THE END OF THE LINE

 

I became aware of this film due to a post in the Seductive Cinema Facebook group. What mainly attracted my interest in it was that it stars Hammer Films veteran Barbara Shelley. 

It's fitting that Shelley does appear in this picture, since THE END OF THE LINE (1957) has several things in common with the type of films Hammer was making in the early 1950s. It's a short, black & white crime/noir story dealing with an American (played by a past-his-prime actor), who while in England has his life turned upside down due to a duplicitous female. If you didn't know any better, you'd think that THE END OF THE LINE was one of Hammer's earlier productions. 

Alan Baxter plays Mike Selby, an American writer who has just arrived in London from Paris in order to do rewrite work on a play. At the hotel Selby is staying at, he runs into Liliane (Barbara Shelley), an old flame who walked out on him--and took $100 of his money in the process. Liliane is now married to the owner of the hotel, a man who is also involved as a fence for stolen jewelry. Against his better judgement, Selby starts to fall under Liliane's spell again, and he agrees to go in with her on a plan to steal the collection of jewels in her husband's safe. As expected, things don't work out well, and Selby suffers the consequences. 

Alan Baxter had a decent career in 1930s-40s Hollywood, mostly playing supporting parts as bad guys and gangsters. Here he's very much a fish out of water as an American who knows exactly what he's getting into by being smitten all over again by Liliane, yet going right into it just the same. Baxter isn't really the leading man type, which actually makes him more suited for the role. You totally believe that this guy would allow himself to get wrapped around Barbara Shelley's finger (and her character knows it too). Mike Selby's poor sap attitude is enhanced by Baxter's self-deprecating voice-over narration. 

Barbara Shelley is a far stronger screen presence than Baxter here. Shelley is cool, calculated, and icily gorgeous--even when the game is up at the end she barely shows a flicker of emotion. Shelley would play a similar character later on in BLIND CORNER (aka MAN IN THE DARK). 

Among the supporting cast are horror film veterans Ferdy Mayne (THE VAMPIRE LOVERS) and Jennifer Jayne (DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS). 

THE END OF THE LINE was efficiently directed by Charles Saunders. I wouldn't say anything in it is superb, but it does its job as a hour-long B feature. It's a fine example of Barbara Shelley's talents, and it's a perfect film for late-night viewing.