Murder by Proxy


Murder by Proxy, released in the United States as Blackout, is a 1954 British film noir crime drama film directed by Terence Fisher. It stars Dane Clark and Belinda Lee. The screenplay concerns a man who is offered money to marry a woman.

Plot summary

Drunk and down-and-out Casey Morrow in London is approached by a young and beautiful heiress, Phyllis Brunner, offering him much money if he will marry her. He accepts, but then wakes up the next morning in some other woman's apartment with blood on his coat from the murder of Brunner's father. Now he must unravel the mystery to clear his name, which leads him into a twisted labyrinth of encounters with various suspicious characters who seem to make his situation worse the more he learns.

Cast

The film was based on a novel Murder by Proxy which was published in 1952. It was the first movie in an eight picture contact between Hammer Films and Lippert Pictures.
Dane Clark's casting was announced in September 1953. He stayed on in England to make Five Days.

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletinsaid "the treatment is sufficiently persuasive to bring a fair amount of excitement to the well tried material."