John Carol – MRQE

The Perfect Crime

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

In this British thriller, a mild-mannered bank clerk has a sort of breakdown, gets tired of seeing other people always get the money, and robs the bank. He then sets up an elaborate scheme whereby it looks as if he felt so much remorse at his actions that he has ended his life by jumping overboard on an ocean liner. Unfortunately, while on board, a ship’s steward finds his pre-written note, gets rid of it and steals the money. Later the steward is killed. Now the clerk is in real trouble until he meets a beautiful woman and tells her the whole sordid story. She, and a detective help him prove that he did not kill the steward. The real murderer is found, and both he and the clerk are imprisoned. While doing his time, the clerk is sustained by the knowledge that the beauty waits for him outside.

The Spider and the Fly

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

“The Spider and the Fly is set in Paris during the cloud-cuckoo days before WW I. The storyline intertwines the destinies of three people. Guy Rolfe plays Phillipe de Ledocq, a resourceful safecracker who always manages to elude arrest. Eric Portman is cast as police-chief Maubert, who will not rest until Ledocq is behind bars. And Nadia Gray is Madeleine, the woman beloved by both Ledocq and Maubert. Just as Maubert has managed to capture his man, Ledocq is released at the behest of the government, who wants him to steal secrets from the German embassy revealing the whereabouts of the Kaiser’s secret agents. And just how does Madeleine figure into all of this? Spider and the Fly is a diverting precursor to the 1960s TV series It Takes a Thief.” ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi