Roadhouse Girl [Marilyn] **** (1953, Sandra Dorne, Maxwell Reed, Leslie Dwyer, Vida Hope) – Classic Movie Review 10,863

Sandra Dorne stars as the super seductive Marilyn, a garage owner’s young wife, lusted after by a brooding drifter mechanic (Maxwell Reed), in the 1953 noir crime drama Roadhouse Girl [Marilyn].

‘NO ESCAPE… from this kind of woman!’

Writer-director Wolf Rilla’s 1953 noir crime drama Roadhouse Girl [Marilyn] stars Maxwell Reed as Tom Price, the new mechanic at the roadside garage and pub owned by middle-aged George Saunders (Leslie Dwyer), whose sexy young wife Marilyn (Sandra Dorne) gets dangerously involved with Tom. It is not long, of course, before old George catches Tom and Marilyn together.

Wolf Rilla turns this cheap, obscure and humble British B-movie unofficial version of The Postman Always Rings Twice into something extremely interesting, with the help of much more than decent acting from a well-chosen cast, and Geoffrey Faithfull’s imaginative black and white cinematography. It isn’t really a rip-off of The Postman Always Rings Twice. It starts like it maybe, but soon tells its own story, with different kinds of characters, and no murder, though there is adultery, and yes, death. It has a heck of a lot of plot to get through in just 70 minutes, so it keeps powering along.

Sandra Dorne is pretty much sensational as the ‘no good’ femme fatale Marilyn, the very model of an alluring, lovely woman without a moral or scruple, very much the English Lana Turner, but a little bit trashier and camper, a bargain-basement roadside girl. The extremely tall and looming Maxwell Reed menaces ideally under scary eyebrows as the new garage hand, brooding drifter mechanic Tom, bewitched and besotted with Marilyn. Leslie Dwyer is loyal as the eternally grumpy, bad tempered, possessive and controlly George. Vida Hope is tremendous as Rosie, the plain, long-suffering help/ maid clearly in love with Marilyn too. And Ferdy Mayne is splendidly smooth and oily as Nicky Everton, the rich man who turns up on what turns out to be a fatal night, and then reappears later to attract Marilyn with gifts and promises of riches, and perhaps a glamorous new life in South America.

It is a very fine B cast on very fine form. In true noir style, there isn’t a decent person in sight, though the ‘heroine’ is the farthest from decent. She hasn’t got an admirable bone in her lovely, well dressed, provocative body. It is all very un-English.

Also in the cast are Hugh Pryse as Coroner, Ben Williams as Jury Foreman, and Kenneth Connor as customer in roadhouse.

It is based on a play, but you would never know it. Wolf Rilla writes the filmic screenplay based on the play Marion by the English actor Peter Jones.

It is made at Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, with an exterior scene at Shepperton Station, Shepperton, Surrey, England.

Roadhouse Girl [Marilyn] is directed by Wolf Rilla, runs 70 minutes, is made by Nettlefold Films, is released by Butcher’s Film Service (1954) (UK) and Astor Pictures Corporation (1955) (US), is written by Wolf Rilla, based on the play Marion by Peter Jones, is shot in black and white by Geoffrey Faithfull, is produced by Ernest G Roy, is scored by Wilfred Burns, and is designed by John Stoll.

Marilyn was the original title.

Release dates: November 1953 (UK) and August 1955 (US).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,863

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