jamesraeburn2003 James Neville (Dane Clark), the MD of Amalgamated Industries, is double crossed on a business deal by the archaeologist Cyrus McGowan (Howard Marion Crawford) leaving his firm on the brink of bankruptcy. He arranges to have himself killed so that his wife Andrea (Thea Gregory) can claim his substantial life insurance. He blackmails his friend Paul Kirby (Paul Carpenter) into committing the crime over a murder he undertook some years ago. Neville testified at his trial that it was self defence and was acquitted as a result, but the deceased's widow has since sent him some letters proving that it was actually murder one. Neville has put them into a sealed envelope with instructions that they are to be delivered to the police should he still be alive within forty eight hours. Naturally, he has arranged what should be a watertight alibi for his would be assassin. However, in a strange twist of fate, McGowan announces that their deal is back on and Neville is now faced with the dilemma of finding his killer before he can kill him. The trouble is, he has vanished. Aided by his loyal secretary, Joan Peterson (Cecile Chevreau), who is madly in love with him, he sets out to find Kirby. Several attempts are made on Neville's life before he visits his girlfriend at a Soho pub where she works and he learns that he has skipped the country as a result of getting cold feet over their contract. So who is using the contract for their own ends and who else could have known about it?...A British crime noir with a fanciful yet undeniably ingenious plot. On the downside, you will not have too much trouble in working out who Dane Clark's would be assassin is, but this is a very rewarding entertainment nonetheless. It quite convincingly recreates the style and atmosphere of American film noir thanks to the solid and sympathetic direction of Montgomery Tully, the excellent b/w camerawork of veteran Walter Harvey and strong performances from the leads - especially Dane Clark.* Caution - very large spoilers in the next paragraph.* He plays his part with a real depth of feeling alternating between ruthless brutality in the way he blackmails and bullies his friend into committing his own murder and his loving devotion towards his wife. Despite being a workaholic and letting his high powered job take him over, which means he seldom ever gets time to spend with her, he worships the ground she treads on and, so it seems, vice versa. She sticks with him through thick and thin and the reason Neville devised his elaborate plot was so that he could leave her well provided for and spare her the damage of the scandal and embarrassment that would have surely resulted had the company gone under as a result of him. When he finally finds out that his beloved wife has betrayed him and has a new lover in the form of one of his business partners Peter Glanville (Anthony Forwood) who both plot to kill him using his own contract he refuses to believe it. In the climatic shoot out in which Andrea is accidentally shot dead, he looks down at her and is deeply devastated. He gently picks up her body off of the floor and carries her back into the house saying "I mustn't leave her here, its dark, its not right" suggesting that he will still miss her and love her deeply in spite of everything. Cecile Chevreau is quite good as Joan, although her stern, bossy and schoolteachery character risks becoming off putting, and the look of envy and despair on her face as Neville picks up his wife's body and lovingly caressing it as he takes it indoors is priceless. Indeed, as the film ends we are invited to think that Joan probably did get her man, and that in the best film noir tradition, probably lived a disastrous relationship since she would have been overshadowed by Andrea even though she is dead. Room for a sequel? No, the fact that it is left for the audience to ponder the futures of the main protagonists is more fun and adds to the film's overall impact. Thea Gregory also offers a fine performance as Clark's wife and makes the perfect femme fatale.All in all, the film succeeds as an atmospheric and diverting triangle of love, deceit, treachery and murder that comes off a whole lot better than I was expecting it to. I am a follower of veteran British 'B' picture director Montgomery Tully's work and this, I think, stands as one of his better offerings. It makes us regret that after his 'A' film career faltered in the late forties that he would remain within the quota quickie industry for the remainder of his career. This is actually an early Hammer film (made in their Exclusive days) and, from the films from this era of their history that I have been able to see, it seemed they tried for quality even when making b-pics and more often than not got it.

FilmFlaneur Taking advantage of arrangements favoured by the UK's Eady levy (a state film subsidy established after the war) in 1950, American producer Robert Lippert formed a business alliance with Hammer studios. Under the agreement, Lippert would provide American acting talent - frequently shop-worn stars or just supporting actors who fancied a profitable trip out of the country - while Hammer would supply the rest of the cast and the production facilities. Together they would split the profits. Famous for his concern with the bottom line, Lippert produced over 140 films between 1946 and 1955, characteristically genre pieces such as I Shot Jesse James or Rocketship XM. For the British deal, most of the films were noir-ish thrillers -including 5 DAYS/ PAID TO KILL.Dane Clark appeared several times under the production arrangement, but makes one of his most successful entries here as a man in a jam, with a plan, and a dame. Possessing a characteristic persecuted look, Clark is eminently suited to the role of businessman James Nevill who - fearing that a big deal has gone sour - pays a friend to kill him, to secure insurance money for his unsuspecting wife. Nevill abruptly needs to change his murderous instructions when matters change for the better, but cannot find his unreliable friend. He finds the repeated attempts on his life - whoever it is making them - too close for comfort. Says a business acquaintance of Nevill's business style that: "it's okay for cutthroat and adventure - but not for the City of London." Such a contrast exists elsewhere in a film containing one or two jarring, humorous scenes, featuring Charles Hawtrey (a non-speaking part) partnering Nevill's troublesome, truculent investor. Away from these distractions the film is much stronger, notably in the understated love for Nevill shown by his secretary Joan (Cecile Chavreau), which is played subtly. Although for many the film's final twist is telegraphed someway in advance, 5 Days/Paid To Kill is reasonably suspenseful and largely successful on its own terms, efficiently directed by Tully.

Terrell-4 If Paid to kill had had a more complex leading man, a sharper and less careless script, better actors, a director who knew how to sustain tension and a show-down that was considerably less over-wrought, there might have been a competent and tension-filled noir. Faint praise, I know. Yet there are the bones for a nasty little thriller here; it's just that the flesh on those bones is weak. James Nevill (Dane Clark) is president of a British company that does something we're never sure of. The name is Amalgamated Industries. He's a hard-charging gambler, successful, and confident to a fault. When a major deal falls through, his company teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. So does he. No one knows this except himself and his loyal and attractive secretary, Joan. So he does what so many chief executives facing public failure would do...he arranges to have himself murdered so that his insurance will go to his wife. Then when the deal turns out to be a success, Jim can't locate the killer and tell him to forget it. Soon, Jim is being beaten on the head, chased down by a car on a lonely street and nearly blown up in his office. Joan, in whom he has confided, is determined to help the man she secretly loves. Jim's wife, on the other hand, may not be trying to help Jim. It all comes together late at night in the garden house of Jim's mansion. Let's just say that there are no surprises as all the key cast members show up. Dane Clark was a short actor who came across as intense, confident and tough. To my way of thinking, however, he was never entirely convincing winning a fist-fight with a bigger guy. In Paid to Kill, I also wonder what sort of direction, if any, he was given. His hard-charging, hard headed American CEO of a British company is almost a caricature. It's a one note performance. The other actors fare little better, with acting that's awfully close to soap opera standards. The premise of Paid to Kill is intriguing but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

MARIO GAUCI I'd always been interested in catching some of the films from Hammer's pre-horror boom; so far, the only title I'd come across was PHANTOM SHIP (1935) which was made a couple of decades before the studio reached its peak period but which, presciently, starred one of the era's horror icons – Bela Lugosi.Anyway, Hammer apparently made a whole slew of ultra low-budget noirs featuring either faded American stars or second-tier leading men. This one, then, happened to be shown on late-night Italian TV and, knowing it's been released on DVD by VCI, I made it a point to check it out. It turned out to be a decidedly modest but not unpleasing little film: the star in this case is Dane Clark (not exactly top rank, you see) and, as I lay watching, felt that he wasn't really noir material – an opinion which, incidentally, I would change the very next day when I saw this same actor in the superior French-made GUNMAN IN THE STREETS (1950)! The plot, though far-fetched, is engaging: Clark's business fails and, in order to provide for his wife, proposes to have himself killed so that she can collect on his insurance; soon after, his fortune unexpectedly turns and he desperately seeks to stop his killer from carrying out the assigned task! Even if I watched the film dubbed in Italian, the London settings and character types offer a whole different atmosphere to the American noirs – the same thing goes for the French locations of GUNMAN IN THE STREETS – and this does help keep one's mind off the measly production values. The denouement provides a few surprises – Clark's wife emerges a villainess (which allows him free rein with the devoted secretary who had really loved him all along), the attempts on his life turn out not to have been done by the person he paid expressly for that purpose – which elevates the whole slightly than would otherwise have been the case. Besides, the film is short enough at 75 minutes not to overstay its welcome or allow the proceedings to slip into tedium. By the way, the original British title of this one is FIVE DAYS (the period of time over which events take place) but got changed to the more evocative PAID TO KILL for the U.S.