The Lost Hours ** (1952, Mark Stevens, Jean Kent, John Bentley, Garry Marsh, Cyril Smith, Dianne Foster) – Classic Movie Review 12,972

The 1952 black and white film noir The Lost Hours [The Big Frame].

‘Six Blacked-Out Hours That Branded Him KILLER!’ The 1952 black and white film noir The Lost Hours [The Big Frame] is a rather weak and sluggish British support thriller from the Robert S Baker and Monty Berman production team.

‘Six Blacked-Out Hours That Branded Him KILLER!’

Director David MacDonald’s 1952 black and white film noir The Lost Hours [The Big Frame] is a rather weak and sluggish British support thriller from the Robert S Baker and Monty Berman production team, made in the doldrums of the UK’s post-war austerity.

Mark Stevens makes a bland hero as an American pilot (with a bland name too – Paul Smith) embroiled in one of those contrived loss of memory plus conspiracy plots favoured by humdrum potboiler second features.

Paul Smith returns from America for a reunion in the UK where he served as a pilot in World War Two. Smith has been having the drunken get-together with his old RAF mates, but next day he wakes up in a hotel room with a hangover, blood on his suit, and a blacked-out non-memory of the previous six hours, and the news that a buddy he had been fighting with is now dead. So he now finds himself framed for a murder he didn’t commit.

Inspector Foster (Garry Marsh) and Detective Sergeant Roper (Cyril Smith) pursue him hotly while he tries to find the murderer with the help of his alluring fiancée Jean Kent.

Jean Kent and the sterling support cast, including the essential Sam Kydd and Thora Hird, come to the film’s rescue a bit, though, and the plot in David MacDonald’s original story is in the fairly interesting category. The script problems are the weaknesses in the development and the dialogue, as well as the credibility of the story, plus there is a bunch of barely interesting characters to get involved with.

Something sad: it was the moment that Jean Kent fell from 1940s A1 stardom into B films.

It is mainly shot at Isleworth Studios but with some welcome filming around London.

It was released in the US in 1954 by RKO Pictures as The Big Frame.

The cast are Mark Stevens as Paul Smith, Jean Kent as Louise Parker, John Bentley as Clark Sutton, Garry Marsh as Inspector Foster, Cyril Smith as Detective Sergeant Roper, Dianne Foster as Dianne Wrigley, Bryan Coleman as Tom Wrigley, Leslie Perrins as Dr Derek Morrison, Duncan Lamont as Bristow, John Horsley as Brown, Jack Lambert as John Parker, John Harvey as Kenneth Peters, Sam Kydd as mechanic Fred, Thora Hird as Hotel Maid, John Gabriel as Barman, Alastair Hunter as Commissionaire, Hal Osmond as garage attendant, Ballard Berkeley in minor role, Peter Hawkins as Mechanic, John Warren as Man with Dog, Ronald Leigh-Hunt as Police Officer in Control Room, and Charlie Bird as Bilton.

The Lost Hours is directed by David MacDonald, runs 67 minutes, Royal Tempean Films, is released by Eros Films (UK) and RKO Radio Pictures (US), is written by Steve Fisher and John Gilling, based on the original story by Robert S Baker and Carl Nystrom, is shot in black and white by Monty Berman, is produced by Robert S Baker and Monty Berman, is scored by William Hill-Bowen, and is designed by Andrew Mazzei.

Release date: September 1952.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,972

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