This movie started so strongly - a young woman is killed by an unknown
assailant as she retrieves some jewels she has hidden in a church, a young
boy on roller skates sees the murder and a few days later a boy's body is
found but in a grisly shock the police realise that the wrong boy has been
murdered. It seems, days before they had swapped caps and the cap the
killer found left behind at the church was not that of the boy who had
actually seen the act. Police realise they are dealing with a homicidal
maniac!!
Paul Carpenter was a Canadian who moved to Britain to sing with the Ted Heath Band. He soon moved on to movies where he had an edginess that a lot of British actors at the time could quite muster. In this one he plays Banner, a newspaper man, who while on the spot of the first murder, finds the child's cap in the bushes and starts to investigate down another track!! Carpenter had a very breezy style that critics liked and had some witty repartee with his sleuthing girlfriend and his femme fatale ex. This was were the film came a bit unstuck for me - Banner was so down to earth and all business but once he became entangled with his ex he became putty in her hands. Jill Adams was good in a poor man's Diana Dors way but the ending with her proving to be the brains behind a black mailing ring stretched credibility especially when she was found to have killed the child and then blithely gone on to try to murder the right one AND that Banner had to think long and hard about turning her in. Very tight, gritty movie marred by a cliched ending!!
Paul Carpenter was a Canadian who moved to Britain to sing with the Ted Heath Band. He soon moved on to movies where he had an edginess that a lot of British actors at the time could quite muster. In this one he plays Banner, a newspaper man, who while on the spot of the first murder, finds the child's cap in the bushes and starts to investigate down another track!! Carpenter had a very breezy style that critics liked and had some witty repartee with his sleuthing girlfriend and his femme fatale ex. This was were the film came a bit unstuck for me - Banner was so down to earth and all business but once he became entangled with his ex he became putty in her hands. Jill Adams was good in a poor man's Diana Dors way but the ending with her proving to be the brains behind a black mailing ring stretched credibility especially when she was found to have killed the child and then blithely gone on to try to murder the right one AND that Banner had to think long and hard about turning her in. Very tight, gritty movie marred by a cliched ending!!