The Last Shot You Hear ** (1969, Hugh Marlowe, Zena Walker, Patricia Haines, William Dysart) – Classic Movie Review 13,475

Gordon Hessler’s twisty 1969 British murder thriller film The Last Shot You Hear stars Hugh Marlowe, Zena Walker, Patricia Haines, and William Dysart. 

‘Sex becomes a murder weapon in… The Last Shot You Hear’

Director Gordon Hessler’s 1969 British thriller film The Last Shot You Hear stars Hugh Marlowe, Zena Walker, Patricia Haines, and William Dysart, along with Thorley Walters, Joan Young, and Lionel Murton.

William Fairchild’s twisty 1959 murder thriller play The Sound of Murder looks a little lost and rather ordinary on the big screen with few surprises in its regulation story of lovers planning a murder but finding that nothing goes to plan.

Hugh Marlowe gives an uncomfortable turn as Charles Nordeck, the marriage-guidance counsellor husband who finds his wife Anne (Patricia Haines) is cheating on him with lover Peter Marriott (William Dysart). Haines and Dysart then plot to kill Marlowe, whose secretary Eileen Forbes (Zena Walker) joins the scam.

Director Hessler’s film-making style is a bit grungy and basic, but it is energetic enough, yet the screenplay by Tim Shields lacks enough inspiration and spark, and the low budget production is uninspiring.

The Last Shot You Hear was made in 1967 but not released until 1969, and is the last film from prolific American film producer Robert L Lippert. The film made a loss of $290,000 to 20th Century Fox and ended their association with Lippert after more than 200 films. It is also Hugh Marlowe’s last film.

Its original working title was The Jolly Girls. The Shaggy Pups wrote the theme song.

The 1965 film Catacombs [The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die] is Hessler’s first feature after working on the TV series The Alfred Hitchcock Hour from 1962 until its cancellation in 1965.

The cast

The cast are Hugh Marlowe as Charles Nordeck, Zena Walker as Eileen Forbes, Patricia Haines as Anne Nordeck, William Dysart as Peter Marriott, Thorley Walters as General Jowett, Lionel Murton as Rubens, Joan Young as Mrs Jowett, Helen Horton as Dodie Rubens, John Nettleton as Det. Inspector Nash, John Wentworth as Chambers, Alister Williamson as CID man, Job Stewart as policeman, Julian Holloway as brash young man, Lynley Laurence, Daphne Barker, James Mellor, Ian Hamilton, Shaun Curry, Stephen Moore, Job Stewart, Janet Kelly.

Hugh Marlowe (born Hugh Herbert Hipple; January 30, 1911 – May 2, 1982)

Julian Holloway (24 June 1944 – 16 February 2025)

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,475

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