The Vicious Circle – 1957 | 84 mins | Thriller | B&W

Plot Synopsis

A sterling star turn by John Mills anchors this compact crime thriller based on the Francis Durbridge penned BBC TV series The Brass Candlestick. Durbridge’s taut script nods to Hitchcockian paranoia in its tightrope walk between suburban normality and nightmarish uncertainty. The director, Gerald Thomas, went on to make many of the Carry On films.

Respectable Harley Street specialist, Dr Howard Latimer (Mills) one day receives a telephone call apparently from his friend, Kaufmann, a film producer. He asks Dr Latimer to do him a favour by meeting a German actress, Frieda (Lisa Daniely), at the Airport. This he does accompanied by a peculiar reporter from the Daily Courier that he’s only recently encountered, Windsor (Lionel Jeffries). Having taken her to her hotel, Latimer sets off to meet his fiancée and friends at the theatre. A few days later, however, he arrives at his flat to discover Frieda’s dead body on the floor, he calls in Scotland Yard, only to find himself accused when the murder weapon is uncovered in the boot of his car. Latimer explains about Kaufmann’s phone call, it becomes clear that it was in fact a hoax. He must solve the mystery himself in order to prove his innocence.