BLACK LIMELIGHT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 91, 21 March 1941, Page 16

BLACK LIMELIGHT

(Associated British Pictures)

ERE is a picture which properly belongs to the prewar period when British producers were discovering a talent, for shockers. Those were the

days, it may be remembered, when it was just being realised what fine screen material there was in Edgar Wallace’s novels, and when every second thriller had a homicidal maniac in some form or other. Black Limelight is from the stage play seen in Australia last year and is a thriller of an unusual type. It starts off with the cheerful hypothesis that there are people who are not accountable for their actions at the full of the moon and may even go around doing a spot of murder at such times. The body of a girl-what could be more appropriate to start off with than the village butcher’s boy goggling at a body in a lonely cottage?-is found under circumstances that point directly to one Peter Charrington being the guilty person. ; Unfortunately for Mr. Charrington, the girl has been his mistress, and things look pretty black for him. On top of that, a nasty-minded Scotland Yard inspector is trying hard to fasten about five other murders on to him as well. All these murders were committed at the full of the moon, and the presumption is that Mr. Charrington is a moon maniac. Mr. Charrington, however, has a staunch and enterprising wife, and not only does she circumvent the minions of Scotland Yard, but she risks her life to expose the real killer. As can be imagined, it is all done to the accompaniment of much atmosphere, suspense, and protracted climaxes. Peter Charrington is played by Raymond Massey, who since the making of the picture has been doing much more serious work portraying Abe Lincoln of Illinois to the United States. He acts well ("emaciates,’ I believe, is the term used of his particular style of acting) but he is overshadowed by Joan Marion as the plucky wife. Walter Hudd does a nice job as the killer, and incidental domestics and policemen are drawn in detail. One test of a thriller-cum-crime detection story is how well the identity of the criminal is concealed. I am afraid that the moment Mr. Hudd appeared my companion ejaculated ‘"‘ Hedunit. He’s crazy as a bat." Paul L. Stein’s direction pays eareful attention to such dodges as sinister shadows moving across lawns, movements in hedges, and suddenly-drawn curtains, A good little thriller, which it is possible the Hays office wouldn’t have let Hollywood produce. ;