A Matter of Murder * (1949, Maureen Riscoe, John Barry, Charles Clapham, Ian Fleming, John Le Mesurier) – Classic Movie Review 13,275

The 1949 British crime B film A Matter of Murder stars Maureen Riscoe, John Barry, Charles Clapham, Ian Fleming and John Le Mesurier in a story about an embezzler implicated in an attack on his girlfriend.

Writer/ director John Gilling’s 1949 British black and white second feature B crime film A Matter of Murder stars Maureen Riscoe, John Barry, Charles Clapham, Ian Fleming and John Le Mesurier in a story about an embezzler implicated in a murderous attack on his girlfriend. Well, it tries quite hard, but it is not so much a B film as a Z film. It is, after all, impossible to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. But John Gilling has a good go.

John Barry stars as handsome mild mannered bank clerk Geoffrey Dent, who has been persuaded by his gold digging girlfriend Laura (Sonya O’Shea) to embezzle money from his bank, though she has promised to pay it back.

Two thugs (John Le Mesurier as Ginter, Sam Lee as Cullen) turn up to get the money, and an attempt is made on Laura’s life. She is in league with the thugs and intended to double cross them and make off with the money. She ends up in hospital, and Geoffrey runs away to avoid being blamed, picking Cheltenham as a random destination from a poster he sees at the station.

With the two thugs and a police detective hot on his heels, Geoffrey hides out in a Cheltenham boarding house run by Maureen Riscoe, who likes the look of him even though she has a reporter boyfriend (Ivan Craig as Tony). Bizarrely, she even persuades Geoffrey to go to a dance with her boyfriend, which makes the boyfriend understandably ragingly jealous.

The boarding house is blessed with a couple of comedy stereotype characters (Charles Clapham as Col Peabody, Blanche Fothergill as Miss Budge). This broad ‘comedy’ has little place in this kind of film, and has dated badly – it’s simply not funny – though Hitchcock liked this kind of thing and could have made it work.

An attempt at noir-style photography adds a little interest and goes some way to disguise the no-budget production. The plot isn’t bad but they have little idea how to tell the story successfully, at least in an hour and at this low a budget.

Maureen Riscoe in A Matter of Murder (1949).

Maureen Riscoe with an impossible Scots accent, John Barry with an impossible posh accent for a bank clerk, and Ivan Craig give game but fairly weak star performances, though again they try quite hard, and are appealing enough. Improbably cast John Le Mesurier plays the murderous main villain, and has action and fisticuffs, and a gun to handle at the end of the film! Le Mesurier was such a nice, suave bloke, so he is none too convincing as a villain, but he is a good actor though, so he just about gets away with it. Unconvincing, though he is, he still the best thing in the film, though Ian Fleming is okay as Det Sgt McKelvin.

The ‘calling all cars’ message goes out from the police, but they should have said ‘calling the car’ as the production can only afford one police car!

The Renown 2015 remastered print is dreadful and, hey, the film is not much good either! What happened to the opening credits? They cut off after the title and the Vandyke Films logo, and there are several jumps later in the print.

The cast are John Barry as Geoffrey Dent, Maureen Riscoe as Julie McKelvin, Charles Clapham as Col Peabody, Ivan Craig as Tony, Ian Fleming as Det Sgt McKelvin, Sonya O’Shea as Laura Wilson, Peter Madren as Sgt Bex, John Le Mesurier as Ginter, Sam Lee as Cullen, and Blanche Fothergill as Miss Budge.

A Matter of Murder is directed by John Gilling, runs 59 minutes, is made by Vandyke Productions, is distributed by Grand National Pictures, is written by John Gilling, is shot by S.D. Onions, is produced by Sam Lee and Roger Proudlock, and is scored by George Melachrino.

Release date: December 1949.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,275

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