Finger of Guilt (1956)

Directed and produced by Alec C Snowden

American Reggie Wilson (Richard Basehart) has established himself in Britain. Escaping a scandal in Hollywood, he is now a producer at a small English film studio. Well-liked by his boss, Ben Case (Roger Livesay), he has married Case’s daughter (Faith Brook) and is in the midst of an ambitious movie-project. But letters from a woman he’s never met keep arriving, asking for nothing but referring to a love affair that never occurred. What does she want, and how far will she go to get it?

An entertaining movie propelled by fine acting, Finger of Guilt suffers from a couple of flaws that nonetheless do not cripple its whole value. The always solid Basehart gives a convincing performance of a lothario - his penchant for women caused his self-exile from California - who has settled down and is content in his new life. His frustration is all the more credible given that he is trying to live down his reputation while the threat to his happiness is depending upon that same reputation.

Mary Murphy is also impressive as the woman in question. Her smooth and persuasive manner is perfect for the part, since the audience is never certain whether it comes from an almost professional background of making trouble or from sincerity. Roger Livesey by this time had moved completely into supporting rôles but adds another necessary element to the story. The other actors are much less significant, though David Lodge may be noted as a police sergeant whose calm impartiality is no doubt an asset to the force.

The direction is engaging. The producer is credited as director, but the real man behind the camera seems to have been Jospeh Losey, a blacklisted Hollywood director. In some prints, he is credited under a semi-pseudonym. Why he needed to hide his involvement when he had moved to England to escape his recent past - like Reggie Wilson - I can’t say. In any case, his work, like that in The Criminal (reviewed on this blog in December), elevates the story. It creates a real sense of a man facing an overwhelming threat coming from nothing that he has done. Again, the director and his character seem to have similar predicaments.

The problem with Finger of Guilt lies with the story. Firstly, the person or persons responsible for Wilson’s problem do not - or are not shown to - have enough motivation. This may be my fondness for mysteries coming to the fore, mysteries which ‘play fair’ with the viewer by giving them enough clues to uncover the culprit themselves. After all, Finger of Guilt is more mystery than crime-story, the latter of which being under no obligation either to have a mystery or to allow viewers to unravel it.

More pertinent is what I think is an error in plotting. The individual who ultimately proves the villain is sent to Newcastle to inquire into the letters Reggie keeps receiving. While there, that person conceives of a plot against Reggie. But there is no reason for the letters to be sent until that plot is devised. Why they were sent initially is not convincingly stated, since we are meant to believe Reggie that he and the woman in question have never met. This circle of letters not being written until there is a reason to write them, and no reason to write them until they are first sent, is a flaw in the plot - unless I missed something vital that solved the paradox.

Whatever the answer to this problem, it does not greatly affect the rest of the film, which, between the acting and the directing, is a suspenseful and enjoyable who - and why - dun nit, without a murder.