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Friday, September 25, 2020

THREE CASES OF MURDER (1955)

The British omnibus film, commercially goosed when DEAD OF NIGHT/’45 and Somerset Maugham’s QUARTET/’48 hit big Stateside, was still a going concern when this modestly budgeted trio of spooky tales came out.  With two of the three leaning toward the fantastic, ‘In The Picture’ comes with a proto-TWILIGHT ZONE vibe as an incorrigible museum painting keeps busting its glass-fronted frame to entice guards & visitors in for a one-way tour.  Twee stuff, though technically, the move from 2D to 3D upon entering, handled with imaginative understatement.  Then, it’s tit-for-tat murder accusations between frenemies in love & business, with a double-twist ending that plays like a medium-good Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode as written by Agatha Christie.  But the third story, Somerset Maugham in wraithful mode, disrupts the genteel tone & proper manners for Parliamentarian revenge after Alan Badel’s hapless member of the opposition is publically crucified in the House thru a cruel, lacerating speech by Cabinet Member Lord Mountdrago, Orson Welles in barnstorming form, complete with posher-than-thou British accent.  Badel’s political career may have been destroyed by the ridicule, but the man has gotten into Mountdrago’s head, planting nightmare seeds of humiliation & loss that show up for real the next day.  Soon, Mountdrago is unable to function, face party members, his wife or even the psychiatrist he reluctantly seeks out.  If only he could murder Badel in one of those ghastly dreams, mightn’t he wake up to find it’s all over?  A major work from Welles, totally unknown, unsubtle & terrifying, shaking up an orderly little film.  Jobber director George More O’Ferrall credited, but Welles’ hand is all over this, in direction and in (re)writing.  Hiding in plain sight for 65 years, long past time to bring it out in the open!

DOUBLE-BILL: No doubt, the Welles paycheck went directly into production costs on his troubled CONFIDENTIAL AGENT/MR. ARKADIN/’55, write-up below.

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