Absolutely the worst movie.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

A travelling showman called Pel Pelham (John Ireland) calls on his close friend, the bookmaker Tony Lewis (Sidney James), to discover that he is being blackmailed by a former girlfriend who calls herself Dolores. As he is engaged to be married he does not want to bring the police in for fear his wife-to-be will call off their engagement. So Pel agrees to pay the girl a visit to try and get her off Tony's back. In return, Tony puts up the money for Pel's latest act. By chance, Dolores's address is the same apartment block where the star of Pel's show lives, Henri Sapolio (Eric Pohlmann), 'The World's Famous Starving Man', who locks himself in a glass tomb and fasts for seventy days. Pel calls on Dolores and recognises her as the daughter of a famous circus owner who gave him his first job. She has had an argument with her father and has run away to London where she is struggling to make a living so has resorted to blackmail. That night as Pel and Sapolio hold a celebration party with all their circus friends to mark the opening of their new act, someone calls on Dolores at her flat and kills her. Sapolio is a chief witness since he saw the figure of a man on the darkened stairway enter her flat. But, the Scotland Yard man, Inspector Lindley (Liam Redmond), considers everyone at the party a suspect. Meanwhile, Rorke (Sidney Tafler) tries his hand at blackmailing all the principal suspects. Two more deaths follow at the circus, Tony and Sapolio, before the killer can be unmasked. Pel and the inspector set a trap by announcing that Sapolio is not actually dead, but in a coma and invite the public to see him being cared for in his cage. But, how and when will the killer make his move and will they catch him in the act?Solid, workmanlike and unpretentious Hammer second feature that is very typical of the kind of stuff the studio was making before they shot to international stardom with the horror films and reinventing that genre in the process. Directed at a fair lick by veteran 'B' picture director Montgomery Tully who succeeds in generating some tension like when Rorke taunts the killer in a tube station and as the latter's mind drifts debating whether or not to push him under an approaching train, the noise from it drowns out Rorke's voice in a suspenseful moment. The killer's identity is known to us from the start so this is no mystery movie, but its attractive and unusual setting of a traveling circus act lifts this likeable little picture to heights well above the average British 'B'. There are many familiar faces in the cast including Eric Pohlmann, best known as the voice of the unseen Blofeld in the early James Bond movies, who provides the humour as the suffering circus performer who makes his living by starving himself for 70 days (really?!) in 'The Glass Cage' of the title. Sidney James is excellent as the straight talking, down to earth and streetwise businessman; Sidney Tafler is noteworthy in one of his many slimy villian roles and the imported American leading man John Ireland is also quite good as Pel Pelham. He is most effective in the scenes with his family like when his young son, Peter, pays more attention to his father's show than his school work longing to be the next Sapolio. Although he loves it that his son is proud of him, Pel wants his son to succeed through his academic work and not be an "outsider" like him in some nice believable insight into his home life. Honor Blackman also offers a pleasant performance as Pel's wife Jenny although, despite being billed second, gets very little to do and is only in a small handful of scenes. Liam Redmond deserves praise as Inspector Lindlay and there is a great little scene where he attempts to plug Pel for information. "Look Lindlay, you do your job and I'll do mine. If I did your job I'd be on the side of the underdog" he says annoyed that he is being asked to spy on his friends. "Sometimes that's a very dangerous dog", Lindley replies. Look out for Sam Kydd as a drunken circus doctor and Bernard Bresslaw's in there too in a small unaccredited appearance. The film benefits from Walter J Harvey's atmospheric camerawork, which takes in some nice London locations around Trafalgar Square and Westminster enhancing the period atmosphere and feeling for place.

THE GLASS CAGE is a brief and snappy murder thriller from those chaps at Hammer Films. It's a bit cheaper than most of their productions but it's nonetheless a solid addition to the sub-genre of murder mystery films with a circus or fairground setting. American import John Ireland plays a carnival proprietor whose latest act is to showcase Eric Pohlmann's starving man, who literally sits in a glass cage and doesn't eat for months while the crowds flock to see him. In a slightly artificial plot, a murderer is at work, bumping off peripheral characters left right and centre, with Ireland at the heart of it. This film is too short and low budget to do little more than join the basic dots, but the excellent cast sees it through nicely. Honor Blackman and Sid James appear early on and never do so again; Sam Kydd gets to do more than his usual cameo; Ferdy Mayne and Bernard Bresslaw are fellow 'exhibits'; Sydney Tafler and Geoffrey Keen a pair of hangers-on. Liam Redmond's drawling Irish detective is the highlight here.

This film is only 59 minutes long,but it feels as if it has been edited down from 90 minutes.Knowing the producers ,this is not likely.They probably hoped that audiences would not notice the joins.The problem with this film is that so much is just left unexplained.So many actors come and go they each must have been employed for just a day or two.Sid James,receives a blackmail note.John Ireland goes to see the girl and persuades her against going ahead.However subsequently James murders her.In turn he is killed by Sydney Tafler,who has previously roughed up Honor Blackman for no given reason.It would appear that Taffler is arrested.Then Geoffrey Keen kills Eric Pohlman again for no reason.So you just end up scratching your head and wondering what it was all about.

"I want more chocolate!" says the sticky-faced tyke. "A clout is what you'll get!" says his frazzled mum. "Now turn around and watch the man starve like a good boy." The man is the great Sapolio, who is locked in a glass crypt determined to go 70 days without food. Pel Pelham (John Ireland) is selling tickets to this carny sideshow. He figures the pickings will be rich for 70 days as people pay to see whether Sapolio can hold out, give it up or die trying. However, there is one person who is going to opt for the last option. This man killed a young woman and he believes Sapolio may have glimpsed his face. Sapolio tells Pel and the police he cannot remember, but Pel knows Sapolio is a man who will never let things drop. Sooner or later Sapolio, locked in the glass cage with dozens of people staring at him, will finger the murderer. Sapolio may have considerably fewer than 70 days ahead of him. Except for John Ireland, a handful of interesting British actors, and an amusing but unlikely setup, this is all there is. There's no mystery; we know the killer. And because the writing and directing are so matter-of-fact, there's little energy and even less suspense. Ireland made this British movie in 1955. It takes only 59 minutes to tell the tale but it often seems longer, especially when we're dealing with Ireland's precocious little boy and his loving but tremulous wife, played by Honor Blackman. Bits of the movie are just fine. Pel Pelham is an outsider, an unsuccessful promoter with something of a chip on his shoulder. He goes to wealthy bookmaker and old friend, Tony Lewis (Sid James) for some money to finance the Sapolio show. Tony writes him a check right then, but asks Pel to drop the "freaks" and come back and join him in the business. Pel takes the check and says, "I like being my own boss, Tony, and I like freaks." Ireland says that line with style. There's a party in Sapolio's apartment to celebrate the stunt he and Pel are setting up. There's a midget playing piano, a gorgeous woman who's effete husband has painted wings on her back, a very large man who sometimes sounds Russian and several more. They're all Pel's friends, all his "freaks," and they come across as happy, nice people. There's a scene in a subway where the killer is considering whether or not to push a blackmailer under the wheels of an oncoming train. He almost does it, and the play of emotions on the actor's face is wonderful. But when those 59 minutes are up, there's not much to look back on one way or the other.