Review: The Vicious Circle


Doctor Sir John Mills gets a call from a supposed friend (an American film producer) who asks him to do him a favour and meet German actress Lisa Danicly at the airport. Tagging along is the reporter (Lionel Jeffries) he has only just met. After the deed is done, the good doctor attends the opera with his fiancĂ© Noelle Middleton and friends. When he returns to his flat, he finds the German woman dead, on the floor. He calls Scotland Yard, but is horrified when the Inspector (dependable Roland Culver) points the finger squarely at Mills. The murder weapon is found in the boot of his car, and even his alibi fails to hold up. Someone is surely setting him up (the phone call soon appears to have been a set-up), but who? And who is this mystery man (played by a sinister Wilfrid Hyde-White) who can apparently prove the doctor’s alibi? Derek Farr plays Mills’ somewhat Caddish friend, Mervyn Johns another doctor.
 

These Hitchcockian ‘Innocent Man’-type stories always have me hooked, and this 1959 Gerald Thomas (director of at least eight “Carry On” films, but don’t hold that against him) crime-thriller with shades of “The 39 Steps” at times, is compulsive viewing.


Mills is ideal, Hyde-White is a constant scene-stealer in one of his best parts, and Culver gets one of his best-ever roles too. All that’s missing is The Master’s touch of class, wit, and professional sheen. Oh, well, for imitation Hitchcock it’s one of the better ones I’ve seen. A good yarn, especially for mystery/thriller buffs. The screenplay is by Francis Durbridge (apparently a novelist and playwright), from his TV serial.


Rating: B-

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