The Man in Black (1949)
Directed by Francis Searle

Film Review

Appointment with Fear was one of the most successful radio series made by the BBC.  It ran from 1943 to 1955 and at the height of its popularity it spawned this somewhat pedestrian thriller made by the minor (at the time) British film company Hammer in 1949. The film's title is taken from the character that would ominously introduce each episode, the Man in Black, memorably voiced by Valentine Dyall.  It's a pretty feeble device for what is a laughably drab thriller but it has a few saving graces, most notably Dyall's habitually sinister introduction and Sid James faring admirably in a straight dramatic role, long before he became one of the UK's best loved comic actors (most famous now for his Carry On films of the 1960s and '70s).  The incomparable James aside, the performances are pretty mediocre and some incredibly poor diction (the effort of speaking appears too much for some members of the cast) renders large chunks of the dialogue pretty well unintelligible.  Francis Searle makes a decent stab at directing this forgettable Hammer offering, but hampered by an idiotic plot and a conspicuously tight budget, his efforts are largely wasted.

Film Synopsis

Henry Clavering is a rich and successful businessman who has become obsessed with his own mortality.  During a Yoga demonstration, he manages to send his mind momentarily out of his body, but in doing so he dies, leaving his entire estate to his daughter Joan.  His greedy wife Bertha is of the opinion that the money is rightfully hers and so she conspires with her own daughter Janice to drive her stepdaughter insane, thereby causing her to breach the terms of her inheritance.  The plan starts to come unravelled when Janice's opportunistic fiancé Victor Harrington begins pursuing Joan, with the intention of persuading her to marry him...