Blood Orange [Three Stops to Murder] *** (1953, Tom Conway, Naomi Chance, Mila Parély, Eric Pohlmann, Richard Wattis) – Classic Movie Review 11,088

Hammer Film Productions’ 1953 British crime drama film Blood Orange [Three Stops to Murder] features Tom Conway, Naomi Chance, Mila Parély, Eric Pohlmann and Richard Wattis in a case of theft and murder at a London fashion house.

Director Terence Fisher’s 1953 Hammer Films low-budget black and white crime mystery thriller programmer film Blood Orange stars Tom Conway as a private investigator called Tom Conway, a former CIA man now reduced to working freelance in England for a dodgy jeweller called Mr Mercedes (Eric Pohlmann).

Mr Mercedes has had some jewels stolen from the safe of the fashion house he loaned them to.  But then theft turns to murder, and Tom Conway investigates after both a model (Delphi Lawrence) and a rich client (Margaret Halstan) for a London fashion house owned by ageing Helen Pascall (Mila Parély), are found murdered, wearing the same new dress called Blood Orange’, designed by Mme Fernande (Eileen Way). Conway suspects a link between the murders and the jewel robberies they are investigating. 

[Spoiler alert] Mr Mercedes asks Conway to drop the case, but he carries on investigating, to the irritation of the police, but then the jeweller is the third victim, stabbed to death by dressmaking scissors in a car park.

Blood Orange is a reasonably stylish, smooth little B-movie mystery thriller with an interestingly complicated whodunit plot, fairly tensely and energetically handled by Fisher (though there are some rough and clumsy edges) and overall neatly performed by a decent old-time cast, including Hammer’s most popular actor Michael Ripper.

Conway makes an acceptably good hero in a typically polished performance, a little too old perhaps and evidently not over-taxing himself, Naomi Chance is an alluringly strong femme fatale as the devious model girl Gina, and Richard Wattis defies his odd casting to be an excellent police inspector, surprisingly tolerant and urbane (but then it was a long time ago). Margaret Halstan as the rich client Lady Marchant and Eileen Way as Mme Fernande are both extravagantly entertaining. Mila Parély overacts dreadfully, though she isn’t the only cast member guilty of this.

The original screenplay written by Jan Read is serviceable and reasonably involving, without being particularly compelling or riveting. There are signs and suggestions of a better film, but it is still very watchable. It isn’t entirely convincing but it is eventful and complex enough. Maybe it is a slight victim of over-ambition, or over-complication anyway.

Also in the cast are Delphi Lawrence, Naomi Chance, Mila Parély, Eric Pohlmann, Margaret Halstan, Andrew Osborn, Richard Wattis, Eileen Way, Thomas Heathcote, Michael Ripper, Betty Cooper, Alan Rolfe, Roger Delgado, Reed De Rouen, Christine Forrest, Ann Hanslip, Davy Leon, Dorothy Robson, Leo Phillips, Robert Moore, Denis Cowles, John H Watson, and Cleo Rose.

Blood Orange is directed by Terence Fisher, runs 76 minutes, is made by Hammer Film Productions, is released by Exclusive Films (1953) (UK) and Astor Pictures Corporation (1953) (US), is written by Jan Read (original screenplay), is shot in black and white by Walter J Harvey [Jimmy Harvey], is produced by Michael Carreras, is scored by Ivor Slaney, and is designed by J Elder Wills.

Jimmy Sangster is assistant director and Phil Leakey does the makeup.

It is shot at Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England, with small but precious moments of outside filming.

Filming began on 16 March 1953 and it was released on 10 October 1953.

The US title is Three Stops to Murder.

The cast

The cast are Tom Conway as Tom Conway, Mila Parély as Helen Pascall, Naomi Chance as Gina, Eric Pohlmann as Mr Mercedes, Andrew Osborn as Captain Colin Simpson Richard Wattis as Detective Inspector MacLeod, Margaret Halstan as Lady Marchant, Eileen Way as Mme Fernande, Michael Ripper as Eddie, Betty Cooper as Miss Betty, Thomas Heathcote as Detective Sergeant Jessup, Alan Rolfe as Inspector, Roger Delgado as Marlowe, Reed De Rouen as Heath, Delphi Lawrence as Chelsea, Ann Hanslip as Jane, Cab Kaye as singer singing ‘Don’t Talk About Me Baby’.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,088

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