Serena – 1962 | 60mins | Thriller | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Efficient Butcher’s b-movie that rises above the usual quota-quickie; a pacey crime mystery with an intelligent plot and neat twist at the end. Scotland Yard Inspector Gregory (Patrick Holt), strives to solve the mystery of an artist’s wife found shot dead at an isolated Surrey cottage. The victim’s husband, suave artist Howard Rogers (Emrys Jones), becomes the chief suspect as he had wished to leave his wife for his model mistress, Serena Vaughan. Rogers falls under deeper suspicion when he reveals that shooting is one of his pastimes, and that he’d been shooting at the time of the murder.

The mystery takes a complex turn when Rogers goes to identify his wife, but due to the gunshot wound her face is unrecognizable. However, when he inspects her body for an acknowledged birthmark he realises the body is not that of his wife. Later in the day, completely out of the blue, Mrs Rogers (Honor Blackman) emerges and claims to have left a model called Claire Matthews at the cottage – and that the mysterious dead person must be her. The police drive to Kent to check out Rogers alibi and ascertain he was telling the truth about his movements, but that his partner that day, Sabrina Vaughan, could have slipped away to commit the crime. Thus the police hunt for Sabrina Vaughan and Claire Matthews intensifies. Did the artist’s wife know about her husband’s affair? Did one of his models shoot her then adopt her identity to avoid suspicion?