Never Mention Murder **½ (1964, Dudley Foster, Maxine Audley, Peter Butterworth, Michael Coles, Pauline Yates) – Classic Movie Review 3681

The 1964 British crime film Never Mention Murder stars Dudley Foster, who is extremely effective as Philip Teasdale, a creepy chief surgeon who hires a private detective (Brian Haines) to follow his wife Liz (Maxine Audley), who turns out to have a lover.

Teasdale sets about to avenge himself on his wife by talking him into totally unneeded heart surgery and poisoning him before the operation. Then the private detective returns to blackmail the surgeon, in director John Nelson Burton’s tense, gripping and worthwhile little 1964 Edgar Wallace crime thriller from Britain’s Merton Park Studios.

Philip Stone plays the police inspector. Also in the cast are Michael Coles as Tony Sorbo, Pauline Yates, Patrick Newell, Peter Butterworth, Henley Thomas and Pauline Chamberlain.

It is written by Robert Banks Stewart.

It is one of a long-running series of 47 popular low-budget (£22,000) support feature films based on Edgar Wallace novels, made and released between 1960 and 1965 in British cinemas. In Britain it was seen on ITV, Channel 4 and Bravo from the late Sixties through to the Nineties, and shown on American TV The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre, with its 60 minute running time cut to fit a one-hour slot with commercials.

In July 2012 Network DVD began to release the complete series on DVD, uncut and in its original aspect ratio.

Dudley Foster (7 August 1924 – 8 January 1973) also starred in the Edgar Wallace Mystery Ricochet (1963). He committed suicide by hanging, aged 48, a week after his father’s death.

Michael Coles (12 August 1936 – 26 April 2005) appeared in three Edgar Wallace Mysteries in 1961-1964: Man Detained, Solo for Sparrow and Never Mention Murder.  His film roles include Dracula AD 1972 (1972), The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) and Sweeney! (1977).

The Edgar Wallace Mysteries: Urge to Kill (1960), Clue of the Twisted Candle (1960), The Malpas Mystery (1960), Marriage of Convenience (1960), The Clue of the New Pin (1961), Man at the Carlton Tower (1961), The Fourth Square (1961), Man Detained (1961), Attempt to Kill (1961), Clue of the Silver Key (1961), Never Back Losers (1961), Partners in Crime (1961), The Sinister Man (1961), Time to Remember (1962), Playback (1962), Solo for Sparrow (1962), Locker Sixty-Nine (1962), Backfire!, (1962), Incident at Midnight (1963), Return to Sender (1963), Ricochet (1963), Accidental Death (1963), Five to One (1963), The Verdict (1964), We Shall See (1964), Act of Murder (1964), Never Mention Murder (1964), Dead Man’s Chest (1965) and Change Partners (1965).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3681

Check out more reviews on derekwinnert.com

Maxine Audley (1923–1992).