of his partner who works with him as an architect?

Patricia Owens shines in this Christiesque riddle.