The Snorkel

Entertaining little thriller with a fun battle of wits between tenacious Mandy Miller and slimy Peter van Eyck. We know how he did it right from the off, and Miller figures it out fairly quickly, so the mystery comes from trying to guess how she's going to convince everyone else. And when she finally does, it's very satisfying indeed.

Solid B/W thriller from Hammer which is much closer to Hitchcock than their usual gothic horrors. The killer's gimmicks and schemings are fun, if not very plausible and reminded me of German Krimi-films. My gripes were that you know how the story will turn out, and the lead girl is quite irritating. That said, the ending still works quite well (although Sangster's original darker ending would have worked even better). It's also nicely shot and benefits from Italian (& French?) locations.

The film start with an ingenious murder. But what follows is way less interesting and suffers from an annoying lead, that's miscast cause the actress is too old for the way the character behaves. The movies did have a nice dark ending, that unfortunately was rewritten with an extra pre-credit scene probably to please the censors.

Elegant looking Hitchcock knockoff. Its story is ahead of its time, but it's all a bit sluggish and undercooked.

I suppose I had to watch this one just for the title. A half-hour TV show padded out, and Miller's is a pretty campy part/performance. Also Toto was a drearily doleful pooch (although the scene where he kept retrieving the mask was amusing). Still, one of the funnier endings I've ever seen, right down to the last fadeout.