An American estate agent called Alan Curtis (Arthur Kennedy) is bored with his mundane, quiet and uneventful life in the sleepy Sussex town of Ashmore. He is happily married to Elizabeth (Joy Shelton), but all their lives seem to revolve around are work, games of bridge with their well meaning but inquisitive neighbours and Elizabeth's weekly visits to see her mother. However, at his local pub one night, he is struck by an attractive brunette, the cabaret singer Lila Day (Constance Smith), who walks into the bar, but leaves when two men appear asking for her. On driving home, Curtis is flagged down by Lila whose car has broken down and he invites her to stay at his house while he arranges for her car to be repaired. The mechanic tells him that it will not be ready until the following morning and the two men from the pub appear introducing themselves as policemen saying that Lila is wanted for questioning. Curtis returns home and is ready to throw her out, but she explains that the police are really searching for her brother who has stolen some jewellery from an elderly woman. Curtis agrees to drive her to London to her job at a Soho nightclub owned by the shifty Jack Forrester (James Carney) who does not like him hanging around her and, in a veiled threat, tells him to go back to his quiet life in the country. It becomes apparent that Forrester has some kind of hold over Lila and Curtis interrupts a row in her dressing room which he rescues her from. He finds himself falling in love with the beautiful young singer and spends the night with her at her flat resisting returning to his wife and job in Ashmore. The following morning Forrester turns up at the flat and tells Curtis that her brother is an escaped convict called Larry Winters (Bruce Beeby) but, Curtis, falling for her, agrees to help find him and it turns out that he is hiding in a derelict house near an old bombsite. He tells Curtis that he is not really Lila's brother before pulling a gun on him. Curtis knocks him out, disarming him and returns home to Ashmore. However, Lila phones him that night telling him that Winters is dead and it now looks as if he could be facing a murder rap. He returns to London finding her living in a run down lodging house where he learns that Winters was Lila's accomplice and together they had stolen £50,000 worth of diamonds from Forrester and were planning to escape from the country. But, Forrester and the two men turn up: they were only impersonating police officers and are in actual fact hoods employed by him. They demand to know where the stones are before a fight breaks out and, during the struggle that ensues, a gun goes off killing one of them. Curtis and Lila flee and decide that the only way to escape facing a murder charge is to take the diamonds and flee abroad together...
A British 'B' that gets off to a very promising start with an appealing plot in the sub Hitchcock vein about an ordinary guy bored to death with his run of the mill life and, in a nod to American film noir, sees the opportunity for a more exciting life in the beautiful cabaret singer Lila, who in the best femme fatale tradition, leads him on, manipulating him in order to get him to do whatever she wants him to do. In the course of all this, Curtis gets drawn into deadly situations that are way beyond his control and, ironically, comes to regret what he wished for in the first place. All the ingredients are here for a first rate thriller and it is very likable while its on with good performances from American leading man Arthur Kennedy and Constance Smith. For the first hour it really comes alive under the direction of Cy Endfield (credited as Charles de Lautour) who builds up the intrigue in John Gilling's script nicely and nobody is what they appear to be and all along we are aware that the lovely Lila is hiding something, but we are never quite sure what and it keeps us firmly on the edge of our seats wondering exactly how she will lead the naive Curtis into hot water. The b/w camera-work of Jonah Jones neatly contrasts the tranquil and soothing setting of the small rural town with the seedy and heady atmosphere of Forrester's Soho nightclub, the drab cheap lodging house that Lila later inhabits while hiding out from her boss's thugs and the few authentic London locations we see are used to good effect.
Unfortunately, after an hour the film tails off into implausibility and the climax (no spoiler given) is a disappointment after we had been promised so much, but it finally succumbs to the limitations of the b-pic business's low budgeting and tight scheduling leaving us thinking that with a better worked out finale it might well have been a minor classic of its kind. Enjoyable while its on though.
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