Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

JohnHowardReid Director: GERALD THOMAS. Screenplay: Francis Durbridge, based on his TV serial, "The Brass Candlestick". Photography: Otto Heller. Film editor: Peter Boita. Music composed and conducted by Stanley Black. Art director: Jack Stevens. Wardrobe supervisor: Vi Murray. Make-up: Jill Carpenter. Hair styles: Marjorie Whittle. Production manager: Basil Keys. Assistant director: William Hill. Sound editor: Richard Marden. Sound recording: Len Page. Producer: Peter Rogers.A Beaconsfield Production for Romulus. Released in the U.S.A. through Kassler Films. New York opening at the Art Theatre: 15 April 1959. U.K. release through Independent Film Distributors/British Lion: 22 September 1957. Australian release through 20th Century- Fox: 25 September 1958. 7,560 feet. 84 minutes. (Available on an excellent ITV DVD). U.S. release title: the Circle.SYNOPSIS: A German actress is found dead in a doctor's apartment. Circumstantial evidence points to the doc's guilt.COMMENT: A complicated thriller that is none too thrillingly directed, and none too thrillingly written either — thanks to poor characterization, flat dialogue and a somewhat absurd plot.Nonetheless, the movie is of more than passing interest for the mystery movie connoisseur. Thanks to his radio and TV excursions, Durbridge was enormously popular in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. He created Paul Temple, who not only starred in novels but on the radio and (to a much lesser degree) on the big screen in three Butcher quota quickies in which he was played by John Bentley.

Leofwine_draca THE VICIOUS CIRCLE is a solid British mystery effort of the 1957, unremarkable at times but with a decent enough cast to make it worthwhile. It stars John Mills in the classic 'wronged man' role of a doctor who discovers the body of a murdered woman in his flat. He only just met the woman, at an airport, and is automatically suspected of the deed, which leads him in a fight to clear his name.The structure of the film is familiar to fans of the era; it's directed by none other than Gerald Thomas, who handled a few brisk and efficient thrillers before becoming best known as CARRY ON's directing mainstay. The screenplay was written by Francis Durbridge, well known for his Paul Temple book series, and this does feel very much in the Paul Temple spirit.The supporting cast includes plenty of British talent including Lionel Jeffries in an atypical role, the permanently worried-looking Mervyn Johns, Roland Culver as a cop, and Wilfrid Hyde-White playing his usual pompous self. The plot moves forward at a reliable pace and provides plenty of depth in the plot; the only thing I found slightly wrong with it was the central casting of Mills, who seems too reliable and self-assured to truly convince as a put-upon victim.

fillherupjacko This is the perfect comfort film (and I don't mean Lance Comfort). You've rung in sick, it's raining outside, you've got a big piece of buttered toast ready and then this comes on afternoon telly. Except it doesn't anymore; it's all Jeremy Kyle and his irksome ilk: "I married my lesbian dad."Anyway, The Vicious Circle stars good old dependable Johnny Mills pants as a doctor caught up in a – erm – vicious circle. It's one of those innocent man gets tangled up in something nasty but he doesn't know who to believe and he ends up questioning his own sanity. Commonplace everyday events become loaded with meaning – or else take on a whole new meaning: a man, Lionel Jeffries, claiming to be a reporter, isn't a reporter and can't be traced; a disembodied voice on the telephone, claiming to be a film director friend, is an impersonator. In the most effective moment of the film Mills returns to his friend's flat (Derek Farr) to find a party in full swing – except it's only a gramophone record of party noise playing in an empty apartment. Oh and there's also a neurotic female patient who says she found a dead body with a candlestick next to it while strolling on the common (the police find the candlestick in Mills' golf clubs.) The building blocks of civilised society – trust and taking things at face value – become eroded and all we are left with is paranoia and fear. Not that you'd know it to look at Mills. It's a stiff upper lip and a nice round of golf all the way. It's how they did things back then, you know.The problem the film has is that it asks us to trust Mills (would you trust a man who wears a cravat under his polo top?) and so we never doubt Mills' innocence. After the police reveal that they believe him too the suspense drains out of things and we're only left with the question of who's behind it all and why.

bob the moo Dr Howard Latimer is late to an operatic performance with his girlfriend because he has to collect Frieda Veldon, a German actress from the airport and drop her off at his hotel. Returning to his home later that night, Latimer is horrified to find her dead on his living room floor and duly reports it to Scotland Yard. Assigned to the case is one Detective Inspector Dane, who starts to pick holes in Latimer's story with friends and patients denying every word of Latimer's alibis and statements. Starting to doubt his own sanity, Latimer does a bunk to try and work out who is setting him up. It is at this point he meets Robert Brady, a mysterious man who offers him a photograph that can help corroborate Latimer's story – but at what price, and what are the wider issues around Veldon's murder.One of the other reviewers on this site has incorrectly assumed that, with so few votes and comments, that this film is 'very unknown', but I'd just like to correct him and say it is forgotten rather than unknown. Certainly I was aware of the title in John Mills' body of work and, given the chance to see it on television recently, took it. The film is basically one of those films where we have an innocent man accused and framed for a murder, only to go on the run and try to clear himself before it is too late. This film really overdoes the degree of the setup though and, even when it is resolved, bits of it don't make sense and the film seems to have been hoping that it could just move fast enough to stop the audience picking holes in the plot – but nothing moves that quick! The series of jumps and turns it makes means that it is too hard to get into, with no nice plot development or focal point (other than Latimer) meaning that it never really engaged me.Certainly comparisons with North By Northwest only apply as far as the very vague subject matter goes, otherwise there is no comparison – NBNW is exciting, well written and engaging, whereas this film is rather uninteresting, convoluted and hard to really ever care about. Latimer drifts around aimlessly and never feels like a man pursued by anything, while the characters just pile up on one another with none really making a mark. Mills tries hard but he is too stiff to get the audience behind him, certainly he has none of Grant's 'everyman' qualities. His performance really doesn't suit the film and he is a part of it not really engaging. Culver is OK but far too calm – a bit more playful would have been better. It is for this reason that Jeffries and Hyde-White both come up as scene stealers, they at least have a bit of colour to their cheeks and play up their characters well. Despite their work, most of the cast are pretty flat and blame can be left at the door of the script which really doesn't help them at all.Overall this is a fairly average film that has a standard premise that has been done much better in many other films. Not a terrible film by any means but just one that doesn't do anything of any real merit or effort, producing a rather flat film with a listless and uninspiring plot and only one or two minor performances of any note.