Partners In Crime *** (1961, Bernard Lee, Moira Redmond, John Van Eyssen) – Classic Movie Review 13,181

Bernard Lee stars in the involving, quietly exciting 1961 Edgar Wallace Mystery crime thriller film Partners in Crime as Inspector Mann of Scotland Yard investigating the murder most foul of a wealthy soft drinks tycoon. 

Bernard Lee stars in the involving, quietly exciting 1961 crime thriller film Partners in Crime as Inspector Mann of Scotland Yard investigating the murder most foul of a wealthy soft drinks tycoon, in another of the 48 Edgar Wallace Mystery filler thrillers made at Merton Park studios.

Harold Strickland (Victor Platt), the chairman and co-owner of the Cool-Kups soft drinks company, arrives home from a night out with his wife, disturbs a burglar who has just ransacked his safe, and is shot dead. It appears to be a burglary gone wrong although dogged Inspector Mann (Bernard Lee) has his doubts and the finger of suspicion starts to point to Strickland’s wife (Moira Redmond) and business partner Frank Merril (John Van Eyssen), who has taken over control of the company.

Partners in Crime is a satisfying, engrossing Edgar Wallace Mystery series episode, taut and tense, and led by Bernard Lee’s quality and relaxed performance, the very model of a calm, canny, calculating old-time copper, inhabiting the character like the old raincoat he wears. He is such a reliable character actor that he can make it seem that despite larceny and murder most foul, the world is still going to be OK, and that his character is going to see to that. We are so on the side of the police here. These were the good old days.

Nicholas Smith (as the pawn shop assistant), Ernest Clark (as the newspaper business editor Ashton) and Graham Leaman (as the Yard ballistics expert) do very well with little to go on in their tiny scenes. John Van Eyssen is a silky villain, a bit theatrical maybe but fine, while glamorous Moira Redmond is also a bit theatrical but fine.

OK it’s only a movie, and an unpretentious B-movie at that, but it is surprisingly credible, oddly so because the plot is totally far fetched: they make it easy to suspend disbelief and get involved. The little bit of outdoors filming is precious, with the action climax in a trashed used car dump. There’s one brief shot of Fleet Street in its prime. Gasp!

The screenplay is by Robert Banks Stewart, based on Edgar Wallace’s 1918 novel The Man Who Knew, in which a detective investigates the death of a South Africa diamond magnate in London.

It is one of the series of 48 Edgar Wallace Mysteries films made at Merton Park Studios from 1960 to 1965.

Cast: Bernard Lee as Inspector Mann, Moira Redmond as Freda Strickland, John Van Eyssen as Merril, Stanley Morgan as Sergeant Rutledge, Gordon Boyd as Rex Holland, Mark Singleton as Shilton, Victor Platt as Harold Strickland, Danny Sewell as Avery, Robert Sansom as doctor, Nicholas Smith as pawn shop assistant, Ernest Clark as Ashton, Richard Shaw as Bill Cross, Graham Leaman as ballistics expert, Hilary Martyn as Rita, Clive Marshall as Tony Hart, Ruth Meyers as Mary Nuttal, Larry Martyn as Pete Lake, Deidre Day as secretary, and Peter Howard-Johnson as police sergeant.

Bernard Lee appeared in more than 100 films.

John Bernard Lee (10 January 1908 – 16 January 1981)

Bernard Lee featured in 11 James Bond films from 1962 to 1979 as Bond’s superior M. He plays Inspector Mann here, but Superintendent Meredith in the Edgar Wallace Mysteries Clue of the Twisted Candle (1960), Clue of the Silver Key (1961) and The Share Out (1962).

John Van Eyssen.

John Van Eyssen

John Van Eyssen (born Matthew John Du Toit Van Eyssen, 19 March 1922 – 13 November 1995) is remembered as Jonathan Harker in the 1958 Hammer Film Productions version of Dracula (Horror of Dracula in the US). He left acting in 1961 to become head of the Grade Organisation literary agency. He left in 1965 to work for the UK division of Columbia Pictures, becoming Managing Director in July 1969. He then became an independent producer, in 1991 establishing the Chelsea Film Festival. He was the longtime companion of Ingrid Bergman.

The Edgar Wallace Mysteries

There were 48 films in the British second-feature film series The Edgar Wallace Mysteries, produced at Merton Park Studios for Anglo-Amalgamated and released in cinemas between 1960 and 1965.

• Urge to Kill (March 1960)
• Clue of the Twisted Candle (September 1960)
• The Malpas Mystery (October 1960)
• Marriage of Convenience (November 1960)
• The Man Who Was Nobody (December 1960)
• Partners in Crime (February 1961)
• Clue of the New Pin (February 1961)
• The Fourth Square (June 1961)
• Man at the Carlton Tower (July 1961)
• Clue of the Silver Key (August 1961)
• Attempt to Kill (September 61)
• Man Detained (October 1961)
• Never Back Losers (December 1961)
• The Sinister Man (December 1961)
• Backfire! (February 1962)
• Candidate for Murder (February 1962)
• Flat Two (February 1962)
• The Share Out (February 1962)
• Number Six (April 1962)
• Time to Remember (July 1962)
• Solo for Sparrow (September 1962)
• Playback (September 1962)
• Locker Sixty-Nine (September 1962)
• Death Trap (October 1962)
• The Set Up (January 1963)
• Incident at Midnight (January 1963)
• The £20,000 Kiss (January 1963)
• On the Run (February 1963)
• Return to Sender (March 1963)
• Ricochet (March 1963)
• The Double (April 1963)
• To Have and to Hold (July 1963)
• The Partner (September 1963)
• Accidental Death (November 1963)
• Five to One (December 1963)
• Downfall (January 1964)
• The Verdict (February 1964)
• We Shall See (April 1964)
• The Rivals (May 1964)
• Who Was Maddox? (June 1964)
• Face of a Stranger (September 1964)
• Act of Murder (September 1964)
• Never Mention Murder (November 1964)
• The Main Chance (November 1964)
• Game for Three Losers (April 1965)
• Change Partners (July 1965)
• Strangler’s Web (August 1965)
• Dead Man’s Chest (October 1965).

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,181

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