Kill Her Gently (1958)

Perfect cast and a good story

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Kill Her Gently is a sub Hitchcockian British B thriller starring American Marc Lawrence who had escaped to Europe after being blacklisted for his political views in the 1950s.Two convicts break out of prison. Connors is an American and Svenson is a Swede. While on the run they are picked up by a motorist, Martin who realises who they are but helps them pass a police road block. Martin makes the a proposition to the fugitive. He will help them leave the country if in return they will kill his wife.It looks like Martin is more deranged than the convicts who has suffered a mental breakdown for which his wife had him sectioned and who also thinks she might be having an affair.Most of the film is set in the couple's home as Martin initially comes across as a victim with his wife. However the convicts become reluctant carrying out his task especially Svenson.This is a tight, short thriller but with a very rushed ending. Marc Lawrence impresses as a tough guy with a looming conscious. Griffith Jones is also memorable as the conniving, cunning and desperate husband who wants to punish his wife for having him incarcerated.

The makers of this film clearly wanted to cast this film so that they could get distribution both in America and Europe.What else can explain the the strange casting of the convicts.Nevertheless this is quite a reasonable British film noir,with plenty of bodies scattered around.Though you have to get through one major implausibility.The police blockade not looking to see the 2 passengers in the car with Griffiths Jones.Jones depiction of his growing insanity seems to depend on him being lathered in sweat and his eyes becoming rather more prominent.One would have thought that his rather strange behaviour would have given a clue to people.As usual the police only get there in the end to mop up the pieces.

Two convicts (Marc Lawrence and George Mikell) escape from prison and hitch a ride with Jeff Martin (Griffith Jones). Jeff recognises the two men from their police descriptions, but he doesn't turn them in. Instead, he has another use for them – and a wife (Maureen Connell) whom he no longer requires. Clocking in at 73 minutes, this taut thriller (whose basic plot is vaguely reminiscent of the Coen Brothers' 'Fargo (1996)') largely takes place in the cramped confines of a country home. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the story is that the criminals themselves are far less deranged and dangerous than Jeff, the husband, who approaches his scheme with the cool, detached air of a psychopath. The best performance comes from Marc Lawrence (a prolific character actor who cropped up in 'The Asphalt Jungle (1950),' among other films), playing a sleazy, hardened convict who nevertheless reveals a streak of humanity.

This is one of those tight, moody British crime thrillers of the 50s, one which just about lives up to its great title. Despite being set in a rural/suburban setting, the proceedings are imbued with the post-war brutality and seediness common to the genre, not to mention plenty of misogyny and xenophobia. The plot keeps moving and the atmospheric and psychological details are piled up at an equal pace, making this compelling viewing. Perhaps most telling is that the cultivated British middle class citizen proves far nastier than the "greasy" foreign criminals. The ending is a bit abrupt (possibly due to censorship or a cut TV print), but otherwise it plays all the angles perfectly. Marc Lawrence seems to have had a knack for finding neat little productions like this in which to participate.If you like this one, try "Man in the Back Seat", too.