The Snorkel kicks off in Hitchcockian mode with a murder made to look like a suicide, as wealthy Madge Decker is gassed in a sealed room, the perpetrator, Madge's husband Paul (Peter Van Eyck), concealing himself under the floorboards (via a trapdoor) and breathing air from outside through a snorkel and rubber hose.
When the woman's body is discovered, police come to the conclusion that she took her own life, but her daughter Candy (Mandy Miller), who has just arrived home from travelling, thinks otherwise: she suspects Paul, having been witness to him killing her father years before. Unfortunately, just like then, nobody believes her, and so she endeavours to discover how her stepfather committed the crime in order to convince the police.
What follows is less Hitchcock and more Nancy Drew, as the intrepid teenager tries to gather evidence, putting herself in danger as she does so (it doesn't help that she repeatedly tells Paul that she knows what he has done). Mild peril follows, Annette's dog Toto buys the farm for being too inquisitive, and Annette is almost drowned by Paul during a visit to the beach (where the not-so-clever Nancy Drew wannabe announces to the killer that she has worked out how he killed her mother).
Director Guy Green keeps things ticking over nicely enough, but the film is lacking in genuine tension, even as the film draws to a close with Paul planning the same fate for Candy as he did for her mother. There's no way that Candy is going to die, despite her complete lack of common sense (she's lured to her mother's deserted villa by a bogus phone call from Paul, tricked by a fake letter, and talked into drinking a drugged glass of milk). Sure enough, help comes in the nick of time when Candy's travelling companion Jean Edwards (Bella St.John) and British Consulate Mr. Wilson (William Franklyn) break in and save her.
In a wonderful twist, nasty old Paul finds himself imprisoned under the floor when a piece of heavy furniture is unknowingly moved over the trapdoor. He calls for help, but only Candy hears him, the girl ignoring her stepfather's pleading and pulling the doors closed, presumably leaving him to starve to death.
This would be a wonderful piece of poetic justice, but unfortunately the film doesn't have the conviction to leave matters on such a macabre note, pulling its punches by having Candy call the police and tell them where Paul is. One can only presume that this ending was tacked on to appease the censors, but it didn't appease me. Consequently, I round down my rating of 6.5/10 to a 6.
When the woman's body is discovered, police come to the conclusion that she took her own life, but her daughter Candy (Mandy Miller), who has just arrived home from travelling, thinks otherwise: she suspects Paul, having been witness to him killing her father years before. Unfortunately, just like then, nobody believes her, and so she endeavours to discover how her stepfather committed the crime in order to convince the police.
What follows is less Hitchcock and more Nancy Drew, as the intrepid teenager tries to gather evidence, putting herself in danger as she does so (it doesn't help that she repeatedly tells Paul that she knows what he has done). Mild peril follows, Annette's dog Toto buys the farm for being too inquisitive, and Annette is almost drowned by Paul during a visit to the beach (where the not-so-clever Nancy Drew wannabe announces to the killer that she has worked out how he killed her mother).
Director Guy Green keeps things ticking over nicely enough, but the film is lacking in genuine tension, even as the film draws to a close with Paul planning the same fate for Candy as he did for her mother. There's no way that Candy is going to die, despite her complete lack of common sense (she's lured to her mother's deserted villa by a bogus phone call from Paul, tricked by a fake letter, and talked into drinking a drugged glass of milk). Sure enough, help comes in the nick of time when Candy's travelling companion Jean Edwards (Bella St.John) and British Consulate Mr. Wilson (William Franklyn) break in and save her.
In a wonderful twist, nasty old Paul finds himself imprisoned under the floor when a piece of heavy furniture is unknowingly moved over the trapdoor. He calls for help, but only Candy hears him, the girl ignoring her stepfather's pleading and pulling the doors closed, presumably leaving him to starve to death.
This would be a wonderful piece of poetic justice, but unfortunately the film doesn't have the conviction to leave matters on such a macabre note, pulling its punches by having Candy call the police and tell them where Paul is. One can only presume that this ending was tacked on to appease the censors, but it didn't appease me. Consequently, I round down my rating of 6.5/10 to a 6.