Murder by Proxy: Difference between revisions

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Dane Clark's casting was announced in September 1953.<ref>ZUKOR SEES VALUE IN VARIED METHODS: New York Times 21 Sep 1953: 22. </ref> He stayed on in England to make ''Five Days''.<ref>Round the British Studios
Dane Clark's casting was announced in September 1953.<ref>ZUKOR SEES VALUE IN VARIED METHODS: New York Times 21 Sep 1953: 22. </ref> He stayed on in England to make ''Five Days''.<ref>Round the British Studios
Nepean, Edith. Picture Show; London Vol. 62, Iss. 1605, (Jan 2, 1954): 11. </ref>
Nepean, Edith. Picture Show; London Vol. 62, Iss. 1605, (Jan 2, 1954): 11. </ref>

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."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/Hammer_Horror_007_1995_Marvel/page/n37/mode/1up?q=%22belinda+lee%22|magazine=Hammer Horror|issue=7|date=1995|page=38|title=Calling the Shots|first=Jonathan|last=Rigby}}</ref>


==Reception==
==Reception==

Revision as of 11:33, 15 August 2020

For the 2010 documentary, see Murder by Proxy: How America Went Postal.

Murder by Proxy
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTerence Fisher
Written byRichard Landau
Based onMurder by Proxy
by Helen Nielsen
Produced byMichael Carreras
StarringDane Clark
Betty Ann Davies
Belinda Lee
CinematographyWalter J. Harvey
Edited byMaurice Rootes
Music byIvor Slaney
Production
companies
Distributed byExclusive Films (UK)
20th Century Fox (US)
Release dates
  • 19 March 1954 (1954-03-19) (US)
  • 28 March 1955 (1955-03-28) (UK)
Running time
87 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Murder by Proxy, released in the United States as Blackout, is a 1954 British film noir crime drama film directed by Terence Fisher.[1] It stars Dane Clark and Belinda Lee.[2] The screenplay concerns a man who is offered money to marry a woman.

Plot summary

Drunk and down-and-out Casey Morrow (Clark) in London is approached by a young and beautiful heiress, Phyllis Brunner (Lee), 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

Production

The film was based on a novel Murder by Proxy which was published in 1952. It was the first movie in an eight picture contact between Hammer Films and Lippert Pictures.

Dane Clark's casting was announced in September 1953.[3] He stayed on in England to make Five Days.[4]

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."[5]

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletinsaid "the treatment is sufficiently persuasive to bring a fair amount of excitement to the well tried material."[6]

References

  1. ^ "Blackout (1954) - Terence Fisher - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  2. ^ "Murder by Proxy (1955)".
  3. ^ ZUKOR SEES VALUE IN VARIED METHODS: New York Times 21 Sep 1953: 22.
  4. ^ Round the British Studios Nepean, Edith. Picture Show; London Vol. 62, Iss. 1605, (Jan 2, 1954): 11.
  5. ^ Rigby, Jonathan (1995). "Calling the Shots". Hammer Horror. No. 7. p. 38.
  6. ^ MURDER BY PROXY Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 22, Iss. 252, (Jan 1, 1955): 59.


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