The Man Who Was Nobody *½ (1960, Hazel Court, John Crawford, Lisa Daniely) – Classic Movie Review 13,291

The 1960 British crime mystery film The Man Who Was Nobody stars luminous Hazel Court as a rich posh private eye investigating the disappearance of a man after buying a diamond with a bounced cheque.

Montgomery Tully’s weak and sluggish 1960 British second feature crime mystery thriller film The Man Who Was Nobody stars Hazel Court as a rich posh private detective investigating the disappearance of a man who buys a high-price diamond with a cheque that bounces. John Crawford and Lisa Daniely also star. The screenplay is by James Eastwood, based on the 1927 Edgar Wallace novel. It is part of the Edgar Wallace Mysteries series made at Merton Park Studios from 1960 to 1965.

A slick young man-about-town called James Tynewood (William Abney) buys an expensive diamond for £8,000 from a jeweller’s shop with a cheque that then bounces. He then disappears and both a police inspector (Jack Watson) and his solicitor (Robert Dorning) try to find him. The solicitor hires a rich posh female private detective named Marjorie Stedman (Hazel Court) to track down the missing man, but soon his body is found found dead on the River Thames shore. The detective tries to find his accomplice Alma Weston (Lisa Daniely) and then stalks her, renting a Chelsea mews flat opposite hers. Then the mysterious ‘South Africa Smith’ (John Crawford) appears menacingly in the flat but offers to help Stedman to find the killer.

Sadly, The Man Who Was Nobody is one of the least good in the series, mostly creaky and often struggling, with a clunky script and several poor, misjudged performances. The luminous and appealing Hazel Court is good but could have been even better with a better script and a better co-star than John Crawford, who is wooden as ‘South Africa Smith’, and they have no chemistry as detective mystery solvers. The early appearance for a young but still middle-aged looking Paul Eddington is a notable highlight, and his acting stands out from the rest of the support cast.

When it turns into an underground gambling thriller (casinos were illegal in the UK at the time), it totally stalls, with one gambling scene bafflingly boring and pointless. Montgomery Tully has a great deal of difficulty moving this one swiftly along or providing the needed tense or exciting atmosphere.

Jack Watson is wasted as the police inspector, and so is Vanda Godsell as the gambling hostess Mrs Ferber. It’s a shame because their little bits are good. Robert Dorning is interestingly quirky as the oddball solicitor (‘When pretty young women break off telephone conversations for no reason, I always phone the police.’). Kevin Stoney is effective as the creepy Joe.

The outside views of Chelsea and The Embankment are very welcome. The interiors are cramped but okay.

The contrived explanation of the title at the end leaves the film with a clunky finish too.

The cast are Hazel Court as Marjorie Stedman, John Crawford as South Africa Smith, Lisa Daniely as Alma Weston, William Abney as James Tynewood, Paul Eddington as Franz Reuter, Robert Dorning as Vance, Kevin Stoney as Joe, Jack Watson as police inspector, Vanda Godsell as Mrs Ferber, Richard Bennett as Bobby, Cecil Brock as salesman, Deirdre Day as model agency secretary, Arnold Diamond as Eddie, and André Mikhelson as croupier.

Hazel Court (10 February 1926 – 15 April 2008)

John Crawford (born Cleve Allen Richardson; September 13, 1920 – September 21, 2010)

Lisa Daniely (born Mary Elizabeth Bodington; 4 June 1929 – 24 January 2014)

The Man Who Was Nobody is directed by Montgomery Tully, runs 58 minutes, is made by Merton Park Studios, is distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated, is written by James Eastwood, based on the novel The Man Who Was Nobody by Edgar Wallace, is produced by Jack Greenwood, is shot in black and white by Brian Rhodes, is scored by Francis Chagrin.

Release date: 26 December 1960.

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 13,291

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