Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Below the Deadline (1936)

Molly Fitzgerald (Cecilia Parker) works for a diamond merchant, she is chatted up by a man (Theodore von Eltz) but he is after more than her pretty face, he is planning to rob the merchant. Not only does he carry off the crime he manages to frame Molly's policeman fiance Terry (Russell Hopton) for both robbery and murder.

Terry goes on the run but is badly injured in a train crash. He takes the identity of a dead man (and thus is assumed killed in the crash) and is given plastic surgery in hospital. Now with a new identity and a new face (not that he looks much different) he sets out to find out who set him up...

Although the plot is a bit ridiculous, Terry is framed on the most flimsy of evidence for example. Also despite seemingly being a respected policeman the Force dump on him in an instant. The film is well made and entertaining with a few twists.