#Thompson adapted his own play for the film script and it repeatedly betrays its stage origins | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mariocki · 5 years

Text

Murder Without Crime (1950)

"No murderer can boast that he's committed the perfect murder if the body of his victim is discovered. Because the body itself is proof that the murder has been committed; thus the murder is immediately deemed imperfect."

#Murder without crime #1950 #British cinema #crime film #melodrama #films i done watched #j. lee thompson #dennis price #Derek farr #Patricia Plunkett #Joan Dowling #Frederick Schrecker #Emile Stemmler #Play adaptation #Double error #Hum hum hum. On the one hand this is pure melodramatic hokum of the best kind. But it has its flaws #Thompson adapted his own play for the film script and it repeatedly betrays its stage origins #It's really just a four character piece and confined largely to the one room. Thompson tries to throw in some scenes elsewhere #But they aren't really necessary. Also lots of extreme angles and stylish photography to try and distract from the fact that we're watching #A fairly stagey dialogue heavy bit of theatre. It's all quite old hat and would be easily dismissed entirely if not for the excellent #Double coup of cssting farr and price. Both quite brilliant actors and price in particular shines as the slimy manipulative fallen gentry #Type he seemed born to play. A nice score and some fair (if rather telegraphed) twists. By far the greatest failing #Is the inexplicable decision to put a cringeworthy narration over the film by an unseen and completely unrelated american #Character who speaks like every worst pulp fiction cliché at once. It's bad and distracting and the film would be all the better for #Removing it. Still it's a very british bit of high tension and near hysteria that includes such wonderful lines as 'oh damn my pyjamas!'

5 notes · View notes