Betty Ann Davies

Sheila Burrell

Sid James

Anthony Forwood

Hazel Penwarden

Valentine Dyall

Courtney Hope

Mollie Palmer

Lawrence Baskcombe

Francis Searle

Anthony Hinds

Philip Leakey

Cedric Williams

John Ferris

Denis Wreford

John Gilling

Arthur Barnes

Jimmy Sangster

Renée Glynne

Edgar Vetter

Monica Hustler

Prudence Sykes

Frank Spencer

Rupert Grayson

Peter Bryan

Thriller

The Man in Black

Hammer Film Productions

United Kingdom

Oakfield Towers ... The Scene...

The Man in Black is directed by Francis Searle and Searle co-writes the play with John Gilling. It stars Betty Ann Davies, Sheila Burell, Sid James, Anthony Forwood and Mollie Palmer. Music is by Frank Spencer and Rupert Grayson and cinematography by Cedric Williams.

Out of Hammer Films, this adaptation from a radio series is a tight little "Gaslight" suspenser. Story basically entails a young lady recently bequeathed her father's inheritance, who is at the mercy of scheming family members intent on ensuring she doesn't get what's rightfully hers.

The core of the plot is quickly revealed to us, so there is no pretention as to this being a supernatural dark house spooker - which is on the cards given the splendid shadowy and creaky setting of the Oakfield Towers mansion.

Story moves through a number of pleasant surprises, murder and intrigue prominent, motives straight and sketchy depending on certain characters' involvements, and thankfully the final run in has some weighty surprise value as well.

It's all very correct in dialogue and a little camp in places, but it's clever in its telling and nicely performed by the cast. 6.5/10

CinemaSerf

It's interesting to see Sid James play a straight (albeit brief) role for change in this simple little crime thriller. He is a wealthy chap with a rather venal second wife and step-daughter. His obsession with mysticism leads, one evening, to a risky experiment and it all goes wrong... We have no absence of potential culprits as his new family try to drive his daughter out of her mind so they can inherit his fortune. Betty Ann Davies is good as the scheming the wife, with Sheila Burrell likewise as her ghastly, grasping, daughter all manipulating poor old "Joan" (Hazel Penwarden) in a decently paced mystery. Sadly the ending is writ a bit large from fairly early on, and that makes it all sag a bit - maybe Francis Searle could have tightened it up by a quarter of an hour? It's still an enjoyable watch, though - with a slightly more sophisticated script (that may owe something to it's BBC radio heritage). It is rarely shown nowadays, but is worth seeing through if you encounter it.

English

Introduction to The Man In Black (1950) with Robert J.E. Simpson