To me, this movie is perfection.

Powerful

Excellent adaptation.

Don't Believe the Hype

There is a connection to the odd name of the film which isn't apparent until the conclusion of the murder investigation. Although this is a crime thriller about an adulterous man's murder of his wife, the term 'Rogue's Yarn' is a nautical one, describing the yarn used only in naval rope and indicated from their colour the ropeyard in which they were made. They were introduced to stop thieving by making the rope easily recognizable. In the days of sailing, naval rope was considered far superior to any other, and there was a great temptation to smuggle it out of the dockyards and sell it to owners or captains of merchant vessels.The connection becomes obvious near the end of the film.Only one other oddity. John Marsden intended to murder Inspector Walker by filling up the below deck cabin with butane gas so that it would explode when he struck a match to light his pipe. It would become instantly obvious to anyone entering the cabin that the smell alone would be sufficient warning that something was amiss. Anyone who has used butane in caravans would recognise the smell, so why didn't the Inspector?

ROGUE'S YARN is an intriguing little murder mystery, shot in Brighton by director Vernon Sewell and featuring his famous yacht that had previously appeared in the likes of GHOST SHIP alongside many other productions. As some other reviewers on here have noted, the structure of the film and the content make it feel very much like a COLUMBO episode, with the murderer introduced to the viewer at the outset.The dashing Derek Bond plays an adulterous husband who plots to bump off his invalid wife with the help of his mistress. All goes according to plan, until a dogged detective shows up and threatens exposure. What follows is a fun police procedural movie, with a lot of screen time spent on the unravelling of a perfect alibi.The unknown Elwyn Brook-Jones stars as the detective, with the familiar Hugh Latimer in comic relief support as his sergeant. I wasn't familiar with Brook-Jones before this film, but the Roy Kinnear lookalike does a good job at bringing his working class character to life. He makes Walker both a realistic and likable presence. Although ROGUE'S YARN is undoubtedly a B-movie in terms of budget and narrative, Sewell is one of those directors with the capability to make any film look good and there's a great suspense sequence involving a leaking gas tap.

John Marsden (Derek Bond) is persuaded by his glamorous mistress, Michele (Nicole Maurey), to murder his invalid wife for her money. He devises what seems to be the perfect murder plot by having himself appear to be in charge of his yacht when the deed is done. This he achieves by fitting an autopilot to his vessel and, as soon as he has cleared Shoreham harbour, he dives off the yacht and swims ashore where his mistress has a car waiting. He commits the murder, stealing some jewelery to make it look like a burglary and then takes a boat from Southampton to the French coast where he has a speed boat waiting. He rejoins the yacht, sinks the speed boat and arrives in La Havre as if nothing had happened. However, Inspector Walker (Elwyn Brook-Jones) has his doubts and sets out to prove Marsden did it.Very watchable as a time capsule of an era of British filmmaking that has long since died. This b-pic will seem like a prototype Columbo to viewers (That was what I thought and I was delighted when another reviewer here said exactly the same) with Brook-Jones's detective - complete with a shabby overcoat - getting his man by irritating him. There is a great little scene on board the yacht where Derek Bond has filled the saloon with butane gas in order to try and kill the inspector - hoping he'll light his pipe thus causing an explosion. However, every match he attempts to strike is dead - good suspense here.Its directed by Vernon Sewell who directed many second features throughout the fifties and sixties - some well above average and won critical plaudits that these sort of films rarely got. Check out Strongroom and two others that I have yet to see though my film guides love them, The Man In The Back Seat and House Of Mystery. Sewell was also a keen yachtsman and his own steam vessel, The Gelert, appeared in several of his movies as a very useful prop; although the producers reportedly got tired of it and told him: "Vernon, your yacht, no more."

This British B movie, one with important nautical elements in its plot, reminded me of an episode of Columbo. It's a tale of murder and detection where we know "who dunnit", and how the killer fixed himself the "perfect alibi", from the start.Egged on by his greedy mistress, a middle aged man of what was once called "good breeding", kills his rich, termagant of a wife (who was expected to die, but is in recovery) for her money, and gives himself a seemingly unbreakable alibi. Initially the murder appears to have been the work of a burglar, but enter our hero, Inspector Walker, a short, not handsome or attractive police detective, who cleverly suspects the husband almost from the start, and sets about looking for the evidence to get him. Walker is a much more conventional type than Columbo, but still something of a maverick as an investigator (though he doesn't harass and irritate his suspects to death!) nor is he such an eccentric personality as Peter Falk's character, there are no real moments of Columbo reminiscent comedy in the portrayal. Unlike Columbo, Walker is often seen working with a police underling (the man playing that part resembling comic actor Edward Everett Horton!). Elwyn Brook-Jones, whose appearance meant he often played villainous parts on screen, here gets a chance to be a good guy (sadly this distinctive actor died in 1962 aged only 50). Derek Bond (once a screen Nicholas Nickleby, whose career was on the slide by the time this movie was made) is the distinguished looking murderer. Nicole Maurey was a very attractive lady, but here she overacts at times as the grasping mistress - a character who is somewhat inconsistently written.There is one completely risible scene where our detective escapes death in a way that stretches coincidence way beyond the even remotely plausible, but on the whole I quite enjoyed the film. The performance by Mr Brook-Jones interested me enough to find out more about this rather obscure character actor.