Finger of Guilt (1956)
Film producer Reggie Wilson is worried he may have a dual personality. Fleeing Hollywood, he finds himself in England and married to the studio boss's daughter after which he quickly rises through the studio ranks. Then the letters begin to appear from a lovesick American actress who wants to know why he has thrown her over.
- Joseph Losey
- Howard Koch
Rating: 5.8/10 by 11 users
Alternative Title:
Finger of Guilt - US
Country:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Runtime: 01 hour 24 minutes
Budget: $0
Revenue: $0
Plot Keyword: b movie, british noir, told in flashback, film production, movie studio
There are a couple of scenes in this mystery drama between "Reggie" (Richard Basehart) and "Evelyn" (Mary Murphy) that are actually quite effective. The latter woman has become the stalker of the former, putting great pressure on his marriage to "Lesley" (Faith Brook) even though he swears blind that he has never even met her! When the couple travel to Newcastle to confront the woman, things take a turn for the worst when she presents a signed photo of him... What's going on? Well, having teed it up quite intriguingly, the rest of the plot falls away pretty quickly as Constance Cummings (the lovestruck actress "Kay") and his fair but suspicious boss "Ben" - the underused Roger Livesey - feature in a declining story of duplicity and plotting that doesn't sustain the psychological element well, but degenerates into a rather messy and clunky affair. Basehart is competent - all you could ever really say about him, and Livesey's voice always had an effect in a film, but otherwise it's all about the first - engaging - twenty minutes.
