This thriller is set in mid cities Hastings crowded with holiday makers.Paul Carpenter plays a rather aggressive character who blows his top whenever anyone says anything bad about his dead pal.It turns out that he is a nasty piece of work who was murdered.it is obvious from the word go who is the killer.however the climax is really rather rehashed.Now where do I remember a climactic struggle on a pier.Well there is Brighton Rock for a start.In any event just previously Carpenter thinks he has shot someone who has fallen into the sea only it turns out that he missed.It's that sort of a film.It is a time filler.
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malcolmgsw2 August 2015
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Leofwine_draca22 May 2016SHADOW OF A MAN is one of the cheap thrillers put out by the notorious producers E. J. Fancey, a man whose films tend to be singularly devoid of excitement, intrigue, and suspense. This bog standard mystery thriller about the hunt for a murderer is a case in point. The only thing it has going for it is location photography in Hastings, and even that isn't very good.
The story is about a drunk who's found dead after a night out. The police investigate on the suspicion of foul play and soon come across a number of suspects who may or may not be involved. Meanwhile, the dead man's buddy searches for the murderer himself.
SHADOW OF A MAN stars the ubiquitous Canadian actor Paul Carpenter as the best buddy. In this one, Carpenter plays a rather volatile character who goes around punching out anybody who dares to insult the memory of his dead friend. The equally ubiquitous Ronald Leigh-Hunt plays in support. Sadly, the mystery narrative plays out in the most ordinary way imaginable, and there's not a single thrill to be had from the script. I'd skip it. -
CinemaSerf14 November 2022Much better than your average fayre, this one. After an altercation in a nightclub; a drunk (Bill Nagy) is found dead. Initially the coroner says it was a heart attack, but neither the police nor his old friend "Landers" (Paul Carpenter) are satisfied and along with his widow (Rona Anderson) they try to get to the bottom of it. There are a couple of sub-plots to this and the photography in/around the English seaside resort of Hastings provides for quite an interesting look at life in Britain in the 1950s - and relishing in their habit of holidaying in great numbers where there is a windswept pier!).
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jamesraeburn200312 September 2018Hastings, East Sussex, England: A local drunk called Paul Bryant (Bill Nagy) is found dead following a brawl at a local nightclub where he and his wife Linda (Rona Anderson) had been celebrating their wedding anniversary. The coroner returns a verdict of heart failure, but that does not satisfy Bryant's old friend, an American writer called Gene Landers (Paul Carpenter), nor the local police who suspect foul play. An autopsy reveals that he had died as a result of an air bubble being injected into his vain by a syringe: air embolism. Landers agrees to help Inspector Gates with his inquiries by staying with Bryant's widow and the pair of them start to fall in love. As the case progresses, Landers discovers that his old friend was not at all a pleasant person. He was a heavy drinker, took drugs and even proposed to Linda's best friend, the artist Carol (Jane Griffiths), when he was already married to her. In addition, the businesman Norman Farrell (Ronald Leigh Hunt) is in love with Linda and becomes jealous of Landers' involvement with her. He didn't like the murdered man either nor did the local club owner Max with whom he had fought with on the night of his death. But, which one of them is the killer?
A quite likeable whodunit crime noir from quota quickie specialist EJ Fancey: Renown Pictures has just released a delightful DVD box set containing several of his 1950's b-pics; including this one. Directed by Michael McCarthy who was tipped to have a distinguished career in film making ahead of him; he tragically died in 1959 at the age of just forty two. Here he shows some flair for film noir and creating suspense.
The film opens in American film noir style with the hero Gene Landers (played by imported US leading man Carpenter who offers one of his best performances) in a dark flat lying on a couch chain smoking and listening to a romantic ballad. He has a guilty conscience and is being hunted down by the police for killing the businesman Norman Farrell at a struggle and shoot out on Hastings pier - but did he?. His artist friend Carol (competently played by Jane Griffiths who later starred in the excellent The Third Alibi) comes to console him and the narrative unfolds as they relate the events leading from his best friend's death to his current predicament. The solution when it comes isn't too bad and it leads to a fairly exciting climatic hunt for the killer on Hastings Pier in which the police evacuate all of the holidaymakers from it leaving just the unarmed Inspector Gates to track down a dangerous killer with a pistol. Landers can't believe his eyes and the policeman says to him: "Sorry, Sir, guns are frowned upon in this country" referring of course to the fact that unlike in the States the British police do not carry guns. Unable to stop him, the policeman has to let Landers go in to help his Inspector. However, the film's most tense aspect is Paul Carpenter's supposed killer hiding away with the police on his tail thinking that he has murdered somebody. We, the audience can actually imagine ourselves feeling as he would in such a scenario.
The acting is especially good all round with Carpenter and British b-pic leading lady Rona Anderson of particular note who effortlessly convey the emotional element between their two characters whom are brought together through Bill Nagy's murder. Their romance is threatened when Landers thinks that Linda had betrayed his best friend by being close to the rather clingy businessman Norman (very convincingly played by Ronald Leigh Hunt) and she feels rather guilty about beginning a relationship with him only days after her husband has died.
The film is attractively set in Hastings and the seaside locations are atmospherically captured by DP Geoffrey Faithful giving it a real feeling for place and period. The locations are pleasant to watch and add to the nostalgia aspect of watching this film. There is also some good comedy in the nightclub where the owner Max frequently gets into fights with people and the singer Jean Campbell immediately breaks off from singing her romantic ballad "Shadow Of The One I Love" and ups the tempo with "Come On You Drunken Sailors". This annoys Max who says "Cut the comedy and get back to your number." The former ballad is actually quite beautiful and an instrumental version of it plays over the opening and closing credits. It makes a change to have a 'B' film title song that is actually really good, it has to be said. -
boblipton10 October 2021After a drunken evening, Bill Nagy is found dead the next morning. A coroner's jury finds he died of heart failure. Police Inspector Tony Quinn has his doubts, so while widow Rona Anderson is away, he has the body exhumed. An autopsy discovers the tip of a hypodermic needle in his arm, and death by air embolism. It's murder!
The cast list and the fact this is based on a stage play inspired confidence. Then I saw it was an E. J. Fancey production and almost didn't watch it. While it's a nice murder mystery, and Geoffrey Faithfull's camerawork are good, something is very wrong with the dialogue. Not only is it terribly hackneyed, but the performers speak their lines as if they had not had a chance to rehearse them. -
richardchatten12 November 2019After an interesting title sequence involving a grinning model Buddha rocking back and forth and rolling it's eyes, this settles into a sombre, well-photographed little drama with the novelty of being filmed in Hastings and a plot twist involving the medical condition of one the main characters which would probably draw protests today.
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bravesirfig16 July 2001Set in mid-50s Hastings there might be something to interest the social historian but otherwise this picture has nothing to it that is truly cinematic: dialogue, direction, music, photography and especially acting all fail to coalesce into anything convincing. Disconcertingly the narrative lurches for one scene into Chandleresque first person and then out of it again, the very unsatisfying result of which is that a central character never fully emerges. In all another failed attempt at post-war British film noir.