Thursday, January 21, 2021

The Accursed (1957)

A group of former resistance fighters are assembled by their former leader Colonel Price (Donald Wolfit) for one purpose: to find out which one of them is a traitor! Price is waiting for his man in Berlin, Dehmel (Colin Croft) to bring him the identity of the traitor... but Dehmel is bumped off as soon as he arrives at Price's country home.

Then a Major Shane (Robert Bray) arrives, supposedly because his car has broken down, but is soon transpires that he was looking Price's now-dead informant and he becomes involves in the search for the identity of the traitor/murderer. More murders and attempted murders begin to take place...

Although this has the veneer of a spy drama, this is really a classic country house whodunnit with the Major taking the role of the authority outsider who uncovers the culprit with the oldest trick in the book. The film is quite slow but has a good sense of suspense and a good cast including Anton DifferingChristopher Lee and Jane Griffiths.