Dead Man's Evidence

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Dead Man's Evidence
Dead Man's Evidence film poster (1962).png
Film poster
Directed by Francis Searle
Screenplay by Arthur La Bern
Produced byFrancis Searle
Starring Conrad Phillips
Jane Griffiths
Veronica Hurst
Cinematography Ken Hodges
Edited by Jim Connock
Music by Ken Thorne
Production
company
Bayford Films
Distributed by British Lion Film Corporation
Release date
  • 3 September 1962 (1962-09-03)(UK)
Running time
67 min
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Dead Man's Evidence is a 1962 British black-and-white crime thriller "B" film directed by Francis Searle, starring Conrad Phillips and Jane Griffiths. [1] The screenplay was by Arthur La Bern. A British spy is sent to Ireland to investigate the death of a former colleague who defected.

Contents

Cast

Production

The film was made at MGM British Studios, Borehamwood. [1]

Critical reception

In a contemporary review Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Though the mystery is too tangled to unravel itself satisfactorily in the limited running time, Arthur La Bern's script scatters its red herrings ingeniously, and the acting is entirely adequate to its demands, with Alex Mackintosh and Veronica Hurst giving especially adroit performances as an astute reporter-photographer team. Essentially light-weight, it does not discredit the new effort to raise the quality of second features that is one of the more encouraging signs in the British cinema these days." [2]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "This provides a sobering insight into how the rest of the British film industry was handling espionage thrillers while Terence Young was making Dr No [1962]. With his heyday as TV's William Tell already behind him, Conrad Phillips stars as a spy sent to investigate when the body of a defector is washed up on an Irish beach. The direction is as perfunctory as the script." [3]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Dead Man's Evidence". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  2. ↑ "Dead Man's Evidence". Monthly Film Bulletin . 29 (336): 140. 1 January 1962 – via ProQuest.
  3. ↑ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 233. ISBN   9780992936440.


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