Deadly Record *** (1959, Lee Patterson, Barbara Shelley, Jane Hylton, Peter Dyneley, Geoffrey Keen) – Classic Movie Review 13,930

Lee Patterson stars as an airline pilot wrongly accused of his faithless wife’s murder, in the enjoyable 1959 British second feature crime drama film Deadly Record.

Director Lawrence Huntington’s enjoyable 1959 British second feature crime drama film Deadly Record is written by Vivian A. Cox and Huntington based on the 1958 novel by Nina Warner Hooke, and stars Lee Patterson and Barbara Shelley. 

When airline pilot Trevor Hamilton (Lee Patterson)’s faithless wife is found murdered (stabbed in the back) in his flat’s studio, he is wrongly accused of the crime by police Superintendent Ambrose (Geoffrey Keen), and sets out to find who really did it, with the help of his alluring and loyal co-worker and wife’s friend Susan Webb (Barbara Shelley).

Among the tasty suspects are the wife’s doctor (Peter Dyneley), his surgery secretary (Jane Hylton), the wife’s theatrical agent (John Paul), exotic dancer Ramon Casadas (Ferdy Mayne), his dance partner (April Olrich), and creepy restaurant owner Angelo (George Pastell).

Canadian actor Lee Patterson is an appealing and convincing virile American lead, keeping enacting his character’s seemingly desperate situation commendable intense and low key. Well coutured Barbara Shelley plays the loyal pal sweetly, graciously, mostly over-dressed for the occasion. Peter Dyneley, John Paul, Ferdy Mayne and George Pastell are all effective, and low key too. By contrast, Jane Hylton (surprisingly) and April Olrich overdo it quite a bit, though maybe not terribly. But Everley Gregg is hugely engaging and entertaining in her final film as the hero’s gossipy housekeeper Mrs Mac. Geoffrey Keen is relentlessly and unfailingly acid and unpleasant as Superintendent Ambrose, another excellent performance.

The film has to play fast because there is plenty of plot and it is only 58 minutes long. The story is rather good and an entirely solid and involving whodunit. Lawrence Huntington directs with keen enthusiasm, relishing the work in hand.

It is made largely in the studio at Beaconsfield Studios, Buckinghamshire, England. There is a little precious outside filming (the airport, the farm), which helps, and a few back projected scenes, which do not help so much. But it is all fragrantly of its time, and really quite a good example of one the short British second feature crime thrillers of the era, very likeable, entirely entertaining.

The film’s crazy opening credits are hand written on the pages of a diary, that object having a key role in the plot. It was lost, then found, and then used to try to trap the killer.

The pages of the leather-bound five-year diary, with the dead wife’s initials J H embossed on the bottom right corner of the cover, are turned by hand on these opening credits. It is elaborately, lovingly done.

Weirdly Belcher (Percy Herbert) just walks straight past the elegantly dressed heroine (Barbara Shelley), who is standing beside her smart Hillman Minx convertible at the gate of the farm he is looking after, without asking her what she is doing there or even showing that he has noticed her. What is that about?

[Joke spoiler alert] Lawrence Huntington reuses a naughty non-PC joke from his script for the 1953 film Deadly Nightshade. Mrs Mac (Everley Gregg) says: ‘A man jumped out of a doorway and said, if I didn’t do what he wanted, he’d kill me.’ Superintendent Ambrose asks, ‘What happened?’ She replies: ‘I’m still here aren’t I’.

The cast are Lee Patterson as Trevor Hamilton, Barbara Shelley as Susan Webb, Jane Hylton as Ann Garfield, Peter Dyneley as Dr Morrow, Geoffrey Keen as Superintendent Ambrose, John Paul as Phil Gamage, Everley Gregg as Mrs Mac, Edward Cast as Constable Ryder, George Pastell as Angelo, Ferdy Mayne as Ramon Casadas, April Olrich as Carmela, Percy Herbert as Belcher.

Running time: 58 minutes.

Release date: June 1959 (UK).

Jane Hylton married Peter Dyneley in 1956.

Released in cinemas in England as a second feature, it was later shown on American television in 1961 as the second episode in the Kraft Mystery Theatre TV series.

Lee Patterson (March 31, 1929 – February 14, 2007) and Barbara Shelley (13 February 1932 – 3 January 2021) had excellent careers but deserved even better. Shelley started off in the 1953 Hammer film Mantrap, credited under her birth name Barbara Kowin.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,930

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