Director: Francis Searle
Writers: John Dickson Carr, John Gilling
Stars: Betty Ann Davies, Sheila Burrell, Sidney James
Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hgfpJe_dFY
Synopsis
A narrator introduces the various characters of Henry, a man obsessed with the fear of impending death. His second wife, Bertha, is scheming and evil. Her daughter Janice is a terrible person too. Victor is an opportunist. Henry was the greatest practitioner of Yoga in the country, and the narrator wanted to stop at his estate sale to pick up a few items. He wanted something unusual. Henry was already dead by this point.
The man in black is taken by Joan, Henry’s beautiful daughter. We get a flashback from two years ago. Henry knew he was dying, and the vultures are already circling. Henry really doesn’t like Janice. He calls in an old servant, Hodson, to help him with some special instructions. Henry’s doctor advises against whatever tonight’s yoga “trick” is supposed to be.
Henry plans to lie down and cause himself to die, then after a few minutes, he can be revived. He does point out that it could be very dangerous. As he fades away, a large, framed painting falls off the wall, making a loud crashing noise. Henry rolls onto the floor, completely dead. We see old Hodson visit the coffin that night.
Henry leaves everything to his daughter, Joan, unless she is declared insane, in which it all goes to Bertha. Bertha and Janice immediately start scheming against Joan.
That night, Joan starts seeing things. It’s mentioned the next morning that someone had been murdered in Joan’s room many years ago. Hodson allies himself with Joan, while Victor arrives to help out Bertha with her plans. Bertha tells Joan that she thinks her father is trying to communicate with Joan.
Bertha tells the lawyer, Mr. Sanders, that she thinks Joan is losing her mind. She pretends to be looking out for Joan’s best interests by not taking her to a doctor. That night, Joan is afraid someone is following her home and freaks out. Turns out Janice was following her, just far enough out of sight to be scary.
Victor starts to get really close to Joan, which annoys Janice to no end. He asks Joan to marry him, but he’s already engaged to Janice. He warns Joan against Bertha and Janice. Victor literally chases after Joan, and when Hodson intervenes, Victor kills the old man with a single punch. He then has to hide the body, and he puts him in Henry’s coffin.
Bertha puts two and two together and starts blackmailing Victor. Joan comes downstairs the next day and says she just finished talking to Hodson a few minutes ago. Victor mentions that the coffin he put Hodson in was empty.
Joan and Victor fight, and Joan shoves him and thinks he’s dead. His body almost immediately goes missing. Joan, Bertha, and Janice all head over to the mausoleum to count the bodies. Victor is in the coffin! The next morning, we see Hodson roaming the house.
Bertha wants Joan to write up a full confession of how she killed Victor, but suddenly, she doesn’t remember who Victor is. Joan wants Bertha to contact the spirit world and contact her dead father.
The séance begins, and we see Hodson skulking around in the next room while Janice and Bertha fake contact from the afterlife. Hodson takes off his disguise, and it turns out to be Henry.
Henry faked his death and funeral. He wanted to find out how Bertha planned to steal from Joan. Victor is also alive and prepared to testify against Bertha.
We fast-forward back to the present, after Henry had died for real. The man in black concludes the story.
Commentary
Henry and Hodson are played by the same actor, so when you see them in the same scene together, one of them always has their back to the camera.
The main plot, where the stepmother and evil sister try to make the good daughter think she’s insane, has been done to death, even by 1949. The tables start to turn once Hodson is killed, and it does get more interesting at that point.
It’s very “talky” and melodramatic, and the acting isn’t exactly subtle from any of the players. There is some humor here, mostly of the British sarcasm variety, but if you’re paying attention, you’ll get a few chuckles out of the film.
The man in black plays no real part in the story, and we really don’t even see him on screen after the opening credits end. It’s almost as if this was planned as a series of films, something similar to Universal’s “Inner Sanctum” series.