Pit of Darkness [DVD]

In this entertaining 1961 black and white crime thriller, William Franklyn heads the cast as a businessman who is found unconscious with no recollection of events from the previous 3 weeks, so with the help of his wife he attempts to piece together his whereabouts over the period, the investigations gradually reveal a web of murder and theft.

There's a few twists and turns along the way before the movie reaches it's climax. The cast contains a number of familiar faces, including Moira Redmond, Nigel Green, Anthony Booth, and Nanette Newman.
The movie was produced by Butchers Film Studios, who specialised in low budget, B-movie second features. The studio's output was often poorly received by film critics, but if like me, you are a big fan of British B-movies of the 50's/60's, this is well worth a look.

The movie has been digitally restored and remastered, and picture quality is very impressive. There are no extras or subtitles.
If you enjoy this movie, look out for more Butchers films, as Renown Productions are currently releasing more of the studio's back catalogue.

I always enjoy films directed by Lance Comfort and this one is a winner. Plenty of music, locations and well known faces. However, I think it odd that Moira Redmond's name is missing from the front cover of Pit of Darkness and yet a minor actor's name appears as if they were a co-star. The film picture quality is very good but the sound is very low at the start and generally lower than other titles. That is why I am giving this 4 stars.

I saw Pit Of Darkness when it first came out and I was still at school. It was the lower part of a double bill but I preferred it to the other movie. When I mentioned seeing the film to one of my school friends, he agreed that it was enjoyable and then grinned and said that the best scenes were those featuring "Mavis". I felt exactly the same way! Until this new DVD from Renown, I had never seen Pit Of Darkness since.

Pit Of Darkness is still an enjoyable movie for those who can tolerate minor failings but who deplore modern movies' bad language, specious violence and one dimensional characters. While the film is playing, the plot holes are not obvious and the fast moving narrative holds the viewer's attention.

A master safe maker wakes with a head wound on a bomb site. He staggers home and soon realises that he has lost his memory. His wife tells him that a detective she had hired has been found murdered. It occurs to them that as the husband has lost his memory, they can't be certain he's not the murderer. He dares not call the police so he sets about unravelling the mystery on his own. He meets a variety of people including a glamorous night-club blonde named Mavis.

After all these years, for me Mavis, played by Jacqueline Jones, is still the most interesting element in the movie. Jacqueline Jones was one of those innumerable actresses who, because they were good-looking in a glamorous way, were never taken seriously and were never given a chance to do anything worthwhile. In her tiny part, Jacqueline Jones is perfect. She projects the phony glamour of a peroxide blonde and she gets the voice right. In the night-club scene when she tells William Franklyn her name is Helen Rochester, her voice is flat, slightly common and self-confident. It's a bit like Katie Price's voice and it's absolutely right for the part! What a pity Jacqueline Jones was not given more opportunities to show what she could do!

The new DVD is quite good with clean, stable images and clear, smooth sound.