An actor, Tim Ford, tries to persuade an ex-actress, his former girlfriend Anne Longman, to return to the stage. Her husband, Ralph, suspects that Ford's motives are more than just professional. The Longmans plan to exchange their country house with the house of a London couple for a few days, but when they reach the London address they were given, there is no house there, and they return to their home, fearing it has been robbed of their valuable paintings and objets d'art. When they arrive, they find their belongings intact, but moved slightly from their usual places, and their dog and chickens have been killed. Frightened, Anne accepts Tim's offer of a temporary stage part, and goes to London to stay with her mother while in the role.[3]
Film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane said that on its release in the United Kingdom, the film "received pretty well uniformly positive reviews", especially for the directorial debut of Alan Bridges.[3]
The reviewer "T.M." in the Monthly Film Bulletin declared the film an "uncommonly intelligent little thriller", but noted that it was "just the sort of film which is likely to arouse critical sneers for reaching too high on a low budget."[4] The reviewer added, "Long, languid close-ups a la Antonioni convey the dreamy sensuousness of the wife, the introspective quality which makes her react so strongly to the bizarre situation; abrupt cuts within speeches, from character to character, suggest very precisely the tensions that underlie the relations between husband, wife and lover right from the start."[4]
Chibnall and McFarlane selected Act of Murder as one of the 15 most meritorious British B films made between World War II and 1970. They noted that "it picks its way through a web of obliquely suggested jealousy and a scam involving convincingly improbable frauds".[3]
References
^Denis Gifford, British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set – The Fiction Film/The Non-Fiction Film, Routledge, London, 2001, p. 741.
^Bergan, Ronald (30 January 2014). "Alan Bridges obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
^ abcSteve Chibnall & Brian McFarlane, The British 'B' Film, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009, pp. 284–86.
