Blackout *** (1950, Maxwell Reed, Dinah Sheridan, Patric Doonan) – Classic Movie Review 11,081

Maxwell Reed as Chris Pelley in Blackout (1950).

Robert S Baker and Monty Berman’s twisty 1950 British noir crime drama mystery thriller Blackout stars Dinah Sheridan and Maxwell Reed.

This effective short 1950 British black and white support feature from the producer-director Robert S Baker and Monty Berman production team is commendably lively, busy and fast paced, packing a lot of involved plot into its 78 minutes.

Maxwell Reed stars as Chris Pelley, a blind ex-serviceman who is driven to the wrong address when he arrives in London and finds a corpse and a man’s ring nearby. The three killers are still in the house but when they realise that he is blind, simply knock him out and put him out on the street. The police find him, after a simple bonk on the bonce, but don’t believe him because they cannot find the body. Then, after his sight is miraculously restored by an operation, he sets off to find the body and the killers.

He returns to the house to find kindly Pat Dale (Dinah Sheridan) living there with her father and a photo on the piano tells him the ring belongs to her brother, Norman (Basil Appleby), presumed dead after a plane crash a year ago. Pat agrees to help him investigate the mystery, and with handy aid from her and Norman’s friend Chalky (Patric Doonan), he busts a smuggling gang.

Maxwell Reed and Dinah Sheridan.

Admittedly, it is all a bit artificial, cheap looking and slightly creaky. But, thanks to the decent performances and the offbeat plotline in John Gilling’s neat and efficient screenplay based on a story by Carl Nystrom, it is a tolerable old thriller yarn anyway.

It is remade as Blind Spot in 1958, another British crime drama by the same producers.

Also in the cast are Patric Doonan, Eric Pohlmann, Kynaston Reeves, Michael Brennan, Annette D Simmonds [Annette Simmonds], Michael Evans, Pat Metcalfe, Basil Appleby, Ernest Butcher, Jean Lodge, Ronald Leigh-Hunt, Madoline Thomas, Ida Patlanski, Campbell Singer and Sam Kydd.

It is the feature debut of Ronald Leigh-Hunt.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,081

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Maxwell Reed.