cult film freak: JACQUELINE ELLIS IN 'ACCIDENTAL DEATH' WITH JOHN CARSON

Jacqueline Ellis in ACCIDENTAL DEATH Year: 1963 Rating: ***1/2

Resembling a pretty young school teacher, grown-up girl next door type, who "doesn't look like the teachers I had," Jacqueline Ellis is a different kind of British b-movie starlet...

And very important here as a wishbone not just between two men but three including an older rich gent who raised her; a young passive boyfriend; and a new guy in town... or actually, in the house... as flirtatious thirty-something Frenchman John Carson doesn't only have a plot to kill the old-timer for war crimes, he warns him outright so the title ACCIDENTAL DEATH fits what might occur...

Jacqueline Ellis in ACCIDENTAL DEATH with John Carson

Meanwhile the most fun's had between the Frenchmen (with an on/off British accent) and our gal Ellis, also from France (originally), and they have a kind of lusty windswept romance indoors, where most of the story takes place...

A sophisticated DESPERATE HOURS without very much suspense, intrigue or urgency but is more a relaxing time-filling Neo Noir with a few twists and turns, including a lethal bicycle and an even more lethal swimming pool where Jacqueline Ellis almost winds up... the only character the audience, and the fellas, want protected: After all, she's got the most to lose as her bewildered heart means more than the old man's life, or the Frenchman's shifty plans to end it.