Postmark for Danger (a.k.a. Portrait of Alison) (1955)

Directed by Guy Green; produced by Frank Godwin

Two men (Robert Beatty, William Sylvester) are shocked to learn that their brother was killed in a car-crash in Italy. They are even more taken aback when they begin to suspect that his death was not an accident, but linked to his inquiry into a criminal organisation. Add a girl (Terry Moore) supposedly killed with the sibling but quite alive, a mysterious postcard, and a dogged police inspector (Geoffrey Keen) and you have the makings of a crime film about smuggling and murder.

The principal aspect of Postmark for Danger that struck me was that it was a pretty simple story made entertainingly complicated by the script. Characters whom the viewer thinks are little more than extras re-appear later; not all the villains are connected to the main group of criminals; developments are left as unexplained to the audience as to the protagonists - at least until a new twist sheds more light.

A good example of the writer (the prolific Francis Durbridge) treating his viewers with respect is an attempted blackmail angle: it falls through, seemingly without reason, though we learn why afterward only by inference, and that in two parts. It’s true that not all the red herrings have a purpose. Why, for instance, was the bottle of Chianti received at all? But by and large, the twists and turns make sense and form an enjoyable maze for the audience.

The acting is of the usual competence to be found in British movies of the 1950s, though the two leads are a Canadian actor and an American actress. Interestingly, Beatty and Sylvester worked together in Albert, R.N., recently reviewed in this blog, and would collaborate in the much better known 2001: A Space Odyssey. Beatty makes a likeable and sympathetic hero, especially when everything that happens to him comes across as fantasy to the increasingly exasperated Keen. The latter, for his part, portrays a sharp detective who, despite the evidence, keeps giving Beatty rope - not to hang himself but to prove himself innocent. This sort of character was common in British crime films.

Though no classic of cinema, Postmark for Danger (adapted from Portrait of Alison, a three-hour tv series of the previous year) is a fun and interesting movie of intrigue and crime. You can invest as much or as little thought in it as you like; it will be entertaining in any case.