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Murder by Proxy
Murder by Proxy
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Terence Fisher
Written by	Richard Landau
Based on	Murder by Proxy; by Helen Nielsen
Produced by	Michael Carreras
Starring	Dane Clark; Belinda Lee; Betty Ann Davies
Cinematography	Walter J. Harvey
Edited by	Maurice Rootes
Music by	Ivor Slaney
Production; companies	Hammer Film Productions;
Distributed by	Exclusive Films ; Lippert Pictures (US)
Release dates	19 March 1954 (US); 28 March 1955 (UK);
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Murder by Proxy (U.S. title: Blackout) is a 1954 British 'B'^[1] film noir crime drama film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Dane Clark, Belinda Lee and Betty Ann Davies.^[2]^[3]^[4] The film was based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Helen Nielsen. It was produced by Hammer Films, and released in the United States by Lippert Pictures.

The screenplay concerns a man who is offered money to marry a woman.

Plot

Drunk and down-and-out Casey Morrow in London is approached by a young and beautiful heiress, Phyllis Brunner, offering him much money if he will marry her. He accepts, but then wakes up the next morning in some other woman's apartment with blood on his coat from the murder of Brunner's father. Now he must unravel the mystery to clear his name, which leads him into a twisted labyrinth of encounters with various suspicious characters who seem to make his situation worse the more he learns.

Cast

Dane Clark as Casey Morrow
Belinda Lee as Phyllis Brunner
Betty Ann Davies as Mrs. Alicia Brunner
Eleanor Summerfield as Maggie Doone
Andrew Osborn as Lance Gordon
Harold Lang as Travis / Victor Vanno
Jill Melford as Miss Nardis
Alvys Maben as Lita Huntley
Michael Golden as Inspector Johnson
Nora Gordon as Casey's mother
Alfie Bass as Ernie
Delphi Lawrence as Linda
Arnold Diamond as Mrs. Brunner's butler
Cleo Laine as singer
Olive Sloane as landlady

Production

It was the first film in an eight picture contract between Hammer Films and Lippert Pictures.

Dane Clark's casting was announced in September 1953.^[5] He stayed on in England to make Five Days (1954).^[6]

The film was shot at the Hammer's Bray Studios in Berkshire with sets designed by the art director J. Elder Wills.

Script supervisor Renee Glynne later recalled that Belinda Lee "was still very inexperienced at that time and I had to watch her quite carefully. She'd cross her legs the wrong way or turn her head at the wrong moment or come out with the wrong line, so I'd have to correct her and try to help her out. Dane obviously fancied her and got very cross with my professional interference. He got quite nasty and was actually pushing me away from her." Glynne says she had to take medication "in order to survive the rest of the film. After that I had to give all my instructions to him through the director, Terry Fisher ... after some shots he'd have to put his head under cold water because he was so enraged that I was even there. Eventually he realised how silly it all was and went down on his knees, tears streaming down his face, begging me to forgive him, But I still asked Tony Hinds to take me off the next film he was in."^[7]

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The treatment is sufficiently persuasive to bring a fair amount of excitement to the well tried material. Dane Clark, playing with effective restraint, makes a credible character out of the bail hero, aided by Eleanor Summerfield as the wisecracking Maggie Doone. Belinda Lee's voluptuous charms are more stimulating than her acting. Technically the film is competently made, and the dialogue is agreeably convincing."^[8]

Variety called it "a gabby, overlong, import from England that has Dane Clark heading the cast as the only name known in the domestic market. Condition of the supporting feature market is such currently that the film will have no trouble getting bookings, even though it offers scant measure of entertainment.... There’s nothing the players can do with the plot as presented under the production helming of Michael Carreras, and Terence Fisher's direction is deliberate to the extreme, even for a British offering."^[9]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Grim, slightly dull thriller with some witty lines along the way."^[10]

Chibnall and McFarlane in The British 'B' Film described the film as: "a pretty hackneyed story."^[1]

Filmink called it "an entirely decent, unpretentious film noir; the age gap between the leads is annoying, but Lee is an ideal femme-fatale-or-isn’t-she?"^[11]

References

^ ^a ^b Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-8445-7319-6.
^ "Murder by Proxy". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
^ "Blackout (1954) - Terence Fisher - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.
^ "Murder by Proxy (1955)". Archived from the original on 15 February 2017.
^ ZUKOR SEES VALUE IN VARIED METHODS: New York Times 21 Sep 1953: 22.
^ Round the British Studios Nepean, Edith. Picture Show; London Vol. 62, Iss. 1605, (Jan 2, 1954): 11.
^ Rigby, Jonathan (1995). "Calling the Shots". Hammer Horror. No. 7. p. 38.
^ "Murder by Proxy". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 22 (252): 59. 1 January 1955. ProQuest 1305817836 – via ProQuest.
^ Review of film at Variety
^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 349. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
^ Vagg, Stephen (7 September 2020). "A Tale of Two Blondes: Diana Dors and Belinda Lee". Filmink.