JLRMovieReviews "Dear Murderer" is a short, very intriguing British mystery that caught my interest by its title. After a long work-related trip, Eric Portman comes home to find his wife not home. But, in fact we find out real quick that he knows a lot more than that and he's intent on killing the other fellow, played by Dennis Price. Greta Gynt is the unfaithful wife. But then there's a twist; Eric soon finds out there's more than one. He can't kill them all, Dennis says. But Eric finds a way to pin the murder on the other other fellow. All these convoluted schemes made for a very complicated but absorbing mess. I liked this very much with its layered plots developing more and more as it went along, but, by the end, the viewer really has very few people to feel any compassion for and therefore it feels a bit mean-spirited and/or downbeat. But the irony of the unexpected, Eric Portman's acting, and his character's egotistical disposition make up for any flaws this film may have. Sit back for a very perverse experience of the British kind.

Kasper Pone It was going good but then it just gets stupid. Why would he tell his wife what he did?? Why would he keep trying to kill/frame her lovers instead of killing her!! And what a horrible ending!!! How could that ring possibly connect her to the murder? Couldn't the husband have found the ring somehow and dropped it before killing himself? Finding a ring like that would be a good reason to. But I have no clue how that at all incriminates her. Just rubbish, smh.I would also like to point out that I watch a ton of old movies and they almost always have a pretty girl playing the main role. But this lady who plays the wife is anything but attractive. Of course that could be b/c she plays the part of a monster so they didn't want a good looking lady but she didn't have to be that ugly. Now the young girl who plays the sister on the other hand is very pretty. :) In conclusion, this movie is an epic waste of time and "could" have been good had they stopped it at the 32 minute mark.

secondtake Dear Murderer (1947)What a fabulous, complicated, feint and double feint movie about murder, attempted and otherwise. It's a very British feeling film, and though it has a film noir darkness (very dark, in my copy), it doesn't have the angularity nor the action of an American noir. More defining, though, is the deliberate parlor game feel to this very deadly situation. You might compare (if comparing is helpful) to the Joan Crawford "Sudden Fear" to make this most obvious.There is a lot of sparring with words here, very smartly written, and you have to pay attention as the intentions of the characters seem to be shifting all the time. You have to have the low key, steadfast, opaque, and clever detective of course, and the detective here is brilliantly all those things. And you have to have motive, which we have in abundance.And you need abundance since so much is going to go wrong here. Eric Portman is the key figure through it all, and he plays a jilted husband with laconic brilliance. His wife, and his wife's several lovers, are all excellent in support, each either surpassingly innocent at heart despite their adulteries, or really devious and selfish. It's beautifully constructed, and really a joy. But you have to pay attention. No getting up for popcorn here.

Neil Doyle ERIC PORTMAN finds his wife has been cheating on him and decides to commit the perfect murder by doing away with her lover (DENNIS PRICE). Sound familiar? Of course, it does.It's been done so many times before and usually more effectively. At least Portman does a commendable job in an unlikeable characterization and his wife (GRETA GYNT) is a sly and cunning female of the type you'd expect in this kind of crime melodrama. She's rather smitten with one of her suitors (MAXWELL REED) and her loyalty to him causes her downfall when she tries to outfox her husband.It's slow moving and obviously based on a stage play with most of the action confined to a few sets with lots of stage dialog. The director lets the pace lag considerably and never speeds things up for what is supposed to be a surprise ending.Anyone looking for a tense crime of passion will be disappointed. It ambles along at its own slow pace, but most viewers will want to see how it all ends. Should have been a lot more suspenseful.