BLACKOUT (1950)

Maxwell Reed is a man who was blinded in an accident over a year ago and is about to undergo an operation that will restore his sight. He heads out one night to attend a party but gets dropped off at the wrong address, enters an empty house, finds a dead body, and is knocked out by someone, though he manages to keep hold of a ring he found on the floor. After the operation, he tracks his way back to the house to play detective, meets Dinah Sheridan and her father, and discovers that the ring belonged to her brother, a pilot who was recently killed in a plane crash. She, being his twin and feeling an almost psychic connection, doesn't believe he is dead, so she is more than willing to join Reed in his investigation. They enlist the help of the brother's buddy (Patric Doonan), but when Reed meets the brother's navigator, he recognizes the man's voice from the night of the murder and Reed suspects that the brother may indeed still be alive and involved in a smuggling ring.

This is definitely a minor British B-film, with so-so acting and a plot with some loopholes, but Reed and the photography (a vaguely noir style) make it worth seeing. Reed, who was married for a time to Joan Collins, is nice looking and mostly adequate to the undemanding role, though the romance element never quite feels right. The title comes from a plot twist near the end reminiscent of the climax of WAIT UNTIL DARK; when the power goes out, Reed's recent blindness gives him a leg up on the bad guys. That is literally the only surprising element of the otherwise predictable film. I got a chuckle out of an exchange that occurs when Reed returns to the house after his sight has been restored; recognizing by feel a small statue of a lion, he stands there fondling it and when caught by Sheridan, says, "I was admiring the lion." She replies, "I'd have thought you were polishing the lion." Either phrase would make a wonderful euphemism for something impolite. [DVD]