cult film freak: JACQUELINE ELLIS WITH PATRICK ALLEN IN 'THE SINISTER MAN'

Jacqueline Ellis in THE SINISTER MAN Year: 1961 Rating: *1/2

Another episode of EDGAR WALLACE MYSTERIES that also became a theatrical programmer, which is hard to believe since THE SINISTER MAN, never once living up to its name, is extremely episodic... and if this were a pilot for token constable John Bentley, here investigating a dead body in a river alongside a research center harboring scientist Patrick Allen and girlfriend Jacqueline Ellis, the show would have never been picked up...

Because the story never picks up despite being filled with eclectic, random elements... from the overall two dead bodies having been karate-chopped to a falsely accused Asian man, there's no palpable suspense or intrigue in an sixty-minute mystery without thrills, and that feels like three hours... the best thing is seeing Jacqueline Ellis for over half that length, but she, like the plot-line, merely stands around going nowhere.