The Third Visitor (1951) User Reviews (10)

"I thought I'd better listen so we can all tell the same lie"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 7/10 · 13 August 2017]

'The Third Visitor' has what appears to be a rambling plot but the loose threads are all tied up very neatly at the end. A man of dubious reputation is murdered. Who killed him? And why was he killed? Inspector Mallory tries to investigate but things are not what they seem with the two couples who have most of the screen time. Based on a play by Gerald Anstruther and directed plainly by the veteran Maurice Elvey it may be low budget and having a small cast in a few sets but it is worth watching until the satisfactory conclusion.

Sonia Dresdel and Colin Gordon play the Millingtons and Eleanor Summerfield and Hubert Gregg are the Kurtons. Dresdel and Gordon are excellent with the witty dialogue. Colin Gordon was usually seen in stern and serious roles but here he is more light hearted and is a revelation. Reliable Guy Middleton is the inspector and Michael Martin Harvey is quietly moving as the befuddled Hewson.

A fine mystery story that fills its 85 minutes well.

People are not who they seem, so keep your patience intact.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 4 January 2020]

Yes, it gets a bit confusing here and there, and even with a small cast, figuring out who is who, what's going on and the timeline can be perplexing. The fabulous opening shows a young woman being kept chained to a wall, appearing as if she is about to be shot in cold blood. This gives a sense of Gothic horror to the film, but then it switches to the domestic setting of the home of Sonia Dresdel and Colin Gordon, a middle aged couple having a discussion, and interrupted by phone calls and visitors. Then, there's an apparent violent murder in an oddly shaped country home, involving Karel Stepanek whom we see about to be bludgeoned. News of his murder gets around, and the frequent appearance of a strange old man (Michael Martin-Harvey) creates more questions than answers.

The audience gets to meet other suspects which include Dresdel's friend (Eleanor Summerfield) and her husband Hubert Gregg, adding a bit more confusion but a lot of suspense. This is worth putting up with 75 minutes of little detail, but within that detail, there are the hidden details which are revealed in the very suspenseful last 15 minutes.

That is when everything comes together so neatly, and you realize how clever this really was in keeping you wondering what type of mystery you were watching and if it would ever go anywhere. Technically excellent, this feature is terrific black and white photography and superb editing, and a musical score that adds to the suspense. It is a have to go in with a patient mood because otherwise, you could be frustrated quickly and move on to something else.

A compelling lead actress in an understatedly compelling film

[farben-90253 · 7/10 · 25 August 2020]

Prior to seeing this movie, I had never heard of Sonia Dresdel. But my first glimpse of her rousting her frazzled husband out of bed was enough to hook me. It only only goes to show that attractiveness is as much a matter of attitude as physical charm.

She's certainly one of most eccentric beauties I've ever come across. Her Wiki entry states her great successes were on the stage and I can see why. Her voice, appearance and manner, alternately languid and chipper, are unique.

Indeed, the tacked on ending only worked to the extent it did because she had already built such a rapport with this viewer that he was willing to swallow it.

Good climax to tame thriller

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 5 July 2019]

This is based on a play and doesn't it just show.The performances are likewise very stagey,particularly Sonia Dresdel. However there is a major flaw.The police would not accept an identification of a victim without further identification,such as dental records.So the deception would be discovered very quickly.

The Third Visitor

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 28 December 2022]

This is quite a cleverly constructed little thriller from Maurice Elvey. We start by watching Karel Stepanek ("Carling") being bludgeoned to death and assume that the remainder of the premiss will be for the police to cotton on and capture the man we know to have committed the murder... Well, there is one great fly in that particular ointment and we have to wait until the last ten minutes or so to really find out that this has much more going on as we discover no lack of suspects or plausible plot lines that lead us to question what we know we saw at the start. Sonia Dresdel ("Steffy") is on good form and the small and well focussed cast keeps the suspense taut and engaging. The score and lighting add bundles to the mystery too - and with a soupçon of Nazi undertones the whole film is really quite a good watch.

A rather claustrophobic theatrical film of a vengeance masked in romance

[clanciai · 8/10 · 28 July 2017]

It's seldom that Bruckner's music has been used in films, the only other instance I know of is Visconti's "Senso" 1954 three years after this one, but it certainly gives a certain mood from the start of tension and doom. Although an atrocious murder is committed from the start, you even see it being done and by whom, there is no question about it, the development seems rather innocent and harmless, as there are mainly only discussions and arguments and roundabouts to divert the attention, and even the inspectors get impatient by the fooling around. But it's worth waiting for the end. You have to learn what that mishandled lady in the introduction was all about and whatever it had to do with the atrocious murder. Although nothing seems to make any sense and add up, it does so in the end after all and with a vengeance. It's a clever thriller, Sonia Dresdel keeps the suspense up all the way by most of all her sparkling dialogue, and there is a mystery figure as well, the strangely pathetic Hewson (Michael Martin Harvey), whom everyone has some apprehension of, who maybe knows too much and isn't as mad as he seems. Finally the war also plays an important part, and that's where the trauma makes a final entrance concluding this strange play of destiny and vengeance.

A waste of time!

[JohnHowardReid · 1/10 · 5 April 2018]

Director: MAURICE ELVEY. Screenplay: Gerald Anstruther, David Evans. Based on the West End stage play by Gerald Anstruther. Photography: Moray Grant, Stephen Dade. Producer: Ernest Gartside.

An Elvey-Gartside Production, released in the U.K. through Eros: January 1954 (on the lower half of a double bill). The film was actually made in 1950 and trade-shown in January 1951. Australian release through British Empire Films: 23 May 1952. 85 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Crime czar fakes his death by substituting his victim's body for his own.

VIEWER'S GUIDE: I can see no reason why children should be prevented from watching this movie, despite the British censor's "A" certificate. In fact forcing mischievous kids to watch films like this would be a great punishment for misbehavior. Of course you would have to keep waking them up every time they doze off.

COMMENT: Here's a good lesson: If you want to be a plagiarist, go about it openly. Broadcast it to the world. So you thought Graham Greene created a neat bit of suspense in The Third Man, acknowledge the fact by calling your cut-price variation The Third Visitor. Of course we don't need all that mystery and intrigue element. Let the audience in on the substitution right from the jump.

Alas, The Third Visitor is not worth the effort. The characters are as dreary and dull in the writing, as the indifferent players make them in the acting; and the direction is so steadfastly pedestrian that all in all, this movie is nothing more nor less than an utter waste of time.

Who was The Third Visitor?

[wilvram · 8/10 · 14 April 2010]

Suave supercilious Carling (Karel Stepanek) receives several callers to his isolated house, all of whom hold a grudge against him. Next morning a corpse is found, and later identified as his by one of the visitors.

An atmospheric thriller with Gothic overtones, including a villain living in an old dark house complete with underground passages, whose architect he attempted to bury alive, THE THIRD VISITOR is one of two films made in succession by veteran director Maurice Elvey for producer Ernest Gartside, the other being the slightly better known THE LATE EDWINA BLACK. It opens vividly with the electrifying music over the title credits (an unacknowledged straight lift of the first movement coda of Bruckner's 9th symphony) culminating in a striking shot of a woman, manacled against a wall with an unseen person on the verge of firing at her, as the legend WHO WAS THE THIRD VISITOR? is emblazoned across the screen. Though there is a great deal of dialogue the actors and the occasional directorial flourish such as this ensure that tedium is kept firmly at bay. Typically spirited performances ensue from Sonia Dresdel (in a rare sympathetic and at times light-hearted role) and Eleanor Summerfield as two wives who clearly don't play second fiddle to their respective husbands (Colin Gordon and Hubert Gregg), their only real match being Guy Middleton's Inspector. Film's main flaw is the risible casting of John Slater as a New York gangster.

Lots of chit chat

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 28 March 2021]

A slow and talky cheapie murder mystery that never really gets off the ground. It begins with the usual murder and a house full of suspects. Guy Middleton, usually playing the bad guy in these kinds of pictures, is the detective who shows up and begins a very long and laborious investigation into the circumstances. Very little sense of mystery and no suspense here, just lots of chit-chat.

A 90-minute puzzler, well worth watching

[grainstorms · 9/10 · 14 August 2017]

The Third Visitor moves along at a fair-paced clip , with acting honors to Sonia Dresdel – a singular actress whose unusual angular features and raven-like manner clutch and hold the camera's attention. (She played the hissable Mrs. Baines in The Fallen Idol (1948). One critic said that she had "a real power to take an audience by the wrist and give them the works. She had terrific personality and was terribly underused and misused. She would have been the Lady Macbeth of all Lady Macbeths.")

Mr. Richard Carling (Karel Stepanek), a superior sort of gent who had apparently graduated with honors from some Central European school of sneering, has various people, including an American gangster and a mysterious woman, call on him one evening at his isolated mansion. The next day a corpse, identified as his, is discovered, and a police detective (Drew Middleton), an Inspector Japp/Lestrade clone, complete with bushy mustache, rumpled raincoat and a carefully cultivated vagueness, goes nosing around to find the killer. He bumps heads with the sort of characters who inhabited British melodramas of the '40s and '50s, including the witch-like Steffy Millington (Sonia Dresdel) and her daffy hubby, Bill Millington (Colin Gordon), a couple with an unexpected supply of light-hearted Noel Cowardish banter; a sour-looking blonde, Vera Kurton (Eleanor Summerfield), and her pleasantly bland husband, Jack Kurton (Hubert Gregg), who exchange salvos rather than words; and a weirdo with the charisma of a talking fungus (Michael Martin Harvey). These folks scuttle in and out of view for an hour and a half, dropping clues for the industrious Inspector to scoop up and make sense of. Chaired skillfully by the incredible Maurice Elvey, who directed nearly 200 British films between 1913 and 1957, The Third Visitor is a remarkably satisfying little crime drama with a plot that twists and turns, keeping you guessing right to the neatly unexpected finale. Filmed in black and white, in the austere setting of post- war Britain (some of the scenery would seem to have been borrowed from the original stage play), it's a semi noir, wholly crafty 90- minute mystery masterpiece, all the more satisfying because I had never heard of it.