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Thriller

The Painted Smile

User Score10 votes
56%5.6/10
Release1962
Runtime1H 0M
LanguageEnglish
StatusReleased

Synopsis

Jo and Mark are working the "outraged husband" racket when they fall foul of the sinister Kleinie....

Principal Cast8

Full Cast & Crew (44)

Media2

Backdrops

The Painted Smile backdrop 1

Posters

The Painted Smile poster 1

Director

Lance Comfort

Director →

External Links

Reviews1

CinemaSerf6/10

I rather enjoyed Kenneth Griffith's performance here as the malevolent "Kleinie". He finds himself caught up in the amateur shenanigans of "Jo" (Liz Fraser) and "Mark" (Peter Reynolds). Now this pair have an habit of using her as a lure for young men whom she invites back to her flat only for her "husband" to arrive and try a little extortion. Well, they hit on the newly flush lad - "Tom" (Tony Wickert) - but when she returns to finish the sting, "Kleinie" calls alerting her to a shocking surprise in the bedroom. The young "Tom" is too drunk to offer much resistance to her rather ill thought-out plan and before he knows it he is being sought by the police for murder. What now ensues is a fairly run-of-the-mill British crime noir as both "Tom" and "Jo" have to stay one step ahead of the pursuing police whilst their nasty nemesis has plans for them of his own. Fraser was a competent enough comedy actress, but here she hasn't really the gravitas to engender much of a sense of danger. Wickert fares slightly better as the not-so-hapless youth - once he sobers up - but there isn't much jeopardy here and as the plot shuttles along we are well aware of how things are going to turn out. It's only an hour long, though, and Lance Comfort doesn't let it hang about - it moves along well enough with a basic but adequate production and a rather hectic score from Martin Slavin to keep it watchable, if forgettable.

Sep 25, 2022

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Countries:United Kingdom
Production:Blakeley's Films (M/C) Ltd.Mancunian Films