Face of a Stranger **½ (1964, Jeremy Kemp, Rosemary Leach, Bernard Archard, Philip Locke) – Classic Movie Review 13,304

The 1964 British Edgar Wallace Mysteries crime thriller film Face of a Stranger features Jeremy Kemp, Rosemary Leach, Bernard Archard, and Philip Locke. Jimmy Sangster adapts Edgar Wallace’s story, credited as John Sansom.

Director John Moxey’s 1964 British Edgar Wallace Mysteries crime thriller film Face of a Stranger features Jeremy Kemp, Rosemary Leach, Bernard Archard, and Philip Locke.

This 41st one of the 48 Merton Park Studios Edgar Wallace thrillers is an odd but intriguing, very tall story. It’s not a mystery at all really, but a straight thriller, unfolding with some tension and suspense, and a slightly sinister air.

A newly released convict (Jeremy Kemp) goes to look up the blind wife (Rosemary Leach) of his jail buddy (Philip Locke), and stays to live with her masquerading as him, initially to try to find out the whereabouts of the pal’s robbery stash, but he then falls in love with her. Though he’s quite a tough guy, he’s vulnerable to this as he has just discovered that his own wife (Jean Marsh) has dumped him for another live-in man (Mike Pratt).

Jeremy Kemp stars as Vince Howard, a crook just released from prison, who falls in love with his cellmate John Bell (Philip Locke)’s blind wife Mary Bell (Rosemary Leach), whom he has promised to visit. Mary seems to accept Vince as the real husband, so he takes his place. But it’s fairly obvious that Leach is up to something, and what is dodgy, rifle-carrying neighbour Bernard Archard up to?

Hard to believe a word of it, but it’s diverting nonetheless. It’s quite complex and well plotted, but it’s artificial, and doesn’t flow easily. Yet, you can join its game, and play along with it for an hour quite happily.

Four very good actors sell this highly unlikely, contrived though entertaining enough tale, with murder most foul but no investigating police presence. Kemp especially gives it much  more than it deserves, but enigmatic Rosemary Leach, scheming Bernard Archard, and sympathetic Philip Locke do their excellent best for it too. Moxey tries a few directorial tricks to liven thing up, such as travelling camera shots and extreme close-ups, and even gets out and about a bit in trains and train stations, and so yes it’s lively enough between talky spells.

The screenplay is by John Sansom based on a story by Edgar Wallace. Writer Jimmy Sangster is credited as John Sansom.

Jean Marsh is wasted as Vince’s faithless wife Grace, Mike Pratt has zilch to do as her lover Harry, and nor does Ronald Leigh-Hunt as the prison governor.

Release date: September 1964.

The cast

The cast are Jeremy Kemp as Vince Howard, Bernard Archard as Michael Forrest, Rosemary Leach as Mary Bell, Philip Locke as John Bell, Elizabeth Begley as Mrs Holden, Jean Marsh as Grace, Ronald Leigh-Hunt as prison governor, Mike Pratt as Harry, Harry Longhurst as Peters, Alec Bregonzi as garage proprietor, Keith Smith as ticket collector, Edward Dentith as prison officer, and Victor Charrington as chief prison officer.

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)
• The 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).
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