Murder On Approval/Barbados Quest (1955)

Murder on Approval/Barbados Quest (1955)


Plot Summary

J. D. Everleigh, (Launce Maraschal) a wealthy American, purchases a rare stamp in London from Geoffrey Blake, (Brian Worth) who says he represents Robert Coburn, (Campbell Cotts) a stamp agent. Everleigh begins to suspect the stamp is a counterfeit and hires private-detective Tom Martin (tom Conway) to investigate. In London, Martin, assisted by Barney Wilson, (Michael Balfour) a reformed crook, learns that the real stamp is still in the hands of Lady Hawksley (Grace Arnold) but she refuses to show it to him. Martin gets friendly with Lady Hawksley's secretary, Jean Larson, (Delphi Lawrence) and learns that Blake is a neer-do-well nephew of Lady Hawksley. Murder also rears its ugly head as Martin finds clues that seem to indicate that everybody he encounters is involved in one way or another with stamp counterfeiting.

I'm not going to go into a long detailed review of this movie mainly because I was bored to tears. This movie really proves that sometimes you can't go home again. Conway is best remembered for taking over for his brother George Sanders on the old Falcon movie series in the 1940s. This film is basically a UK variation on the formula with the debonair "Duke" Martin, his (mostly) reformed and somewhat dimwitted assistant Barney and the police figure who thinks Martin is in the wrong but thankfully the British don't play him up as a complete idiot. The problem lies in that this is a very slow and boring film. The counterfeiting plot is actually pretty nifty but because of the limited cast and just how transparent the bad guy is just sinks all suspense.

Tom Conway was a bit of a tragic figure alcoholism would take his life just 12 years later and in this movie you could really see the effects of it. He tries his best to be alert and with it but it's just barely there. In fact, the energy he projects and that of the film is just barely flickering. Conway delivers his suave and witty dialogue with all the zest of a guy slumped over from drinking too many beers. It's also pretty comical that in a couple fight scenes he holds up well when in reality he'd probably be beaten to a pulp. Conway was only 50ish at the time this film was made but he looked to be 15 years older at least!

Here's a pic from the movie that shows what I mean:

The only bright spot in the whole film was Michael Balfour as Conway's partner. He brought some energy and had pretty good comic timing but by and large this movie was just blah all around. I'll be looking at the follow up (or first, as it's not quite clear) to this next week.

* 1/2 stars