Man in Hiding (1953) User Reviews

Paul Henreid, Jolly Bon Vivant

[boblipton · 6/10 · 13 September 2019]

Murderer Kieron Moore escapes from prison. He's headed to London for.... revenge? His ex-wife, Lois Maxwell, now married to Bill Travers, and hiding under a different name and profession, thinks he is coming for her. In reality, he's looking for the man who committed the murder. The police are closing in on Moore, but Paul Henreid, lawyer, lover and bon vivant, has been asked to look into the matter by a friend, and is doing so.

It sounds like an unlikely role for Henreid, doesn't it? He pulls it off here, and although the solution to this mystery is poorly prefigured, it's a pretty good movie of pretty people in pretty clothes -- except for Moore -- it works as an enormous series of red herrings to drag across the trail. That may be the point of this movie, as a pasquinade of murder mysteries.

Well made but "B" type thriller

[robluvthebeach · 6/10 · 23 February 2015]

Saw this film online and worth a look.

Spoilers: A mystery made mysterious by the writers via misleading clues, lack of cohesion and glaring loopholes begins when Speight (Kieron Moore) escapes after being found guilty of murder, and his wife, Thelma (Lois Maxwell), believes he is after her because she is in love with another man and has changed her name. Lawyer Bishop and friend (Paul Henreid), playing a hunch, finds Speight at the scene of the crime and learns he is after the real murderer and not his wife. They shift through several men as suspects, all of whom seem to know his wife rather well. It is well done but no great shakes in the thriller department. The acting ranges from good to shaky and look for Kay Kendall in a small supporting role.

Where is Speight?

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 9 June 2022]

Paul Henried is uncharacteristically jaunty in this early Hammer thriller set in a postwar London of bombsites, trenchcoats and impossibly glamorous females. Before she found her niche as Miss Moneypenny Lois Maxwell plays a damsel in distress, the role of sexy secretary instead going to an up and coming young Kay Kendall.

PRE-HORROR-HAMMER...BEAUTIFUL FEMALE LEADS...PAUL HENRIEID MISCAST

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 9 August 2021]

AKA..."Woman in Hiding"

A Few Years Before Hammer Studios Changed the Face and Tone of Horror Movies,

the Famous British Studio Dabbled in Film-Noir and Police Procedurals.

Notice the Odd Board Game that the Police Use to Move Squad Cars Around.

A Forced, Borderline Ridiculous Attempt to Elevate Law Enforcement to Omnipresence.

This Type of Over-Kill Attempt to Worship Post-War Law Enforcement Diluted Many a Film-Noir in the 1950's.

Paul Henreid's Over-the-Top Strange, Giddy Performance as a Lawyer Interested in Human Behavior, Almost Sinks this Average Who-Done-It.

Lois Maxwell (James Bond's Miss Moneypenny) is Fantastic to Look-At and Gives a Good Performance as a Worried, Nervous Wife of an Escaped Murderer.

The Other Females Mary Laura Wood and Kay Kendall also Add Some Eye-Candy to the Pedestrian Movie.

Plenty of On-Location Footage Around London Add Gravitas.

But the Male Performers are All Stiff and Uninteresting, and Along with Henreid's Breezy Antics do Nothing to Enhance the Intrigue.

Directed by Legendary Horror Director Terence Fisher.

A Good Effort by the Studio with a Decent Budget with an Outdoor Gritty Look.

But an Average Film Overall.

If it's a Hammer Movie, it's Worth a Watch.

Bishops Protects Queen

[southdavid · 6/10 · 22 December 2022]

The next film watched for the "House of Hammer" podcast is 1953's "Mantrap", alternately titled both "Woman In Hiding" and "Man In Hiding" depending on where and when you come across it.

Thelma (Lois Maxwell) is disturbed to learn that her husband, Speight (Kieron Moore) has escaped from Prison, where he was sentenced for murder. In the subsequent years, Thelma had established a new life for herself and has remarried to Victor Tasman (Bill Travers). There are serious questions though about whether Speight committed the murder and one of his friends asks Hugo Bishop (Paul Henreid) to find him before the police do.

A reasonably solid if somewhat unspectacular whodunnit. It's apparent pretty early that that despite her fear, Speight is not actually hunting his ex-wife and so that only really leaves one other option. Performances are OK. Paul Henreid is not perhaps a typical leading man, but his spark with his secretary/fiancé, played by Kay Kendall, is quite good. Hammer regular Anthony Forwood reappears as yet another upper-class cad, but again, he's got that role down.

Visually and aurally, the film is OK, if not perhaps the height of what we've seen from Hammer (This may be linked though to me seeing a Youtube version that appears to have been recorded from the television. The story is fine, but, as is often the case with Hammer films, the ending is not such more stunted as abrupt. It's also a little bit to small for what it needs to be. In hinges on one character seeing another across a dancefloor, but the room doesn't seem big enough for them not to have noticed each other previously.

It was alright, perhaps a little more invention wouldn't have gone amiss, and I doubt I'm ever going to watch it again.

A trapped man.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 5/10 · 28 June 2022]

Taking a look at Talking Pictures free online catch-up service,I was happy to find a selection of rather obscure titles by film maker Terence Fisher, which led to me helping a man get out of a trap.

View on the film:

Revealed in Tony Dalton's delightful book Terence Fisher: Master of Gothic Cinema that this title marked the film maker returning to Hammer studios, co-writer (with Paul Tabori) / director Terence Fisher stylishly points towards his upcoming Gothic Horror in the final, where Fisher & cinematographer Reginald H. Wyer free the man from the murder mystery, with an extended first-person sequence, (a recurring motif in the Film Noir works by Fisher) being broken by a Scream Queen shriek.

Filmed round the streets St. Paul's Cathedral, Fisher follows Speight on the run in the bombed-out location, with jagged panning shots dipped in hanging low-lighting which reflects Speight having to go deeper underground to avoid the police.

Joined by a wonderful Lois Maxwell as Thelma and Barbara Shelley making her screen debut, Kieron Moore gives a fittingly gruff performance as Speight, with Moore having Speight scratching his nails against the bombed-out walls, trying to find a brick to loosen in order to prove his innocence,and get out of the man-made trap.

Like a bomb's hit it!

[kalbimassey · 5/10 · 29 November 2023]

With an opening sequence bearing a striking resemblance to Bogart's 'Dark Passage', convicted murderer, Kieron Moore escapes prison aboard a truck in a determined bid to prove his innocence. From this point, similarities between the two movies rapidly blur. There is no plastic surgery and Paul Henreid is a far less glamorous confidante than Lauren Bacall! More crucially, 'Mantrap' is a significantly inferior piece of work.

News that Moore is on the run, seriously ruffles the feathers of ex-wife Lois Maxwell, now a successful writer, whilst senior detective, Lloyd Lamble creates an elaborate board game from shunting police cars around the capital in an attempt to snare the convict. Meanwhile, astute lawyer, turned investigator, Henreid has rooted himself at the derelict, bomb site crime scene, where his prolonged patience is rewarded, when Moore finally returns.

Going forward, 'Mantrap' is essentially a talking picture, rather than a moving picture. Just revealing the filling in the sandwich which Henreid offers to the ravenous Moore would have boosted the interest level. The belated chase sequence looks like it was tacked on as an afterthought. The bad guy almost having to be persuaded to make a break for it, whilst everyone's attention is diverted elsewhere.

A second viewing, reveals a few previously unappreciated subtleties and nuances, at least partially lifting the movie out of the miasma of mediocrity, but it's fine margins. For real punch and potency, delivered with panache and pizzazz, check out the aforementioned 'Dark Passage'.

Chance to see early Kay Kendall film

[howardmorley · 5/10 · 18 April 2015]

I only rated this 1953 film 5/10 as average.It has rather poor continuity, editing and to be frank is rather dull for what purports to be a thriller.The highlight for me was to see an early Kay Kendall performance however I did not recognise "Miss Moneypenny" (Lois Maxwell from early James Bond films) who played the female lead.The other user review above succinctly outlines the basic plot, such as it was, so I won't repeat it.Casting Paul Henreid in the male lead role as an investigative lawyer was a mistake as the producer should have cast a British actor for more verisimilitude in the role.Normally I like what I call "Cholomdley-Warner" (apologies to Harry Enfield) films but this was not one of them.

Returning to the scene of the crime

[clanciai · 9/10 · 3 September 2020]

This has happened frequently in the movies, and it always happens again. The chief attraction here though is the ladies. Lois Maxwell is perfect as the professional woman who is scared to death of the return of her former husband, who has escaped from prison, after having been sentenced for a number of years for a stipulated murder, of which he has no memory, since the shock of it brought him amnesia. The other lady is Kay Kendall in an early role as the becoming wife of Paul Henreid, who is a lawyer who is asked to assist the fugitive, an artist, by a colleague of his, another artist, who believes he is innocent, and they both find it plausible that he has escaped from prison only to search out the real murderer. All they have as a lead is a few sketches by the fugitive, who never forgot the face of the murderer and made quite a number of sketches of his face. It is a small but highly efficient thriller, as the suspense keeps towering up throughout the film, culminating in a party towrds the end with everyone there, also both Lois Maxwell and Kay Kendall. Paul Henreid makes a good gentlemanly performance as always, but the chief attraction is the two ladies. Lois Maxwell was quite an actress, and Kay Kendall, soon the wife of Rex Harrison, would crown her career as the greatest comedienne British cinema has ever seen.

Crime is convoluted, especially when it's a reopened murder mystery.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 22 May 2022]

This movie is very convoluted too, a B Hammer mystery that is intriguing in spots but filled with too many unanswered questions. It's films like this if you have to be in the mood for, completely alert and paying 100% attention to the screen. Otherwise, if you miss one detail, you'll be thrown out of the loop and possibly completely bored with another going on. Lois Maxwell is afraid her estranged husband has escaped from prison to seek revenge for her falling in love with someone else, and being accused of a murder he claimed to be innocent of wants to find the real killer.

Maxwell becomes so paranoid about her husband or the killer going after her and shoots aimlessly at someone coming in to her flat without even finding out who it is. Paul Henreid becomes involved in the case, and keeps badgering Maxwell in efforts to help her. Kieron Moore and Kay Kendall co-star, with flustered direction by Terence Fisher. In spite of a sparkling production design, I found myself bored with the entire thing and couldn't wait for it to be over.

Dullish

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 7 July 2018]

MANTRAP is a dullish crime thriller from Hammer Films and one of the worst in the filmography of the great director Terence Fisher. It stars Kieron Moore as a guy who busts out of prison to find the real murderer behind the crime for which he was framed and sent to jail. All well and good, except the focus of the story is on his ex-wife whose contribution to the whole thing is rather negligible. This turns out to be a long-winded and stodgy affair, bogged down by stock dialogue and nary a moment's excitement. The cast members fail to breathe much life into the routine lines given them by Paul Tabori, and Lois Maxwell has none of the glamour and vitality as evinced in her Miss Moneypenny roles in later years. Only mild interest arises in spotting Barbara Shelley (in her debut appearance) and Bill Travers as a lovelorn figure.

Its A long way from Casablanca

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 6 September 2022]

By the time that Paul Henreid made this film he had slipped a long way down the ladder from his days at Warner Brothers. As other reviewers have said he probably wasnt ideal casting for the part..In fact Hugh Sinclair,cast in a different type of role was probably more ideal.

This film is fairly routine other than the few deft touches by director Terence Fisher. Lois Maxwell looking through the venetian blinds was very expressionistic.

For some reason IMDb want 600 words so here goes..............................................................................................................................................................................

I did enjoy the look at the City of London in the 1950s with all the bomb sites. I do remember them.