It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Francis Durbridge shines through with his special knack for women mysteries and their magic presence for being absent, you are reminded both of the Paul Temple series and "Melissa" and other spellbinding thrillers with mystical ladies, and here you have two of them murdered while one of them shows up not being murdered at all.The intrigue is spun around a portrait, a weird old man commissions Robert Beatty, a poor painter and brother of the first casualty of the racket, to paint his lost daughter from a picture of her, which task gets him into thorough trouble, especially since one of his earlier models is found murdered in his flat.It's not a bad film although somewhat superficial, of such an intrigue Hitchcock would have brought out a masterpiece, the action is a bit thick as too many things are happening at the same time and too many threads are being woven together in some confusion, as there is another casualty of a man jumping out of a window and lots of fisticuffs which at least twice completely demolishes the painter's entire flat - there is not much space to fight, but they do it the more thoroughly.In brief, a very entertaining thriller with some magic in it, but you would have preferred the first girl (Josephine Griffin) to Terry Moore, but that's a matter of personal taste..

Painter Robert Beatty and pilot William Sylvester find out their brother had a fatal carcrash in Italy, killing and burning him and the passenger, model Terry Moore. Police inspector Geoffrey Keen does a routine investigation among known associates looking for a postcard the brother sent right before he died, when Beatty gets an assignment by Moore's dad to paint a portrait of his deceased daughter. Soon after he finishes it someone paints over the face and his last model, Josephine Griffin, is found strangled on his bed, wearing one of Moore's dresses. As Beatty soon finds out, not only is Moore still alive, but his brother's death is linked to a diamond smuggling ring and people close to him are willing to kill for the postcard.The movie is based on a story by Francis Durbridge which was originally adapted into a serial/mini-series for British TV, but (with a different cast & crew) also turned into this movie, which happened with several of this stories. While the death and 'resurrection' of Terry Moore ('Shack Out On 101', and still working!) as well as Beatty's ('Odd Man Out') personal connection to her portrait might remind of 'Laura' (I imagine this bit was expanded upon a bit in the serial), the movie as a whole does not. It is a rather nice noir/mystery with a Hitchcock- ian macguffin in the form of the postcard.Maybe because of its serial origins, the movie is jam-packed and moves at a rapid pace, but it never feels rushed. The movie starts with a short but beautifully done pre-credits carcrash scene, and the cinematography throughout by Wilkie Cooper ('Mine Own Executioner', Hitchcock's 'Stage Fright') is atmospheric and even striking at times. Second-time director, and former DoP himself, Guy Green ('House Of Secrets') does a good job of not rushing the movie. He also co-wrote the screenplay (with another Britnor director, Ken Hughes), I imagine they trimmed quite a bit. They're also helped by the solid cast, who make the more illogical parts and actions of the plot & characters seem believable.The main negative to the story is that the mastermind of the smuggling ring is too easy to determine through basic process of elimination. But other than that, I really enjoyed this movie. More than solid and definitely will re-watch this again. Recommended! 8/10

***SPOILERS*** British film noir having to do with a mysterious postcard sent from Italy that's responsible, in trying to get their hands on it, for some half dozen murders. It's American in London artist Tim Forrester,Robert Beatty, who realizes the importance of the mysterious and missing, in the mail, postcard in that it was sent to him by his brother interpol agent Lou Forrester just before he was killed with a woman hitchhiker in a car crash outside Milan city limits. The shocking news was relaid to Tim by his kid brother commercial pilot Dave Forrester, William Sylvester, who was the last person to see him before his fatal accident.In trying to find out the circumstances behind his brother and hitchhiker's, said to be actress Alison not actor Harrison Ford, deaths Tim soon realizes that there was foul play involved in their so-called car accident! Things get even stranger when the model Jill Stewart, Josephine Griffin,who was posing for Tim is found strangled in his loft making him the #1 suspect in her murder. What makes thing even wilder is that the hitchhiker who supposedly was killed in the car accident together with Lou actress Alison Ford, Terry Moore, turned up alive in London and in fact was the person who discovered the murdered model Jill Stewart's body!****SPOILERS**** All these murders turned out to be connected to a postcard, of a wine bottle, that Lou Forrester sent to his brother Tim just before he was killed. It's discovered on that postcard with invisible ink and under under ultra violet light that Lou listed the members of a diamond smuggling ring that's working out of London that brother Dave is a part of! This leads the police as well as Tim to the person behind all this smuggling and murder known only as "Nightingale". It was "Nightengale" coming out of the shadows or closet in order to silence those, like Tim & Alison, who were on to him that caused his sudden demise. That by him trying to be so overcautious in his operations he in the end blew his cover in trying to murder Alison, that he met back in Italy, whom he thought could connect him with the jewel smuggling ring that he was in charge of. She couldn't but Lou's mysterious postcard certainly could and did!

This UK film from 1955 opens with a car racing along the road, over the cliff it goes, and bursts into flames when it hits the canyon below. Geoffrey Keen is Inspector Cobly, who is investigating the accident. We are introduced to Tim and Dave, the brothers of the deceased driver. You'll recognize "Henry" (Allan Cuthbertson) from Fawlty Towers, and whole lot of British TV. I see Hopscotch (AWESOME film) in Cuthberson's list of roles, but can't remember what he did in it. Tim (Robert Beatty) also starts checking out what's going on, and he bumps into people who have the answers, but don't want to give them up. Terry Moore stars as Alison, and seems to be at the center of all this grand adventure. Pretty entertaining. I've never seen this one before, and as of today, doesn't have any comments on the discussion board. Must be new to Turner Classics. There is a twist here and there, but nothing earth shattering. Story by Francis Durbridge, who wrote this in between all the (British) TV series for which he was known. Directed by Guy Green, who had received an Oscar for directing the 1948 Great Expectations.