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The Forgotten Man: The Films of Maxwell Reed... continued.

Returning to Britain, Reed embarked on a further three films in 1953. In Wolf Rilla’s MARILYN (aka ROADHOUSE GIRL), a British answer to THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and OSSESSIONE, Reed plays mechanic Tom Price. On the lookout for work he takes a job at a small garage/café owned by George Saunders (Leslie Dwyer). Tom is soon drawn to Saunders’ young wife Marilyn, strikingly played by Sandra Dorne, and a love affair ensues. This inevitably leads to murder and betrayal. Reed and Dorne display great chemistry with their romantic scenes fairly sizzling off the screen. The whole sorry business is played against a backdrop of appropriate sleaziness. MARALYN is a fine film, Rilla’s direction is tight and his use of the camera impressive. Reed, although playing second fiddle to Dorne throughout the film, is particularly effective when displaying the mental disintegration of Tom, following Maralyn’s rejection of him for seedy spiv Nick Everton (Ferdy Mayne).

Hollywood came calling again when RKO were casting for a villain to play opposite their rising star Rock Hudson in SEA DEVILS, directed by Raoul Walsh. Dusting off his Stewart Granger persona once again, Reed played Rantaine, a rival smuggler up against Hudson’s Captain Gilliatt. SEA DEVILS, an entertaining late entry in the swashbuckler cycle and benefits from some superb colour photography which displays the Irish coast at its best. Rock puffs out his chest and Max snarls back at him while Bryan Forbes (as Hudson’s sidekick Willie) quietly walks away with the picture.

Reed fared much better in his final film of 1953. In Basil Dearden and Michael Relph’s excellent version of Ralph W Peterson’s boxing play THE SQUARE RING, Reed plays the cynical Rick Martell, a boxer known for ‘throwing’ fights. Among such heavyweight talents as Jack Warner, Robert Beatty, Sid James and Kay Kendall, Reed more than holds his own. His Rick Martell is a fighter who has lost all his self respect and hides it behind a mask of pure bravado. His only hope of redemption is his girlfriend Frankie, played by Reed’s then wife Joan Collins. Reed is excellent in this film and, along with BLACKOUT and THE DARK MAN, gives his most confident and assured performance.

Next up was BEFORE I WAKE (1954), a rather lukewarm mystery thriller notable only for a fine performance by Jean Kent as Florence Haddon. Directed by Albert S Rogell, the film is one of those ‘is she mad or isn’t she’ potboilers that are still popular today. Mona Freeman plays April Haddon who returns home after her father’s sudden death and meets her step mother (Kent) for the first time. A series of clues and suspicions lead Ann to be believed that Florence murdered her husband. Her only ally when trying to piece everything together is local doctor Michael Elder (Maxwell Reed). Reed is wasted in another role where he has little to do, but he does it well and the helps carry the film through to a satisfying conclusion.

Reed’s final film of 1954 was also his final British film. He leaves Brit films behind with a rousing performance as escaped mental patient Frank Smith in THE BRAIN MACHINE. Well directed by Ken Hughes the film is an exciting crime thriller which features good performances from Elizabeth Allen, Patrick Barr and especially Edwin Richfield. Reed’s portrayal of Smith, trying to cope with his hostage (Allen), tracking down the crooks who betrayed him and with the pains in his head is exceptional. He superbly captures the anguish and frustration of a man totally at the end of his tether. There is an exciting climax in which Smith finally encounters the villainous ‘Mr Big’ during which Reed pulls out all the stops.

It is a fine performance with which to end his career in British films, but Reed believed he was moving on to greater things when Hollywood came calling yet again. It was during this period that the Reed/Collins marriage began to crumble. They divorced in 1956 amid stories that Reed tried to sell her to an Arab sheik for £10,000.

Also in 1956, Warner Bros dispatched director Robert Wise to Europe to make HELEN OF TROY in Italy. Assembling a fine cast of European actors including Stanley Baker, Harry Andrews, Cedric Hardwicke, Torin Thatcher and Brigitte Bardot, Wise began shooting an epic version of the famous story. In the small but showy role of Ajax, Reed had never looked better. He looked fit and strong and engaged in a wrestling match with Baker’s Paris. Unfortunately the Stewart Granger factor reared its head again and Reed undid all the positives with a rather laboured delivery of his lines. However, the film itself was a success and Reed used this as a platform to try and crack Hollywood.

His first US project was a TV series based on books by Jack London. CAPTAIN DAVID GRIEF was a 39 episode adventure series filmed on location in Mexico between 1957 and 1960. Unfortunately it was never fully networked and hopes for a longer run never materialized, despite the series being well received. Reed did well with the material but received no more series offers after the show was cancelled. Apart from two brief film appearances Reed spent most of the next five years ‘guesting’ in numerous TV series including PERRY MASON and BONANZA.

The first of these two films featured Reed in a brief appearance in the dire PIRATES OF TORTUGA (1961). The second film was Richard Quine’s THE NOTORIOUS LANDLADY (1962) which starred Jack Lemmon and Fred Astaire with Kim Novak in the title role. Again his appearance is brief but he makes the most of it and displays considerable menace as he taunts and threatens Novak during the films climax. Unfortunately the tone of this ‘comedy thriller’ is very uneven and, like most of his US films, did not further his career.

Reed was to make one final film appearance in PICTURE MOMMY DEAD (1966). Directed by horror veteran Bert I Gordon, Reed’s role was not dissimilar to the one he played in MADNESS OF THE HEART as the scheming Anthony who, along with the wicked Zsa Zsa Gabor, attempts to discover the whereabouts of a missing diamond necklace. Shot in garish colour, the film is a typical 60s horror melodrama. Gordon’s direction is fairly static and it is left to the actors to bring life to the piece. Zsa Zsa is wonderfully campy and is well supported by Reed (half hidden by a mask) as her facially scarred accomplice/lover. Reed appears to be enjoying himself in a role that would have done justice to Vincent Price and he brings a nice sense of humour to the part.

Maxwell Reed’s last screen appearance was in a 1968 episode of the BBCs SHERLOCK HOLMES series with Peter Cushing. He played Hilton Cubitt in the story ‘The Dancing Men’. There is little information about what Reed did over the next few years until his early death from cancer in 1974. Some time after his death Joan Collins published an autobiography in which she accused Reed of being abusive towards her. Reed’s family strongly objected to these accusations and managed to get Collins to withdraw some of them from later editions of the book.

It is unfortunate that his marriage to Collins, and her accusations, is mostly what Maxwell Reed is remembered for today. Reed may not have been a ‘great’ actor, but he had a commanding screen presence which is sorely lacking in many of today’s ‘stars’. Some of his films, DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS, DAYBREAK, THE SQUARE RING, THERE IS ANOTHER SUN and THE CLOUDED YELLOW, are fine films which deserve to be seen. DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS recently received a DVD release so maybe a few more of Reed’s better films will begin to surface so that this under rated and mostly forgotten actor can be seen by a contemporary audience.