ACT OF MURDER (1964)

Actress Anne Longman has left the stage to live a placid life in the country tending to her garden and her husband Ralph. Their actor friend Tim, who dated Anne in the past and seems like he might be interested in an adulterous affair, is trying to talk Anne into making a comeback. She's mildly interested (perhaps in both getting back into acting and back into Tim's bed) but she and Ralph are about to indulge in what must be a singularly British pastime: vacationing by swapping homes for a week with another couple. As Anne and Ralph leave, the Petersons, the pleasant older couple they're swapping with, arrive and Anne reminds them that they'll have to attend to their dog, which is fine with them. When Anne and Ralph get to London, they find the couple's address doesn't exist. Sure enough, that evening, the Petersons, working with two other men, are ransacking the Longman house, boxing up valuable antiques to cart off in a van. In the middle of this, Tim stops by to pick up a valise he left at the house. One of the thieves punches him, but they leave in a hurry without the boxed-up valuables. Next morning when the Longmans come home, they're happy not to have been burgled, but then Anne notices that much of the furniture and knick-knacks are in the wrong place. Then they discover that Anne's beloved garden has been trampled and their chickens, canary and dog are dead. Tim visits without telling them what happened, but puts it in Anne's mind that all their food has been poisoned. We soon realize that Tim has a plan: scare Anne into coming back to the big city as an actress, and maybe even moving in with him. But you know what they say about the best laid plans…

Though this hour-long British film was apparently released in theaters, it was also shown on British TV as part of the Edgar Wallace Mystery Theater series, even though it is not based on a Wallace story. Visually, this is caught between a TV episode and a second feature B-movie. It's not terribly interesting in terms of sets or camerawork, and there is almost no background score, but it does have the occasional nice shot or camera move. It doesn't look like a film noir, but the story has that feel, and there are enough plot twists to keep a thriller fan guessing. The performances are fine, if perhaps more aimed at a TV episode. John Carson, a very busy actor (CAPTAIN KRONOS VAMPIRE HUNTER, PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, lots of British television well into the 2000s) is nicely slimy as the conniving Tim, though I think that it's a mistake that we don't see Tim doing any of the house rearranging or animal killing, we just have to figure out what he's done. Even better is Anthony Bate (pictured) as Ralph—I couldn't decide if I was supposed to like him and therefore feel sorry for him being used, or not, especially since it's unclear how far things get between Anne and Tim in the city (another weak plot point). Justine Lord as Anne is the weakest of the three but she's acceptable. Busy character actor Dandy Nichols is wasted in the small role of Mrs. Peterson. The ending is particularly good, and probably not one that would have been done on American TV of the era. [Streaming]