• By 1961, Michael Winner traversed early directing and writing days. That said, he already showed some of the attributes that would buttress such solid heats as DEATH WISH, with staccato editing and in your face cinematography.

    Winner has precious little to work with in OUT OF THE SHADOW, known in the US movie circuit as MURDER ON THE CAMPUS.

    Terence Longden plays the part of Mark Kingston, who comes to Cambridge University looking to find out what actually caused his brother's death, and in short order he meets lovely and cooperative girls, becomes the target for beatings by unknown, sometimes masked attackers from whom he flees and then confronts only for a copper to detain him on charges of resisting, and Inspector Willis, a Scotland Yard chief as useless as his mutilated left arm, in an interestingly deprecating look at Scotland Yard's operation.

    Neither Longden nor any of the other actors particularly stands out in this fast-moving noir. If you close your eyes, do not see the action and just listen, you can tell that lines are deliberately read at top speed.

    Although rather basic cinema, at 58' it is no waste of time.