Accidental Death ** (1963, John Carson, Jacqueline Ellis, Derrick Sherwin, Richard Vernon) – Classic Movie Review 12,936

Someone is up to a World War Two revenge murder in the 1963 Edgar Wallace series British thriller film Accidental Death, starring John Carson, Jacqueline Ellis, Derrick Sherwin and Richard Vernon.

Director Geoffrey Nethercott’s 1963 film Accidental Death is a quite interesting black and white Edgar Wallace Mysteries series British filler thriller, in which someone is up to a World War Two revenge murder. It stars John Carson, Jacqueline Ellis, Derrick Sherwin, and Richard Vernon, and is written by Arthur La Bern.

It might be one of the 48 Edgar Wallace Mysteries, but it is not really a mystery or hardly even a thriller, more of an ironic revenge drama, and intriguing for that.

Henriette (Jacqueline Ellis), her guardian or foster father Colonel Johnnie Paxton (Richard Vernon) and her fiancé Alan (Derrick Sherwin) are surprised at the Colonel’s home by an intruder, Paul Lanson (John Carson), who says he is there to kill the man because he believes he collaborated with the Nazis in the war and caused the death of his fiancée.

John Carson, Jacqueline Ellis, Richard Vernon and Derrick Sherwin all work hard and make an impression as Paul Lanson, Henriette and Paxton, but that good, very English actor John Carson is saddled with a rotten ‘French’ accent that undermines his performance, though he is suitably creepy and menacing. Richard Vernon’s old smoothie turn is by far the best, entirely convincing, followed by that of Jacqueline Ellis as a woman who just can’t seem to make up her mind, quite convincing. Derrick Sherwin could spark up a bit more, but it’s a tricky role to play and he’s okay.

The rest of the cast have more or nothing to do an so can’t make an impression : Jean Lodge as Brenda, Gerald Case as Police Inspector, Jacqueline Lacey as Milly, and Rilla Madden as the hospital nurse.

The acting gives it a lift, but the contrived plot seems none too involving or credible here, and the film is little more than adequate only, though it is different enough to engage the attention and a modicum of admiration. It is all a bit stagey. and mostly set bound, and has a cast of only eight, though director Geoffrey Nethercott does manage some tension and suspense, and makes a splash with the electrifying swimming-pool ending.

The cat and mouse game between John Carson and Richard Vernon is the film’s strong point, and the troubled relationship between Jacqueline Ellis, and Derrick Sherwin the weak link. Ellis and Sherwin set off by train for London together in a pointless digression that gets nowhere, though it gets them out of the way so Carson and Vernon can get on with it. The whole wartime collaboration with the Nazis and death of the fiancée thing turns out to be a MacGuffin, so we could have been spared John Carson’s rotten ‘French’ accent.

The capable Arthur La Bern writes the efficient, literate and busy screenplay, supposedly based uncredited on the 1920 crime novel Jack O’Judgment by Edgar Wallace, one of his best stories. But this can’t be right as Jack O’Judgment features an entirely different plot about a vigilante who takes action against a gang of blackmailers, using a mysterious identity and leaving the Jack of Clubs as a calling card.

There are weird, uncomfortable hints that the Richard Vernon character has a romantic interest in his foster daughter Henriette. She certainly interests him much more than the local ‘merry widow’ Brenda (Jean Lodge). Ah, well, Accidental Death is just around the corner, but for whom?

Arthur La Bern

It is one of four Edgar Wallace Mysteries written by Arthur La Bern, who also penned the novel Goodbye Piccadillly, Farewell Leicester Square, on which Alfred Hitchcock’s film Frenzy is based, and the novel of It Always Rains on Sundays. He also the screenplays for the Edgar Wallace Mysteries films Time to Remember (1962), Incident at Midnight (1963) and The Verdict (1964).

The cast

The cast are John Carson as Paul Lanson, Jacqueline Ellis as Henriette, Derrick Sherwin as Alan, Richard Vernon as Johnnie Paxton, Jean Lodge as Brenda, Gerald Case as Police Inspector, Jacqueline Lacey as Milly, and Rilla Madden as nurse.

Accidental Death is directed by Geoffrey Nethercott, runs 58 minutes, is made by Merton Park Studios, is released by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (UK) and AVCO Embassy Television (US), is written by Arthur La Bern, is shot in black and white by James Wilson, is produced by Jack Greenwood and Cyril Randell, is scored by Bernard Ebbinghouse, and is designed by Peter Mullins.

It is one of a series of second feature films based on Edgar Wallace novels, released in British cinemas between 1960 and 1965. The films were later sold to American TV and screened as The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre.

Jacqueline Ellis

Jacqueline Ellis was born on June 21, 1934 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She appeared as both good girls and bad girls in many British crime B-movies and TV shows in England. They include The Traitors and The Sinister Man (both with Patrick Allen); The Hi-Jackers with Anthony Booth; Accidental Death with John Carson; and on TV in The Saint with Roger Moore. She had a busy two-decade career from 1955 to 1974.

Jean Lodge (born 4 August 1927)

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,936

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