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Director: Terence Fisher, Screenplay: Ernest Borneman, Producer:
Michael Carreras, Original Music: Kenny Baker, Cinematographer:
Walter J. Harvey, Film Editor: Maurice Rootes, Production Designer:
J. Elder Wills, Hair Stylist: Nina Broe, Makeup Artist: Philip
Leakey, Production Manager: Mickey Delamar, Assistant Director:
Jimmy Sangster, Sound Recordists: George Burgess, Bill Salter,
Wardrobe Supervisor: Molly Arbuthnot, Conductors: Ivor Slaney, Kenny
Baker, Trumpet Soloist: Kenny Baker, Incidental Music Director:
Ivor Slaney, Continuity: Renée Glynne, Camera Operator: Len Harris
Cast:
Alex Nicol
(James 'Brad' Bradley), Eleanor
Summerfield (Barbara Quigley), John Salew (Maxie Margulies), Paul Carpenter
(Johnny Sutherland), Geoffrey Keen (Maurie Green), Ann Hanslip (Maxine Halbard),
Fred Johnson (Det. Sgt. MacKenzie), Martin Boddey (Insp. Mulrooney), Arthur
Lane (Jeff Colt), Gordon Crier, Paula Byrne (Gloria Lewis Colt), Leo Phillips
(Dresser), Freddie Tripp (Stage manager), Ben Williams (Gatekeeper), Frank Birch
(Trumpet salesman), Jeremy Hawk (Recording technician), James Carney (Mickey the
Barman), Mark Singleton (Waiter), Kenny Baker
(Bandleader),
Michael Carreras (Band
member), Melvyn Hayes (Hotel bellhop), Tony Hilton (Stage callboy), Pat Jorden
(Constable), Frank Pettitt (Constable), Robert Sansom (Doctor)
Alternative title:
The Black Glove (US)
A jetlagged and overworked Jazz musician discovers a fascinating singer. They go to the best spaghetti house in town: her place! There they exchange cheesy quotes from songs about girls who lie and men who cheat. When he leaves the place, he forgets his trumpet and ends up being one of the main suspects when she is discovered killed. He turns amateur sleuth in order to find the real killer.
This very noirish thriller is one of Hammer’s best quota pictures from the early 1950s before they turned into a horror power house. Alex Nichol from South Pacific was Hammer’s American star du jour and was also used as the lead in Hammer’s next movie, The House Across the Lake. Terence Fisher directs and Michael Carreras manages to instill his love for jazz into the production. He can even briefly be glimpsed as one of the Band members in Kenny Baker’s Dozen.
Jazz permeates the entire movie and is the narrative thread that ties it all together: It introduces the main characters who are also repeatedly seen playing it. Jazz records are leads and red herrings in this mystery and Jazz instruments are even seen as potential murder instruments.
The screenplay was adapted from his own novel by Ernest Borneman, a fascinating character, jazz critic and musician, crime fiction writer, dedicated socialist and – most (in)famous of all – well known sexologist. Jimmy Sangster at that stage had not been elevated to writer status yet and acted as Assistant Director. Watch out for Geoffrey Keen who would later appear in many a Bond movie as Sir Frederick Gray.
There is one annoying plot hole when we discover that only two copies of an important demo record were ever pressed yet we can clearly see three copies making the round. Nevertheless the film overall is quite enjoyable especially given the novel jazz twist. This film had previously been hard to track down, but is now part of the Hammer Film Noir sets that were recently released.
Oh yeah, in the US the film is also known under title The Black Glove, although it completely beats me as to why.
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Further Reading:
Not much online to read about this film, though you can check out Hammer Graveyard's short overview and be amazed about websites dedicated to Buses on Film: Apparently "Four minutes into the film there is a night shot of London's Piccadilly Circus featuring the rear of STL457 (AYV614) on service 38A in all-red livery". Who'd have thunk?
Jimmy Sangster writes a little bit about the film in his book
"Inside Hammer
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