The Set Up *** (1963, Maurice Denham, John Carson, Maria Corvin, Brian Peck, Anthony Bate, John Arnatt, Pamela Greer) – Classic Movie Review 13,335

The 1963 British Edgar Wallace Mystery drama thriller film The Set Up stars Maurice Denham as a tycoon hoping to get away with killing his wife by pinning the murder on a housebreaker.

Director Gerard Glaister’s 1963 British Edgar Wallace Mystery second feature drama thriller film The Set Up features Maurice Denham, John Carson, Maria Corvin, and Brian Peck. It is part of the series of Edgar Wallace Mysteries films made at Merton Park Studios, and based on a story by Wallace in which a murder is pinned on a housebreaker by a tycoon plotting to dispose of his wife, but he is also double-crossed.

Arthur Payne, recently out of prison, by chance meets a stranger on a train, Theo Gaunt,  who pays for his train ticket while he explains his situation to the stranger. A few days later another stranger, Ray Underwood (Anthony Bate) makes a curious and intriguing and irresistible proposition. Arthur should participate in a fake robbery and remove some imitation jewellery from the stranger’s own house safe.

It is Gaunt’s wife’s fake diamond jewellery, which she’s swapped for the real stuff. Payne is desperate for cash and easily and cheerfully agrees. When Payne does the robbery he finds no jewellery in the easily burgled old house safe, only documents and a gun. Gaunt’s wife surprises him, and he flees the house. She is later found dead, and fingerprint evidence points to Payne being the murderer.

But Inspector Jackson, the investigating copper, finds everything too neat (the crook hasn’t even worn gloves!), and is sympathetic to Payne’s denial of murder. It’s a Set Up. Payne, fleeing the police, breaks into a bungalow and is befriended by its owner Sally (Pamela Greer), a kindly and sympathetic young woman, who involves herself in his fate.

Maurice Denham is very good indeed in the star role as the calculatingly murderous Theo Gaunt but this time he doesn’t run away with all the honours. John Carson is excellent as the civilised but canny Inspector Jackson, and Anthony Bate is very fine as smoothly dodgy Ray Underwood, Gaunt’s partner in crime. Plus there are nice character actor turns in support from Brian Peck as Arthur Payne, John Arnatt as Jackson’s world-weary boss Superintendent Ross, and Reginald Barratt as Pop Medwin.

It is a strong, involving, quite clever episode. Apart from the eye-catching performances, there is a good, rather witty, screenplay by Roger Marshall, based on an ingeniously complex story by Edgar Wallace, and tense, pacy direction by Gerard Glaister, who also directed The Share Out in 1963.

William Maurice Denham (23 December 1909 – 24 July 2002)

Maurice Denham returns as Sir Harold Crossley in Downfall (1964), another Edgar Wallace.

John Derek Carson-Parker (28 February 1927 – 5 November 2016),

John Carson stars as Miguel Terila in Locker Sixty Nine (1962) and as Tim Ford in Act of Murder (1964), other Edgar Wallace films.

Carson and Pamela Greer who appear in The Set Up were married in real life from 1974 until John’s death in 2016. Pamela also appears in Candidate for Murder (1962). They had two children.

Outside Edgar Wallace, Denham and Carson both star in the British 1965 science fiction film Night Caller from Outer Space.

The cast

The cast are Maurice Denham as Theo Gaunt, John Carson as Inspector Jackson, Maria Corvin as Nicole Romain, Brian Peck as Arthur Payne, Anthony Bate as Ray Underwood, John Arnatt as Superintendent Ross, Manning Wilson as Sgt. Bates, Pamela Greer as Sally, Eric Dodson as Walker, Reginald Barratt as Pop Medwin, Billy Milton as Simpson, and Harry Littlewood as ticket collector.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,335

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

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.

Crossroads to Crime (1960) and Seven Keys (1961) were not shot as part of the series but were later included. Urge to Kill (1960) may not originally have been intended as part of the series.

1. Urge to Kill (March 1960)
2. Clue of the Twisted Candle (September 1960)
3. The Malpas Mystery (October 1960)
4. Marriage of Convenience (November 1960)
5. The Man Who Was Nobody (December 1960)
6. Partners in Crime (February 1961)
7. The Clue of the New Pin (February 1961)
8. The Fourth Square (June 1961)
9. Man at the Carlton Tower (July 1961)
10. Clue of the Silver Key (August 1961)
11. Attempt to Kill (September 1961)
12. Man Detained (October 1961)
13. Never Back Losers (December 1961)
14. The Sinister Man (December 1961)
15. Backfire! (February 1962)
16. Candidate for Murder (February 1962)
17. Flat Two (February 1962)
18. The Share Out (February 1962)
19. Number Six (April 1962)
20. Time to Remember (July 1962)
21. Solo for Sparrow (September 1962)
22. Playback (September 1962)
23. Locker Sixty Nine (September 1962)
24. Death Trap (October 1962)
25. The Set Up (January 1963)
26. Incident at Midnight (January 1963)
27. The £20,000 Kiss (January 1963)
28. On the Run (February 1963)
29. Return to Sender (March 1963)
30. Ricochet (March 1963)
31. The Double (April 1963)
32. To Have and to Hold (July 1963)
33. The Partner (September 1963)
34. Accidental Death (November 1963)
35. Five to One (December 1963)
36. Downfall (January 1964)
37. The Verdict (February 1964)
38. We Shall See (April 1964)
39. The Rivals (May 1964)
40. Who Was Maddox? (June 1964)
41. Face of a Stranger (September 1964)
42. Act of Murder (September 1964)
43. Never Mention Murder (November 1964)
44. The Main Chance (November 1964)
45. Game for Three Losers (April 1965)
46. Change Partners (July 1965)
47. Strangler’s Web (August 1965)
48. Dead Man’s Chest (October 1965)