The Delavine Affair (1955)

Douglas Peirce directed only two films, including this one. A fair mystery story concerning the death of itinerant street preacher Gospel Joe and the whereabouts of stolen jewellery. It zips along its 64 minutes with good pace, some witty dialogue and some scenes shot on location in London. The plot is simple, indeed the villain of the piece was easy to spot halfway through. Peter Reynolds does well enough as the wise cracking reporter though he does have a funny hairstyle of the duck's behind variety. Fortunately he is supported by the the glowing Honor Blackman as his wife, Gordon Jackson, Peter Swanwick, Katie Johnson, the always reliable Michael Balfour as his friend and Laurie Main as a sneaky journalist. A short but watchable movie.

A snappy little British thriller with plenty of stuff to enjoy, THE DELAVINE AFFAIR is yet another film churned out at Nettlefold Studios, with an interesting cast and a plot that never lets up. It's a film that packs plenty of twists and turns into the 64-minute running time, with an erstwhile reporter hero and a sinister villain. The lead character is played by Peter Reynolds, in a welcome departure from his typical performances as cads and bounders. Reynolds brings a cheeky charm to the role of a reporter willing to do anything for a scoop, and the opening sequence - in which he literally stumbles upon the body of an old acquaintance - is great stuff.The story goes on from there, taking time to feature the lovely Honor Blackman in a significant role as the reporter's wife, and Gordon Jackson as a friend of the family. Valerie Vernon plays an arresting femme fatale and wears some ahead-of-the-time gear. The reliable Michael Balfour (ALBERT, R.N.) plays in support as Reynolds's photographer buddy, and sharp-eyed viewers will spot LADYKILLERS actress Katie Johnson in a minor part. THE DELAVINE AFFAIR is a fine example of the British B-movie, a well-paced and entertaining slice of escapism.

Rex Banner (Reynolds) the owner of a small news agency and free lance reporter finds one of his informants, "Gospel Joe" murdered with a newspaper clipping about the Delavine robbery clutched In his hand. Banner sees a possible big news story but the police see Banner as a possible suspect. With the help of his wife and the news agency photographer, Banner tracks down the murderer, gets the reward and makes a bundle on the news scoop. A real plus of the movie was that it featured Honor Blackman, Gordon Jackson and Katie Johnson (forever remembered for her role in The Ladykillers). One highly distracting small bit about the movie was Banner's unfortunate hairdo - it made him look like a real doofus. A pleasant enough mystery but unremarkable.

I suppose the only notable thing about this thriller is members of the cast who would go on to better things.Katie Johnson would go on to win a BAFTA for her part in "The Ladykillers".Gordon Jackson would find fame as the butler in "Upstairs Downstairs" on television and Honor Blackman would of course find fame in both "The Avengers" on television and Pussy Galore in a Bond film.Here they are just marking time in an amiable but rather involved thriller which was beloved of writers of crime fiction in the 1950sIt was the sort of film where it is quite easy to work out by a process of elimination who is the killer.It is the sort of film that would be executed far more effectively on television which would of course eventually cause the death of films of this genre at least as B features.