Verdict
Summary
A film noir drama from Britain shot in black in white in a time when most films were shot in color, the 69-minute film Walk a Tightrope feels much more like a TV movie of the week thriller rather than something that would have played in cinemas in the mid ’60s, but that’s not necessarily a criticism. It’s just that the film has a smaller design to entertain; it doesn’t have a cinematic sense to it and has a one-and-done intent to be quickly digested for the small screen on a weeknight. It’s not bad, just very slight and disposable, though the twist at the end is pretty good.
Plot:
A hitman is caught after killing a woman’s husband, but he insists that she hired him.
Review:
A skittish American woman named Ellen (Patricia Owens) living in England insists to her husband (played by Terence Cooper) that she’s being followed by a strange man (played by Dan Duryea), and not believing her, they go home with a friend of theirs, another man. While at home, the strange man knocks on the door, and in front of Ellen, he shoots and kills her husband. Their friend is knocked out, but just before that he hears the stranger say to Ellen that the job she hired him for is done and to please pay him what she owes him. Did Ellen hire a hitman to kill her husband? When she and her friend go to the police and insist that a man killed her husband, they catch the killer and have an inquest and then a trial where they allow him to defend himself. During the trial he insists that Ellen hired him to kill her husband, but he simply can’t prove it, though his argument sure sounds compelling. What emerges after the trial is quite a revelation, though, especially considering that the killer is convicted of his crimes, and Ellen’s testimony is never questioned or doubted. There’s a big twist when she goes home after the trial, and we learn the whole truth, and it’s not what you’d expect.
A film noir drama from Britain shot in black in white in a time when most films were shot in color, the 69-minute film Walk a Tightrope feels much more like a TV movie of the week thriller rather than something that would have played in cinemas in the mid ’60s, but that’s not necessarily a criticism. It’s just that the film has a smaller design to entertain; it doesn’t have a cinematic sense to it and has a one-and-done intent to be quickly digested for the small screen on a weeknight. It’s not bad, just very slight and disposable, though the twist at the end is pretty good. From director Frank Nesbitt.
Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray of Walk a Tightrope is presented in a new HD master, and it comes with a new audio commentary by a film historian.
