The House Of Blackmail [DVD]

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They both engage with Markham and his associates. The house has a butler who likes to listen in through the keyhole. Later that night Markham is found dead. Both Jimmy and Carol are suspects.

There, they meet Markham (Alexander Gauge) and his two associates, an elderly Eastern European doctor (Hugo Schuster) and a sharp-tongued American (John Arnatt), also a Polish maid (Ingeborg von Kusserow) and a seedy, spying butler (Denis Shaw). After some sparring from Jimmy, Carol agrees to pay the money, but is unable to withdraw it from her bank until morning. The pair must remain until then and, with the windows electronically secured, there is no way to escape. During the night, Markham is murdered, and the killer could only have been someone staying at the house...

This is an unpretentious murder mystery B movie and a rather effective one as well. There is comedy, mystery and plenty of suspects. Sylvester does well in keeping his motives mysterious. Dinah Sheridan, Peter Hammond, Hugh McDermott, Amy Veness, John Blythe, Esma Cannon, Everley Gregg, Brian Oulton, Olaf Pooley, it!" I think I saw this line parodied in Family Guy where the baby, Stewie, snarled "Dont move or the dog gets it" The 'Six Men' are a gang of six criminals that Scotland Yard is unable to pin a charge against even though they are positive of the identities. A great little British Crime Drama shot in just Ten days, tracing the activities of the gang of crooks whose long run of successful coups has the police in a panic.

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Very modest version of traditional thriller." [5]

William Sylvester used to pop up in some many British productions I always thought he was a British actor. This was until I saw him in the US movie, The Lawyer which spun off the television series Petrocelli. The Radio Times wrote: "Not one of [Maurice Elvey's] best efforts. We could do with more surprises, but the pace is unrelenting and there are typically solid performances from Mary Germaine, William Sylvester and John Arnatt." [6] Kine Weekly said "The picture... opens well, but as soon as it moves to Markham’s mansion its action becomes a trifle stilted, Mary Germaine, as Carol, displays good looks and obvious acting ability, and William Sylvester, although a little too sure of himself, registers as Jimmy, but the rest are a very mixed bag. Even so, the sound stellar portrayals, coupled with the 'twist' ending, give it the benefit of any doubts." [3]