The Naked Edge ***½ (1961, Gary Cooper, Deborah Kerr, Peter Cushing, Eric Portman, Diane Cilento, Hermione Gingold, Michael Wilding, Ronald Howard) – Classic Movie Review 3847

Director Michael Anderson’s tantalising and engrossing 1961 British movie provides Gary Cooper with his final film role. It is an enjoyably convoluted, far-fetched thriller, written by Joseph Stefano, the author of Psycho, adapting Max Ehrlich’s novel First Train to Babylon.

Cooper stars as George Radcliffe, whose wife Martha (Deborah Kerr) thinks that she is in peril when she suspects him of murder five years after his evidence in court has convicted Donald Heath (Ray McAnally) of murder and theft of a large sum of money – £60,000. Soon after George’s testimony sends Heath to prison, George has invested a large sum of money in a profitable business venture. Martha’s fears start when she receives a blackmailing letter accusing George of the murder.

The plot is not dissimilar from 1985’s Jagged Edge, though here there are rather too many blind alleys and false clues that can serve to annoy rather than intrigue. Nevertheless, the top-notch cast is pleasing and the climax is sharp and surprising, and it is all kept pretty tense, pacy and entertaining by director Anderson, who also had just directed Cooper in The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959).

Also in the excellent cast are Peter Cushing as Mr Evan Wrack, Eric Portman, Diane Cilento, Hermione Gingold, Michael Wilding, Ronald Howard, Sandor Elès, Wilfrid Lawson, Helen Cherry, Joyce Carey, Diane Clare, Frederick Leister, Martin Boddey and Peter Wayn.