Celebrated British cinematographer Jack Cardiff added a second shingle to his skill set when he directed this dandy hospital thriller. (Desmond Dickinson D.P.’d) Jimmy Sangster took a break from Hammer Film monsters to adapt Brian Moore’s novel about a Leftist South American leader (Herbert Lom) undergoing brain surgery incognito in Montreal. (A running joke has everyone diss Canada: too cold, too dull, too far away from everything.) Richard Todd & Alexander Knox are the surgeons who drill into Lom’s brain hoping to stop seizures before political rivals take advantage. But a hired team of assassins, already on to the ruse, plan to make murder look like a natural occurrence. So, no guns, no poison, no strangulation; instead, a stealth needle loaded with pockets of air ready for injection. Two wild cards in play: a lack of security at the hospital to maintain Lom’s incognito status; and too much sex among the principals. Hey, gotta give the women something to do! Even Betsy Drake*, the one female doctor in the story wants to be involved with Dr. Todd while his wife is openly sleeping around; the dictator’s wife entangled with his chargé d'affaires; and one of the assassins hooking up with a hotel hooker. All this neatly laid out for us structurally, plus a great bit at the climax that sees Drake & Todd getting all lovey-dovey while seated on the hospital’s emergency staircase unaware they’re blocking one of the assassins from sneaking up to the third floor. (It’s the Parcheesi Gambit!) Cardiff would soon peak as director with D.H. Lawrence’s SONS AND LOVERS/’60 before going back largely to superior lensing, but this was an excellent start to his side gig.
DUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Can it be a coincidence? Betsy Drake, weakest link in the pic, was still married to Cary Grant when this was made, and already Mrs. Grant when he made CRISIS/’50 with Richard Brooks which plays with similar dramatic elements. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/09/crisis-1950.html
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