Rating: B-
Dir: The Boulting Brothers
Star: Tony Britton, Virginia Maskell, Peter Cushing, Ian Bannen
a.k.a. Suspect
This is my first experience of the Boulting Brothers, who produced and directed a slew of lower-budget British movies from the thirties until the seventies. Though limited in resources, some were well-received: for instance, Seven Days to Noon won the Academy Award for Best Story. The one here, apparently, was the result of a Corman-esque bet, after the brothers discovered they had seventeen days leftover studio time, and wagered whether they could make a film using it. The results are surprisingly decent, with a concept which has dated well. Or, at least, better than the opinions of scientist Professor Sewell (Cushing) on employing women: “They’re either in love or not in love. Either way, it interferes with their work.”
His team have just discovered a potential cure for plague and typhus, but the government, fearing the research could potentially be weaponized, refuses to let it be published. He and his team are highly upset, and member Bob Marriott (Britton) is particularly vocal in his resistance. These complaints reach the ears of the mysterious Brown (Donald Pleasence), who offers to help get the word out – though his motives may be far less altruistic than Marriott. Keeping an eye on things for the government is security officer Mr. Prince (Thorley Walters). He is considerably more competent than the bumbling civil servant he affects to be, and has no intention of letting Marriott hand over the now-classified research to Brown.
This is a mix of the near perfect and the embarrassingly bad. The former would be exemplified in Sewell’s debate with Sir George Gatling (Raymond Huntley), the minister responsible for restricting the work. It’s startlingly well-written, for example Gatling’s world-weary monologue on protecting the public from their wants. “People want more money for less work. They want justice without curtailing their liberty. They want to spend more and reduce taxation. They want to be strong if there’s a war, but not to prepare for it, mention it or even think about it beforehand.” Sixty-five years later, every word rings perfect and true, and some of the dialogue is almost Mamet-like. When the script sticks to the thriller aspects, it’s a real gem of low-budget effort.
Unfortunately, there’s other stuff, most notably a love triangle between Bob, co-worker Lucy Byrne (Maskell) and her ex-fiancé, Alan Andrews (Bannen). The last-named is a former concert pianist, who had his hands blown off in Korea, and now spends all his time sulking, at near-Olympic levels. His “woe is me!” antics outstay their welcome very quickly, and his eventual departure from the film was a welcome relief. Worst still though, was “comic relief” janitor Arthur, played by Spike Milligan with a bad Irish accent. Bubonic plague doesn’t seem so bad any more. All told though, the good was good enough to outweigh the bad, with strong performances from a number of faces I recognized. Might have to check out some more Boulting productions down the road.