cult film freak: JOHN CARSON IN THE OFFBEAT MYSTERY THRILLER 'ACT OF MURDER'

Anthony Bate in Act of Murder Year: 1964 Rating: **

John Carson may look like a leading man, but the handsome square-jawed British b-crime staple can play both good or bad... even ugly when needed... so he's really a character-actor and a combination of all three in ACT OF MURDER where Carson's Tim Ford, a stage actor, had had an affair with a former actress now ready to finally become a faithful upper-class suburban wife...

Making this MURDER a mishmash of cat & mouse mind games and vengeful dirty tricks by a sociopath hardly given enough reason to become one since paranoid ingenue Justine Lord is not alluring enough to be so obsessed with... nor is bland husband Anthony Bate interesting enough for her to be obsessively contented with. Making this particular ACT beg for the kind of nutjob the audience can guiltily root for... had the right actor been chosen: As an affable insurance salesman in SMOKESCREEN to a stalker/killer in ACCIDENTAL DEATH, this in-between role doesn't really pan out for Carson, not dynamic enough for the big screen. But there is a reason since MURDER isn't a movie, really, but an episode of EDGAR WALLACE MYSTERIES that since has been passed as a standalone British Noir. In that, it's really not that awful; although there are far better episodes... and much better movies.