Do You Know This Voice? 1964 Based on the 1960 novel by Evelyn Berckman, screenplay by Neil McCallum, directed by Frank Nesbitt. Part of the Network series The British Film. Like all their releases, the DVD is Region 2 and won't play in most US players. The DVDs will play on a PC DVD drive with the help of VLC Player or in region free DVD players.
Dan Duryea is a hospital orderly who lives in a row house with his wife played by Gwen Watford. Isa Miranda plays the older lady in the house next door. A child is kidnapped, the family get a ransom call, the police are called in, the second call is traced to a phone box. The police race around to the box only to find Isa in it. She's taken down to the local police station and questioned. She just can't just seem to remember who the person was who was ahead of her, she was looking down when the person walked by, she just remembers their feet and the bottom of their coat.
Over at Dan and Gwen's place we find them in a tissy, turns out Dan is the kidnapper and Gwen was the ransom caller, she was wearing Dan's trench coat when she called. Now they're worried that Isa will remember and it'll be the noose for Dan. He'd accidentally killed the kid and left the body where it was found the same day. If only he had waited, the UK abolished the death penalty the following year.
Isa wants to help the police catch the killer but she still can't remember the person's face. She suggests that they lie and say she remembered who the man was. Gwen used a more masculine voice for the call and it fooled everyone. We spend the rest of the movie watching Dan and Gwen fall to pieces, they try to murder Isa but they are incompetant criminals, they royally screw things up for themselves.
I thought it was a good bit above average, with a cracking script, an excellent cast, plenty of activity, and a nice sense of humor too. Worth a look for any mystery fan. Glad I picked one up, I'll watch it again someday.
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