Review: Alias John Preston

Wealthy but mysterious foreigner John Preston (Christopher Lee) arrives in a small English town and quickly rises to prominence in the community. He also falls for the very lovely daughter (Betta St. John) of a local bank manager (John Longden), which makes him an enemy in the lady’s dull suitor (Peter Grant). However, Preston is plagued by nightmares and harbouring dark secrets, secrets that shrink Dr. Walton (Alexander Knox) attempts to get to the bottom of.

 

Cheap 1955 psychodrama from director David MacDonald (the infamously so-bad-it’s-funny “Devil Girl From Mars”) is notable for featuring one of Christopher Lee’s first major film roles, a year or two before “The Curse of Frankenstein”. That is pretty much the only notable thing here, though there’s a few decent turns by Lee, the underrated Betta St. John, and stalwarts Alexander Knox and John Longden.

 

Scripted by Paul Tabori (“Four Sided Triangle”, an early Hammer film from Terence Fisher) it’s really flimsy, with seemingly a fair chunk of the story cut out to get it to under 70 minutes in length. The characters played by Betta St. John and Peter Grant come in and out of the story periodically and rather awkwardly. Presumably it was designed to play as the C-grade second half to a double bill or perhaps on TV with commercials to bulk up the running time to 90 minutes or so. Either that or the script just isn’t up to snuff, though there’s a few decent moments. Either way it’s very forgettable, despite Lee showing evidence of what was to come; Charismatic, charming, and possibly not to be trusted. It’s not a particularly great performance, and his American accent never was terribly convincing. However, if you do decide to see the film – if you can find it – it might offer slight interest to Lee fans as a curio. He’s the best thing here, with all due respect to the lovely St. John, who I believe deserved a more prominent and lengthy career. At the other end of the spectrum, the performance by Peter Grant who sounds like Van Johnson and is a bit of a dud.

 

Although not entirely terrible, this one’s pretty flimsy and choppy stuff with only a few decent acting turns to keep you awake…maybe. It’s interesting to see Christopher Lee playing a disturbed person instead of flat-out evil. Crudely edited, with a bit more care (and more depth/length) this might’ve been a little more substantial.

 

Rating: C