Strangler’s Web ***½ (1965, John Stratton, Pauline Munro, Griffith Jones, Gerald Harper, Michael Balfour) – Classic Movie Review 13,289

The highly entertaining and satisfying 1965 British second feature Edgar Wallace Mysteries thriller film Strangler’s Web stars John Stratton, Pauline Munro, Griffith Jones and Gerald Harper.

Director John Moxey’s highly entertaining and satisfying 1965 British second feature mystery thriller film Strangler’s Web stars John Stratton, Pauline Munro, Griffith Jones and Gerald Harper.

It is written by George Baxt, and is the penultimate film of the 48 films in the series of Edgar Wallace Mysteries films made at Merton Park Studios.

John Vichelski (Michael Balfour) is arrested for the murder of an aging showgirl on Hampstead Heath, but the question is: did he kill her? Or if he didn’t, who really dunnit? John Stratton stars as the accused man’s solicitor Lewis Preston and Gerald Harper co-stars as the friendly Inspector Murray investigating murder most foul in another really rather excellent Edgar Wallace filler thriller. In classic style, bigamy and blackmail are the background to the murder.

A courting couple and a policeman hear a scream and find Norma Brent murdered on Hampstead Heath, with her lover John Vichelski at the scene holding the strangle cord. Vichelski is arrested by Inspector Murray, believing that Vichelski followed her and killed her after a heated argument. Brent was a middle-aged good time girl, a former star actress, apparently looking forward to a mysterious inheritance and a comeback.

Vichelski’s solicitor Lewis Preston, discovers that Brent was seeing another man, a charming older accountant, Amos Colfax, who was planning to marry her and share the inheritance but it turns out he is a con man. But Brent was also once involved with a former matinee idol, actor Jackson Delacorte, who retired from acting after being badly disfigured in a car accident. He is now a recluse living in a big old house with his abrupt and unpleasant niece, and Preston visits him to find out the truth.

Strangler’s Web is a tremendous series entry, with an extremely complex, convoluted plot, and three fine performances: from John Stratton, Griffith Jones and Gerald Harper, all in interestingly drawn characters. The multi-layered, cliché-free story, with a complicated backstory, unravels in just 52 minutes, so the film doesn’t half speed along, and you have to keep your wits about you to follow it. It manages to keep the killer pretty well concealed for most oy the way, and after the final reveal, there’s a totally unexpected twist.

It’s filmed well too, taut, tense and suspenseful, thanks to John Moxey’s expert professionalism. There’s a nice, peculiar atmosphere all the way through. The world is English noir, a rather dark and dangerous place, with a polite spin of course. Other than the policeman character (with Gerald Harper sharp and incisive, and yet still quite kindly as Inspector Murray), all the men are extremely flawed. The hero (John Stratton) is a wife-beating drunk, freshly scrubbed up and reformed, and eager to try to save his woman beating client (Michael Balfour). Griffith Jones as the faded, facially disfigured former matinee idol actor Jackson Delacorte proves a most dodgy character, a bigamist at best, and Maurice Hedley as the ageing Romeo called Amos Colfax, at least as dodgy, a conman at best.

Griffith Jones makes a belated appearance, but he’s a show-stopper once his role kicks in, grabbing the spotlight quite admirably in an attractively extravagant performance. John Stratton and Gerald Harper meanwhile keep it low key and credible, establishing a good rapport. They are the investigating team, and an unusual one. Stratton’s character’s attempts to buckle up and try save his client are going to be his redemption and salvation. Harper’s character shows a surprising easy-going nature and natural wisdom, an appealing copper.

If the men are generally portrayed in a poor light, the women aren’t let off the hook either: Pauline Munro as Melanie, Pauline Boty as Nell Pretty, Patricia Burke as Norma Brent and Patti Dalton as Elsie Lovett are a pretty unsavoury, greedy, self-seeking bunch, unattractive pieces of humanity. However, the lovely little Rosamund Greenwood has one lovely little scene as the registrar Miss Pitts. She seems silly, but she’s darned good at her job, and she’s funny!

Release date: August 1965 (UK).

It is followed by Dead Man’s Chest (October 1965).

The cast are John Stratton as Lewis Preston, Pauline Munro as Melanie, Griffith Jones as Jackson Delacorte, Gerald Harper as Inspector Murray, Maurice Hedley as Amos Colfax, Michael Balfour as John Vichelski, Pauline Boty as Nell Pretty, Patricia Burke as Norma Brent, Tony Wall as Constable Huntly, Barry Jackson as Morton Bray, Marianne Stone as Alicia Preston, Patti Dalton as Elsie Lovett, Gary Hope as Michael Olsen, and Rosamund Greenwood as Miss Pitts.

Strangler’s Web is directed by John Moxey, runs 52 minutes, is made by Merton Park Studios, is distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated, is written by George Baxt, is shot by James Wilson, is produced by Jack Greenwood, and is scored by Bernard Ebbinghouse.

Release date: 2 September 1966.

Argentine-born British film and TV director John Llewellyn Moxey (26 February 1925 – 29 April 2019)

John Moxey is known for directing the horror films The City of the Dead [Horror Hotel] (1960) and Circus of Fear (1966), both starring Christopher Lee.

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).

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,289

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