Final Appointment (1954)

Load of rubbish!!

Better Late Then Never

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Hammer fans don't often realise that famed director Terence Fisher cut his teeth for many years on a series of low budget thrillers and murder mysteries churned out by many a British studio. FINAL APPOINTMENT is such a film, made at the ubiquitous Nettlefold Studios on a clearly tight budget, and yet providing satisfactory entertainment for fans of the era.The main character is the rather stodgy John Bentley playing a reporter looking into a series of death threats and finding that they're connected to a series of unexplained murders. It's all linked to something that happened during the war, and he's determined to get to the bottom of it. Along the way he gets to grips with various characters from detectives to lowlife criminals. There isn't much action or incident in this production - no doubt due to the budget - but Fisher's brisk direction is efficient, and fun remains in seeing minor parts for the likes of Sam Kydd and Arthur Lowe.

Before he made his name at Hammer Terence Fisher directed a considerable number of B features,of which this is one.It is directed by him in a brisk no nonsense manner.It revolves around the murder of members of a courts martial and threats made to the surviving member.The other review refers to a surprise twist.However it isn't much of a surprise bearing in mind that it is revealed quite a considerable way from the climax.It is here that Eleanor Summerfield scoops John Bentley and is awarded her own by line whereas John Bentley is relegated to the agony aunt.This is strikingly similar to the Warner Brothers "Hi Nellie" made in 1934 with Paul Muni.The film is very much enlivened by Sam Kydd playing a rather shady character who sticks his nose out too far.Coincidentally I am currently reading the BFI book on Fisher and the author devotes about one sentence to this film.Probably because it doesn't fit in with his auteur theory.

Another short B-picture made in Britain this concerns a man, who, having been court-marshalled during the war, kills five of the six officers who took part in his case. A newspaper reporter (played by John Bentley) and his girl friend (Elanor Summerfield) discover the identity of the sixth man, now a solicitor (Hubert Gregg) and protects him from the killer. But there is a twist in the tail, for the suspect is not the man we have been led to believe it was....