User Reviews

Inspector Parry (Frank Leighton) of the Yard is called to a lodging house in London's docklands where a young woman called Hazel Sutton (Ann Doran) has been murdered, stabbed to death. The prime suspect is an illegal immigrant called Slavik (Theodore Wilhelm) whom the landlady, Mrs Fenton (May Hallett), saw leaning over the body before running away. In addition, the murder weapon is identified as belonging to him. Inspector Parry and his Detective-Sergeant discover that Slavik has gone missing; but his landlady says that she does not believe him capable of murder since she knows him to be a quiet and well mannered man. He is finally found and arrested; but he tells the inspector that he got an anonymous phone call from a woman telling him that Hazel was in danger. It transpires that they were engaged to be married. So he went to her lodgings, found her dead and Mrs Fenton came in to find him beside the body and, assuming him to be the killer, started screaming "Help, murder!" so he fled. He also says that Hazel kept their life savings under the floorboards in her room. Inspector Parry begins to suspect that Slavik might have been framed; so he returns to the lodging house and finds the money to be missing. He questions Mrs Fenton again and finds that she bought an expensive fur coat just after the murder. Where did she get the money to pay for it? A vital lead presents itself after two men are arrested for a violent robbery on a newsagent in which the shopkeeper was fatally wounded and later died as a result of his injuries. In a state of panic, fearing the gallows, one of the robbers, Smith, gives away his accomplice who turns out to be Mrs Fenton's son, Bill (Tom Clegg). Was he at the lodging house on the night of the murder? How well did he know Hazel Sutton? And who was the unknown woman who lured Slavik to the scene of the crime?

All in all, The Stateless Man measures up to be an efficient and enjoyable crime short from the long running Scotland Yard series of cinema supporting features. It is acted by a cast whom, with the possible exception of Tom Clegg, will most probably be unrecognisable to today's audiences. Most of them offer serviceable performances but do not exactly set the screen alight. Whilst we can sympathise with the plight of the illegal immigrant whom is cruelly framed for murder, Theodore Wilhelm's performance isn't quite sufficient to convey all that much in the way of emotion. The most enjoyable aspect about this one is the gritty, realistic settings of Harold Watson - the cheap lodging houses, seedy backstreet clubs and the docklands area of the Capital around Wapping from where the action unfolds, which gives the film a genuine sense of realism and a strong feeling for place. This is much augmented by the superb semi-documentary styled black and white camerawork of A.T Dinsdale and John Reid. Directed at a fair lick by the talented Paul Dickson, a.k.a Paul Gherzo, and sharply edited by Ernest Hilton, the solution to the case is reasonably satisfying and the identity of the killer will not be who you are expecting it to be.