Pit of Darkness (1961)

the audience applauded

Perfect cast and a good story

Boring

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

PIT OF DARKNESS is another decent British B-film written and directed by Lance Comfort. He seems to have a good run of them in the early 1960s, making every penny of his low budgets count, and as a result this densely-plotted story is one of the better Butcher's Film Service outings in existence.The film features everyman lead William Franklyn as a kind of proto Bourne, waking up with no memory after suffering a violent assault. The last three weeks of his life are a blur, but it soon transpires that he's been involved with some dodgy characters who haven't quite finished with him. Comfort keeps you guessing as to the outcome of the story, and all is eventually revealed via a lengthy flashback.This is one of those films where everything just gels together quite nicely. It's certainly not the best of its kind but it's also hard to fault. Franklyn is a dependable lead but the supporting cast is even better. Nigel Green is the authoritative and a youthful Anthony Booth a spiv type. Nanette Newman makes an impact as a woman caught up in the plot. Leonard Sachs is a slimy villain and the delightful Michael Balfour a henchman who shows up towards the end. The climactic scenes in particular are quite exciting and overall PIT OF DARKNESS is sure to be enjoyed by fans of this genre.

Lance Comfort directed some pretty distinctive films in the 1940s ("Hatter's Castle"(1941) etc) but after the commercial failure of "Portrait of Clare" (1950) he was soon relegated to Bs. He found himself in demand, even doing a TV series "Douglas Fairbanks Presents", because he managed to make even his most insignificant films stand out usually by making his main characters a little naïve or gullible. This was certainly the case with this movie, adapted from the book "To Dusty Death" by Hugh McCutcheon and with a plot line lifted from the vastly superior and believable "Home By Seven" (1952). In this one Richard Logan (William Franklyn) stumbles into his flat after being found groggy and dazed in a local wasteground by a young boy. He thinks he is late by a few hours but distraught wifey Julie (Moira Redmond) informs him that he has been missing for three weeks!! She is understandably frantic and has already linked him to his comely secretary. It may be Franklyn's demeanour but wow, he sure looks shifty, especially when he is busy denying knowledge of good time girl Mavis (pretty Jacqueline Jones looks very fetching) who is forever ringing Julie and demanding to speak to Richard. Another worry is a private investigator hired by Julie and whose card turns up in Richard's pocket - he has been found dead and Richard can't be certain whether he killed him in those three lost weeks!!Then there is "the song" - "My Heart is the Lover", one of those dreary songs that often turned up in these type of movies and sung by nondescript singer Ronny Hall. Only problem is - it is used as a plot device so harassed Richard begins hearing it everywhere he goes - Julie even plays it when they're having breakfast!! And did I mention he also has the strange feeling he is being followed. Every time he comes home he looks as though he has been roughed up and I'm sorry, Julie isn't buying the old "I fell over" routine. He soon realises he had been kidnapped by a gang who want him to break into one of his own safes to steal a priceless diamond and he was coshed when he tried to escape - fortunately for the crooks he lost all recollection of his entrapment. By the time his memory returns (through hailing a cab) he has already pieced together the facts that it is an inside job!!Beautiful Nanette Newman is almost the one bright spot - her Mary is coolly 1960's chic, she is his efficient secretary but surely she couldn't be involved!! She is engaged to resident teddy boy, the charmless Ted (Anthony Booth, soon to be cast in classic British comedy "Till Death Us Do Part" and also the father of former P.M. Tony Blair's wife Cherie) - he has a chip on his shoulder and for some odd reason seems to despise Logan. This is a solid little thriller distributed by the lowly Butcher Company which was the oldest film company in Britain, starting out in 1909 with training documentaries.

Amnesia is a staple of film noir and has been dealt with memorably, if you'll pardon the pun, in dozens of films such as Street of Chance (1942), Somewhere in the Night (1946), Home at Seven (1952) and Spellbound (1945). More recently, Colin Farrell lost his memory in Total Recall (2012) which some will no doubt label as a techno-noir. This film, however, is easily forgotten. Lance Comfort was a prolific director. Looking at the list of films I've seen this year I come across Tomorrow at Ten (1962), Bedelia (1946), Hatter's Castle (1941,) Breaking Point (1961), The Painted Smile (1962), Rag Doll(1962), and Hotel Reserve (1944), all directed by Comfort, and all superior to this absurdly plotted, oddly photographed (there are several pointless, lingering close-ups of William Franklyn, Bruno Barnabe, Nanette Newman et al) and poorly acted (especially by Franklyn, who gives underacting a bad name) programmer that would have been more effective at the 50-60 minutes mark rather the thrill-less 77 I sat through. Still, this time tomorrow I won't remember a thing about this dud.

Man awakes up bruised and unsteady in a ditch. Seeing the time he hurries home where he apologizes to his wife for being three hours late. What he doesn't realize is that he's actually three weeks late and his wife has been worried sick. Over the next couple of days he attempts to piece together what happened to him and in the process finds he's being followed by strange men. Good solid B film works thanks to its plot being far from typical and a game cast that manages to sell the slightly contrived bits of the tale. It's the sort of film that's perfect for a rainy Sunday or a Saturday curled up on the couch watching mysteries until the wee hours.