User Reviews

DEADLY RECORD is a short and snappy 'wronged man' style thriller with a leading role for Canadian import Lee Patterson. It clocks in at just an hour in length and thus gets down to business from the outset, as our pilot hero returns home to find his wife's murdered body in her studio. The finger of suspicion naturally falls on him, so he must fight to clear his name with the aid of his glamorous colleague, played by a pre-Hammer Barbara Shelley. DEADLY RECORD moves along at a fair clip, adding in the usual twists and turns into the murder mystery-type plotting, and boasting solid support from Geoffrey Keen, Percy Herbert and Ferdy Mayne among others. The outcome managed to surprise me, too.

An airline pilot called Trevor Hamilton (Lee Patterson) becomes the chief suspect for the murder of his wife, the former dancer Jenny, whom is found stabbed to death in her studio. Their marriage had been on the rocks for some time and aided by his late wife's best friend who also happens to be a colleague of his at the airline, Sue Webb (Barbara Shelley), he conducts his own investigation in order to clear his name. He finds plenty of suspects with strong motives for wanting her dead. They include Dr Morrow (Peter Dyneley), with whom she was having an affair, and if it had come out he would have been struck off for professional misconduct. Jenny's former dance partner Ramon Casadas (Ferdy Mayne) admits that he had been approached by her because she was looking to re-enter the profession and wanted a part in his act. However, he refused because he is married to his new partner Carmela (April Olrich) who was jealous of Jenny so they both have strong motives. However, Hamilton's money is on the doctor since everything starts to point towards him as being the killer. So he sets a trap using Jenny's diary, the 'Deadly Record' of the title, which had been missing but was later found in the laundry basket to force the doctor into making an attempt to recover it. That night, Hamilton, Sue and the law lie in wait for him to break into Jenny's studio and somebody does, but is it the doctor or somebody whom nobody would have ever suspected had a connection to the case?

A very acceptable 'B' picture whodunit from veteran writer-director Lawrence Huntingdon, which succeeds in generating some moments of suspense like when Hamilton breaks into Dr Morrow's holiday cottage to search for clues, but is disturbed by an odd job man. To complicate matters, Sue manages to get their getaway car stuck in the mud on a farm track. It is acted by a cast of familiar British actors, most notably scream queen Barbara Shelley and Gepffrey Keen who would later find fame in the Bond films appears here as the police superintendent determined to nail Lee Patterson for the crime. The latter, an imported American leading man, appeared in several British 'B's throughout the fifties often playing roles such as the one he does here. In this case, like most of the cast, he is competent but not exactly inspiring and the acting honours go to Jane Hylton, a sadly underrated actress, who portrays a real depth of feeling as Peter Dyneley's secretary. The solution when it comes is quite surprising since I thought it was going to lapse into predictability as the identity of the murderer seemed pretty obvious, but in a satisfying denouement I was taken quite off my guard, I have to say.