LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM SYLVESTER IN 'BLIND CORNER'

Barbara Shelley (the cheater) and William Sylvester (the cheated) in BLIND CORNER Year: 1964

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is known for its outer space special effects, prehistoric monkeys and a nefarious computer. As for humans there are two British actors (Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood) and one American as that pair of astronauts' chief. But William Sylvester, though born in Oakland, California, is as much a British actor as they are, trained in RADA and a fixture of England's cinema since after World War II...

Though known mostly for the Godzilla/King Kong homage GORGA (that is, before 2001), Sylvester's best performance is the main character from MAN IN THE DARK, actually titled BLIND CORNER, which sounds more like the Noir that it is, one of many low budget 1960's crime flicks from the British New Wave.

Barbara Shelley (the cheater) and William Sylvester (the cheated) in BLIND CORNER Rates: ****

Playing a pianist with Ray Charles-like shades, Sylvester's Paul — without falling into too many blind character clichés — is a talented, classically-trained musician who writes teeny-bopper tunes for the money, and he's got plenty of that...

Enter his gold-digging betrothed, and half of the familiar plot-line of a cheating wife with a young/poor handsome dolt, and, like all these Cuckold-Noir templates, the lover's sent in for the "perfect murder" so the wife can get both men out of the way and, with all the money, hook up with someone else...

Alexander Davion (the cheater) and William Sylvester (the cheated) in BLIND CORNER

All this however occurs in the 11th hour through action-set dialogue by William Sylvester defending himself inside a house that he's "felt out" over the last three years and knows like the back... or rather, inside of his eyelids...

A tightly-wound climactic fight igniting into an original twist that makes this Lance Comfort programmer a nifty, far above average hour-long thriller. And a chance to see "Dr. Heywood Floyd" take the full reigns without competing with outer space special effects, prehistoric monkeys and... Isn't this where we came in?

Alexander Davion fights William Sylvester in BLIND CORNER

Barbara Shelley (the cheater) and Mark Eden (the plot twist) in BLIND CORNER

BLIND CORNER with William Sylvester aka MAN IN THE DARK

William Sylvester and Mark Eden in MAN IN THE DARK aka DARK CORNER

Alexander Davion in BLIND CORNER aka MAN IN THE DARK