AN ACT OF MURDER (1948, starring Fredric March)  I really enjoyed this film. Fredric March in my opinion was one of the two greatest American film actors of the first half of the 20th-Century. The other was Spencer Tracy. March gives a truly great performance as a strict Judge who discovers his wife has terminal brain cancer. He loves her deeply and agrees with the doctor that she must not be told of the severity of her illness. As he witnesses her decline and the agony she endures, the by-the-book Judge contemplates mercy killing.

     March’s performances always seem so grounded to me. He was also very fortunate (or perhaps shrewd in his choice of material) in that he appeared in countless good films. No doubt his performance in this film was enhanced by the fact that his real-life wife, Florence Eldridge, plays his on-screen spouse. She did so on many other occasions as well, including INHERIT THE WIND. She is very affecting as the Judge’s wife.

     AN ACT OF MURDER is a thoughtful, provocative film made not long after WWII, when Hollywood seemed be maturing towards more adult subject matter on occasion. I highly recommend this film, mostly on the strength of Fredric March’s fine performance. Though not available on video at the time of this writing, it should be. Great actors’ work should be preserved for everyone to learn and enjoy.

     THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY (1960, directed by Terence Fisher)  This is a very tense, typical Hammer studios film, belonging less to the horror genre than to that of the period adventure piece. Granted, the subject matter is horrible, the chronicling and downfall of the murderous Thuggee cult in India in the 1820s. The Thuggees worshipped a six-armed goddess called Kali and were robbers/murderers.

     The movie posters of STRANGERS and THE DECEIVERS featured in this review are available at Gocollect.com .

     Guy Rolfe, often cast as a villain (remember MR. SARDONICUS) plays the hero here, the man responsible for the exposure and extinction of the Thuggees. He’s good, too, very tall, lean and hardened in an appealing, leading man sort of way. It’s good to see him carry the film, although perhaps he’s one reason the film is not well known today-lack of star power. Still, some of the best films are those without big stars-in other words you can better concentrate on the story.

     The incomparable Terence Fisher, frequent Hammer horror helmsman, directs with his usual flair. The pacing, photography and performances are all very good. I particularly liked the scene where the Thuggees try to do away with Rolfe by staking him to the ground and having a cobra terrorize and bite him. A mongoose, seen earlier as the pet of that great character actor Tutte Lemkow, and shown to be affectionate towards Rolfe’s character, appears in time to ward off the snake and save the day. Of course why the Thuggees gave the dirty work to the cobra when they themselves apparently derived such spiritual/sensual pleasure out of ritualistic strangulation is beyond me! Still, this is a good film for fans of this genre.

     A further word about Tutte Lemkow. Tutte was a guest teacher in late 1982 at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School when I was still a student there. He was a short little man with an engaging personality and likeable manner. He was a great teacher and we all loved him. Tutte was multi-talented. In addition to playing supporting roles in many big-budget Hollywood films, he was a dancer/choreographer, writer and director. Tutte Lemkow was Norwegian by birth and was passionate about the plays of his fellow countryman, Henrik Ibsen. He told me he had written a screenplay of Ibsen’s great, difficult early play, BRAND. Although this was never realized, he did see his screenplay of Ibsen’s THE WILD DUCK produced (coincidentally starring a Bristol Old Vic graduate, Jeremy Irons).

     Tutte told us many stories of his working with such stars as Peter Sellers, whose mental illness was manifested in many strange ways while they were working together. I enjoyed seeing a sketch of Tutte that Charlton Heston had drawn of him while on location in Oslo making THE CALL OF THE WILD.

     What was most memorable about Tutte Lemkow was the simple joy he derived from his work. It was infectious and although his talent and numerous film credits with big stars duly impressed us, Tutte almost seemed embarrassed by our attention. He was a modest unassuming man, a real gentleman and a consummate actor. I’m inclined to enjoy any film he appears in!

     THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY is difficult to find on video, but is available through Cinema Classics in New York.

     THE DECEIVERS (1988, starring Pierce Brosnan)  A more detailed and complex telling of the demise of the Thuggee cult is told in THE DECEIVERS, an early starring role for pretty boy Pierce Brosnan. This film has the distinction of being produced by the usually refined Merchant/Ivory team. It is, however, directed by the very competent Nicholas Meyer (THE SEVENT PER-CENT SOLUTION). Being a more recent film, the violence is more graphic than THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY. It is not, however, overdone.

     Brosnan plays a newly married British tax collector with the East India Company who feels compelled by the murder of some British soldiers to go undercover in an effort to infiltrate the Thuggee cult and bring them to justice. He leaves behind both his beautiful bride and an Indian woman whom he has tried to dissuade from commiting suicide by self-immolation. She is distressed over the apparent death of her husband and Brosnan, at the urging of his wife and a local Indian ally, dresses up as the missing man (including dark makeup) and comes close enough to the grieving woman to restore her faith in her husband’s survival.

     As he is by necessity drawn deeper into the deadly cult, Brosnan’s character murders and subsequently accepts a hallucinatory drug administered as a form of quasi-communion following the pseudo-religious killings. Later, Brosnan and his Thuggee cohorts encounter some prostitutes. As Brosnan retires with his partner, the love scene between them is imaginatively shot to show how his character has become immersed in the cult. Images of his bride, the Indian woman he saved and the prostitute alternate through his mind. At one point, the shadow of three sets of female arms are seen caressing him, implying his embracing of the six-armed goddess Kali herself, and thus the loss of his soul.

     In the end, Brosnan’s character does escape and persevere, although at a considerable cost. Reunited with his wife, they are unable to communicate. Additionally, and disturbingly, he throws away his crucifix necklace, symbolizing his rejection of Christianity. The implication is of his soul being beyond redemption-all in the name of duty. I suppose this cynicism is to be expected in our day and age, as Hollywood continues its inclination towards rejecting Judeo-Christian beliefs. (Read Michael Medved’s extraordinary book HOLLYWOOD VS. AMERICA).

     While less satisfying in its conclusion than THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY, THE DECEIVERS is still a good film. Brosnan had not yet matured into the fine actor he has become when this film was made. He was, like Mel Gibson, more a pretty face than an accomplished performer when he was young. Fortunately he has developed into an actor of stature and presence and joins the company of the more interesting type of leading man who gets better looking with age. Life and character lines are so much easier to relate to than a pretty face!

     Historically, the abolishing of the Thuggee cult took another twenty years beyond the events portrayed in this film. Thuggees were responsible for over two million ritualistic murders. Perhaps the definitive, historically accurate version of this story remains to be told.

     THE DECEIVERS is readily available on home video.

     TEN SECONDS TO HELL (1959, starring Jeff Chandler and Jack Palance)  What an interesting premise. Six ex-German soldiers return to Berlin following WWII to work for the occupying British forces as defusers of unexploded bombs. I’d never thought about this subject before, but it seems there were hundreds of ‘blind’ shells left lying in the rubble all over Europe and the Pacific following the war. Still capable of exploding, they had to be carefully dismantled and disposed of by people who knew precisely what they were doing.

     The Poster featured here is available for purchase at www.ricksmovie.com.

     Directed with great understanding of the dramatic action genre by Robert Aldrich, this is a compelling film. Chandler is far less stoic in this film than he often appeared to be in less colourful roles. He is very likeable here, with a real charm and virility as he competes with Palance for the leadership of the bomb squad and the affections of their female co-star, Martine Carol. Palance is also excellent in a (for him) subdued role that calls for romance, restraint and reticence. There’s a great scene near the end of the film where Chandler has trouble defusing a bomb and Palance has to come to his aid. Their rivalry is well played out here to a tragic resolution. Remember, so dangerous is the work these men do, that they all resolve to contribute half of their wages to a fund for the last remaining survivor!

     This is an interesting film, not big on action or histrionics, but satisfying in character development and psychological drama.

     An ominous-sounding epilogue is narrated, extolling the virtues of the work these men did, going down into the ashes and paving the way for the proverbial phoenix to rise, for new buildings to replace the old in a peaceful world. It is as if these German soldiers were offering a sort of atonement for the death and destruction of their countrymen. Not a bad idea. And you thought Hammer studios just made horror movies!

Jon Ted Wynne