''Act of Murder'' is a 1964 British

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

film, directed by

Alan Bridges Alan Bridges (28 September 1927 – 7 December 2013) was an English film and television director. In 1967 Bridges directed a television adaptation of Charles Dickens' '' Great Expectations'' starring Gary Bond as Pip. He won the '' Grand P ...

. One of the ''

Edgar Wallace Mysteries The ''Edgar Wallace Mysteries'' is a British second-feature film series mainly produced at Merton Park Studios for Anglo-Amalgamated. There were 48 films in the series, which were released between 1960 and 1965. The series was screened as ''The E ...

'' series, it was Bridges' first film as director.

Premise

An actor, Tim Ford, tries to persuade an ex-actress, Anne Longman, to return to the stage. Her husband, Ralph, suspects that Ford's motives are more than just professional.Steve Chibnall & Brian McFarlane, ''The British 'B' Film'', Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009, pp. 284–86.

Cast

* Anthony Bate as Ralph Longman * John Carson as Tim Ford *

Justine Lord Justine Lord (born Jennifer Schooling; 8 March 1937) is an English actress, active on television throughout the 1960s. She began her acting career in repertory theatre, and in the 1960s made guest appearances in “Live Now Pay Later” (1962 ...

as Anne Longman * Duncan Lewis as Will Peterson *

Dandy Nichols Dandy Nichols (born Daisy Sander; 21 May 1907 – 6 February 1986) was an English actress best known for her role as Else Garnett, the long-suffering wife of the character Alf Garnett who was a parody of a working class Tory, in the BBC sit ...

as Maud Peterson * Richard Burrell as John Quick

Critical reception

Film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane said that on its release in the United Kingdom, the film "received pretty well uniformly positive reviews", especially for the directorial debut of Alan Bridges. The reviewer "T.M." in the ''

Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...

'' declared the film an "uncommonly intelligent little thriller", but noted that it was "just the sort of film which is likely to arouse critical sneers for reaching too high on a low budget." The reviewer added, "Long, languid close-ups a la Antonioni convey the dreamy sensuousness of the wife, the introspective quality which makes her react so strongly to the bizarre situation; abrupt cuts within speeches, from character to character, suggest very precisely the tensions that underlie the relations between husband, wife and lover right from the start." Chibnall and McFarlane selected ''Act of Murder'' as one of the 15 most meritorious British B films made between

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and 1970. They noted that "it picks its way through a web of obliquely suggested jealousy and a scam involving convincingly improbable frauds".

References

External links

* 1964 films 1964 crime drama films British crime drama films British black-and-white films 1960s English-language films Films directed by Alan Bridges British crime thriller films Edgar Wallace Mysteries 1960s British films {{crime-thriller-film-stub