THE THIRD VISITOR


UK, 1951, 85 minutes, Black-and-white.
Sonia Dresdel, Guy Middleton, Hubert Gregg, Colin Gordon, Karol Stepanek, Eleanor Summerfield, John Slater.
Directed by Maurice Elvey.

The Third Visitor is based on a play, a murder mystery which is opened out to take in various aspects of the city of London. For the most part, it seems quite routine, using a number of British character actors to round out the cast, some addressed all rather sharp as a mysterious and assertive character, Guy Middleton as the police inspector, Hubert Gregg is a shady business partner with Eleanor Summerfield as his erratic wife. Karel Stepanek is the shady villain.

However, the film does not seem to be quite a who done it because the audience is introduced to a character in New York City who comes to visit the United Kingdom, confronts the villain and, seemingly, murders him. His body is identified by his partner and the various people connected all give evidence to the police, much of it eventually shown to be false.

In fact, there is quite a twist at the end which makes the film much more interesting in retrospect. The initial murder is not what it seems, nor the identification of the body. And the various people, giving each other alibis, are much more involved with the villain than expected. In fact, a rather lurid glimpse of a woman with a question mark at the beginning of the film becomes far more significant and interesting given the background of the woman and the villain and concentration camps.

There is a strange character, released from an institution, who wanders in and out – and provides an ending for the film. So, in these respects, it is not bad at all.

Direction is by veteran Maurice Elvey who worked in British cinema from the 30s to the 60s.