Thursday, January 30, 2014

Movie review - "Three Cases of Murder" (1955) **1/2

One of the anthology movies popular in Britain around this time (Dead of Night, Quartet, etc) this combines three suspernaturalistic tales. Orson Welles is top billed but only in one, the last.

The first one has a decent set up - a guide at an art gallery is invited inside a painting by a mysterious figure (Alan Badel) - and some trippy visuals (tilted cameras etc), but is far too talky, doesn't have much of a story beyond the set up, and got dull very quickly.

The second one feels a lot better paced, though a lot more familiar, being a film noir-ish tale about two best mates (one of them alcoholic, John Gregson) who fall for the same woman (Elizabeth Sellars, the resident femme fetale of British movies of the 50s).

Orson Welles stars in the third as an MP whose dreams are invaded by an opposition MP (Badel again) whose career he has ruined, supposedly from what seems to be a rather tame speech. Orson has a high old time, especially in the dream sequences - it was like a film version of some roles which he played on radio - and I wasn't surprised to hear he had directed some of it (the carnival-like nightclub sequence feels especially his). I found this the most enjoyable, mainly because of Orson's presence (it's a shame he couldn't have appeared in the other two segments); it was based on a story by Somerset Maugham.

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