The Snorkel (1958)
Directed by Guy Green

Film Review

The Snorkel, a slick but mostly routine crime drama, kicked off Hammer's series of psycho-thrillers, which gained a sudden impetus following the worldwide success of Hitchcock's Psycho (1960).  The film was scripted by Jimmy Sangster (from a story credited to Anthony Dawson), the first in a run of taut, low budget crime-thrillers which were guaranteed to include a surprising twist in the final reel.  In contrast to Sangster's subsequent thrillers, which took as their model the shock thriller Les Diaboliques (1955), The Snorkel is a classic suspense thriller in the Hitchcockian mould, similar to Suspicion (1941) and Shadow of a Doubt (1943).  In what looks like a blueprint for the popular television series Columbo, the film begins by presenting what appears to be the perfect murder and is then concerned with the attempts of the victim's daughter to unravel the mystery, the intrigue lying not with the identity of the killer but with how his crime will ultimately be uncovered.

Neat though the resolution is (poetic justice tinged with sadism), The Snorkel hardly rates as the most imaginative of Hammer's thrillers, and you can't help feeling that the ending was slightly botched in an attempt to appease the censors.  It was one of the first films to be directed by Guy Green, who had previously made a name for himself as a cinematographer, winning an Oscar for his work on David Lean's Great Expectations (1946).  Assisted by Jack Asher, one of Hammer's most accomplished cinematographers, Green brings a polished meticulousness to his mise-en-scène which imbues the film with as much tension as the slight plot will allow.  Peter van Eyck's chilling portrayal of a cold-blooded murderer adds greatly to the film's unsettling allure, with Mandy Miller appearing suitably vulnerable as the first of Hammer's "girls in peril", an essential ingredient in their psycho-thriller line.  This was Miller's first substantial film role - she enjoyed a successful career as a child actor, but gave up acting not long after appearing in the early BBC soap opera Compact.  She is most famous for her children's record Nellie the Elephant, first released in 1956.  The Snorkel looks tame compared with Hammer's subsequent thrillers, but it provided a sound foundation on which to build, once Mr Hitchcock had had his fun at the Bates motel.

Film Synopsis

Writer Paul Decker believes he has committed the perfect murder at his Italian villa.  With the help of a snorkel, he succeeds in poisoning his wife with gas, hiding beneath the floorboards in the sitting room he has meticulously sealed as she dies.  The verdict of suicide is accepted by everyone except the dead woman's teenage daughter Candy.  Even when her stepfather provides evidence that he was across the border in France at the time her mother died Candy is convinced that Decker murdered her.  When the girl comes close to discovering how he committed the crime, Decker realises he has no other option than to kill her, in the same way that he disposed of her mother...