Final Appointment ** (1954, John Bentley, Eleanor Summerfield, Hubert Gregg) – Classic Movie Review 11,133

Director Terence Fisher’s spirited but routine 1954 British black and white crime thriller Final Appointment, with newsman John Bentley and his helper Eleanor Summerfield probing the murders of war veterans, makes for an acceptable basic British B-movie mystery picture with the stale whiff of postwar austerity. The not too interesting, contrived story concerns a former soldier, court martialed during World War Two, setting out to murder the officers who sentenced him and now planning to kill the former wartime court martial prosecuting officer lawyer.

Reporter Mike Billings (Bentley) and his wisecracking newspaper columnist girlfriend Jenny Drew (Summerfield) set out to investigate the death threats against a retired army officer called Hartnell (Hubert Gregg), now a solicitor, and find they are linked to a series of murders and the World War Two court martial, where he was the court martial prosecuting officer. Meanwhile tough, cynical Irish police Inspector Corcoran (Liam Redmond) is also on the case.

Running just 65 minutes, the short programme filler material is not helped with some dull performances and the cheap production values, though Summerfield, Redmond and Sam Kydd (as shady small time crook Vickery) are all good, and director Fisher keeps it moving briskly along.

However, Kenneth R Hayles’s rather weak, predictable script, with its far-fetched plotting and its improbable tall story, based on Sidney Nelson and Maurice Harrison’s forgotten BBC radio play called Death Keeps a Date, is the inescapable problem that keeps bringing it down.

Also in the cast are Hubert Gregg, Jean Lodge, Sam Kydd, Meredith Edwards, Liam Redmond, Charles Farrell, Peter Bathurst, Arthur Lowe, Gerald Case, Tony Hilton, Henry De Bray, and John H Watson.

It is shot at Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England.

Final Appointment is directed by Terence Fisher, runs 65 minutes, is made by Unit Productions and Association of Cinema Technicians (ACT), is released by Monarch Film Corporation (1954) (UK), is written by Kenneth R Hayles, based on Sidney Nelson and Maurice Harrison’s BBC radio play called Death Keeps a Date, is shot in black and white by Jonah Jones, is produced by Francis Searle and is designed by C P Norman.

It was released in the US as The Last Appointment.

Terence Fisher’s sequel, Stolen Assignment, also featuring sleuthing journalists Mike Billings and Jenny Drew, appeared the following year, in which John Bentley returned but not Eleanor Summerfield.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,133

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