The Voice of Merrill (1953)

Producers: Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman. (Available on a very good Odeon Entertainment DVD). A Tempean Production, made at Alliance Film Studios. Released in the U.S.A. through Kramer-Hyams Films. New York opening at the Normandie: 4 April 1953. U.K. release through Eros: 5 January 1953. Australian release through British Empire Films: 16 September 1954. Sydney opening as a support at the State Theatre. 7,581 feet. 84 minutes. Censored to 7,517 feet in Australia.U.S. release title: Murder Will Out. SYNOPSIS: Three people are suspected of a murder. One of them is a self-styled literary genius. Another is an unsuccessful writer who, in the course of the action, achieves great acclaim by reading his stories on the radio. Plot sound familiar? Indeed it is. It's an obvious variant on "The Unsuspected" directed and produced by Michael Curtiz at Warner Brothers in 1947, starring Claude Rains as the literary broadcaster.COMMENT: John Gilling's direction rates not quite as high on the inventive scale as usual, as he is a trifle too respectful to his own script — an ingeniously complicated thriller with a well- thought- out climax.Nonetheless, the acting throughout scores a commendably high standard, though the lovely Valerie Hobson is not always too attractively photographed.OTHER VIEWS: This long drawn-out murder mystery fails to keep up the suspense despite its many twists... Valerie Hobson goes through most of the film with a fixed, impish smile. — M.F.B.A slickly calculated whodunit, engrossing all the way... James Robertson Justice is excellent, Valerie Hobson is beautiful and sensitive in this tense, innuendo-filled, meticulously woven thriller. — A. H. Weiler in The New York Times.

After an arresting opening murder scene, THE VOICE OF MERRILL soon becomes one of the stodgiest murder mysteries I've seen from Britain in the 1950s. It wasn't until the mid to late part of the decade that British thrillers started to become more influenced by the American film noir/crime thriller genre, thus incorporating more action and incident into the narratives.Certainly THE VOICE OF MERRILL comes across as a rather dated and ho-hum sort of film with a story that barely registers. The viewer is introduced to four separate characters, each of whom has a motive for committing the early murder: there's the up-and-coming author (played by THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED's Edward Underdown), the snobbish literary figure (played by James Robertson Justice, doing his best Orson Welles impersonation) and his wife, and the shifty publisher (Henry Kendall, of THE GHOST CAMERA fame).Much of this film seems to get bogged down in radio play material which doesn't really add anything, plus an unwelcome romantic sub-plot between Underdown and the wife character. The latter is played by the lovely Valerie Hobson (WEREWOLF OF London), still an alluring beauty some twenty years after she first came to fame. Sam Kydd has a larger supporting role than usual as one of the younger detectives investigating the case. John Gilling, who later became one of Hammer's go-to guys in the 1960s, could usually be relied upon to direct more entertaining produce than this.

Although, with a budget of just over 20,000 pounds, "The Voice of Merrill" was conceived as a "B", the polished look of the finished film was deemed too good to waste as a second feature and with Valerie Hobson it had a certifiably A star along with it's lavish production values. It also had public appeal with it's B.B.C. backgrounds. The film, very smoothly directed by John Gilling, gets off to a noirish start as, in the dead of night, legs make their way along a cold, wet street. A young woman is murdered and though the viewer doesn't know anything about her, there are a couple of very worried men. Hugh Allen, (Edward Underdown) a struggling author was the victim's lover but now he has met Alycia (Valerie Hobson) who is keen on any diversion that keeps her away from her belligerent, arrogant writer husband, Jonathon Roach (James Robertson Justice, channelling George Saunders). Another acquaintance of Roach's, Ronald Parker, is a financially embarrassed publisher and suddenly the murder motive is clear - the girl was a blackmailer!!Running alongside the straightforward murder plot is the more complicated story line of "The Voice of Merrill". Alycia has found some old stories of Jonathon's that he dismisses as early, immature work. She has organised a weekly radio broadcast in which Hugh, posing as "The Voice of Merrill" reads out the stories. He becomes a radio sensation as the reader, listeners fall in love with his voice but scheming Alycia has always planned to expose Hugh as the writer. Initially Jonathon, who has been given only a short time to live, doesn't care about the authorship but as the program becomes such a winner and he realises that Hugh and Alycia have become close, he now cares very much and hopes to rain on their parade even beyond the grave!! Hugh is not happy with things (a reviewer at the time claimed he looked "hang dog" throughout) and desperately wants to read his own stories but Jonathon is adamant that he will read the last story and claim authorship for it!!!Everyone at the time agreed that Valerie Hobson not only gave the film class but really brought everything together and tightened up the last half of the film. James Robertson Justice was very commanding in his scenes. Forgotten today, Edward Underwood was always in employment usually as respectable, stuffy types but his career may have been very different if Ian Fleming had had more influence in the casting of James Bond in "Dr. No". Underwood wasn't even considered by producer A.R. Broccoli. Fleming thought he would have made a perfect Bond but he could never have matched Sean Connery's imposing masculinity and suaveness.Highly Recommended.

Murder Will Out opens with, what else, a murder. Specifically of a woman who had an involvement with three men, struggling author Edward Underdown, publisher Henry Kendall, and successful author James Robertson Justice self described as the Field Marshal of English Letters. Robertson Justice is married quite unhappily to Valerie Hobson who shows quite a bit of her most famous screen character Estella from Great Expectations.Hobson takes her character from Dickens, but Robertson Justice is a British version of Waldo Lydecker from Laura. Mix these two together and you've got the recipe of an English murder mystery with some real bite and a few clever plot twists in the end.All three of the men and possibly Hobson have some good reason to murder the victim. None of the men have a satisfactory alibi for the time of the murder so Scotland Yard in the persons of Inspector Garry Marsh and Sergeant Sam Kydd have only to wait it out, watch and observe, and see if this resolves itself.Like some of our B films you occasionally find a real nugget among them and Murder Will Out, a quota quickie over in the UK, definitely fills that bill.You will particularly love what James Robertson Justice and Valerie Hobson do with their characters. If you're a fan of English murder mysteries this one is a hidden gem.