The Man Who Wouldn't Talk

Now what can we say about this little ‘gem’? Unfortunately not a great deal. Yet another vehicle for the great Dame Anna Neagle created by – yes you guessed it –her director husband Herbert Wilcox.

After thirty minutes, with a brief appearance from Dame Anna at the start, this film was seemingly going nowhere. This gem, would you believe it, was scripted by the doyen of crime historians, the late great Edgar Lustgarten. What went wrong? Distinguished British stage actor Anthony Quayle (Ice Cold In Alex) and his seriously dodgy American accent… Hungarian socialite cum actress Zsa Zsa Gabor and her ‘untouched’ retroussé nose… fail to add much excitement to this lacklustre affair.

Our ill-matched couple, who are not really a couple at all as Eve Trent (La Gabor) is an American secret agent (yeah right, with a strong Hungarian accent), and Frank Smith (Mister Quayle) is a prominent American virologist, are instructed to rendezvous at London’s Victoria station. There, they meet up with Hungarian scientist Professor Horvard (Leonard Sachs) holding vital information about biological warfare. All the professor reveals is that a virus has been created capable of decimating the entire population – however, the fact that the defecting East block scientist shares this with an American does not impress the Communists. No sooner, would you believe it, a romance starts to blossom between our protagonists, Eve Trent is shot through the heart in Frank Smith’s hotel room. Smith is then charged with her murder. Re-enter Dame Anna, as Mary Randall, Q.C. – one of the best in the business. Smith has had a result in getting her to defend him, but despite him pleading innocent he refuses to reveal much about other important facts… such as that there was a burglar in the room at the night of the murder. What was a burglar doing there to begin with?

It’s from then on that the whole premise seems to fall to pieces: we have a top-notch barrister defending a man who will tell her practically nothing. We have a murder suspect who would obviously have claimed diplomatic immunity, but choses not to for some reason best known to the writer of this piece. As a result of his decision not to talk (he does not want to reveal anything about the killer virus), Smith literally puts hid head on the line. Before this courtroom drama actually kicks off as a courtroom drama, very little of interest happens in the first half hour of the film.

The film is presented here in a brand-new digital transfer, in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
[] Original Theatrical Trailer
[] Image Gallery