Murder at Site 3

Murder at Site 3
Opening titles
Directed byFrancis Searle
Written byPaddy Manning O'Brine
Based on
Crime Is My Business
by W Howard Baker (as Peter Saxon)
Produced byCharles Leeds, Francis Searle
StarringGeoffrey Toone, Barbara Shelley
CinematographyBert Mason
Music byDon Banks
Production
company
Francis Searle Productions
Release date
  • 1958 (1958)
Running time
67 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Murder at Site 3 (also known as Murder at Site Three) is a 1958 British film directed by Francis Searle and starring Barbara Shelley, Geoffrey Toone and John Warwick.[1][2] It was written by Paddy Manning O'Brine based on the 1958 novel Crime is My Business by W Howard Baker (as Peter Saxon), and produced at Bray Studios by Francis Searle Productions.[1] It was distributed by Exclusive,[3] a division of Hammer Films.

Preservation status

The British Film Institute National Archive holds a collection of stills but no film or video materials.[1]

Plot

Sexton Blake tracks down an espionage gang who have stolen secrets from a rocket site. After an Air Force security officer is murdered, Blake discovers that the spies are co-workers of the dead man."[3]

Cast

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Blake, his secretary and his assistant Tinker are attractively characterised in a modest thriller suffering less from its many improbabilities than a meandering, over-deliberate and for the most part tedious narrative."[3]

Kine Weekly wrote: "Tin-pot 'who-dunit,' unfolded somewhere in England. ... The players work hard, but loose direction and an untidy script prevent their labours from being adequately rewarded. It never convinces and seldom thrills. ... The picture flits from one country hostelry to another, but nothing particularly exciting emerges from the interminable pub crawl. By the time it ends, the red herrings are over pickled! ... the film's a damp squib."[4]

Picturegoer wrote: "Good, brisk fun in the schoolboy tradition, the film gets a reliable-looking Blake in Geoffrey Toone and a prettily menaced heroine in Barbara Shelley."[5]

Paul Mavis wrote in The Espionage Filmography: "This plays more like an hour long television show than a feature release. It does have the delightful Barbara Shelley, however."[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Murder at Site 3". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  2. ↑ "Murder at Site Three (1959)". BFI. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 "Murder at Site 3". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 26 (300): 124. 1 January 1959. ProQuest 1305824831.
  4. ↑ "Murder at Site 3". Kine Weekly. 507 (2707): 25. 20 August 1959. ProQuest 3303430684.
  5. ↑ "Murder at Site 3". Picturegoer. 38 (1272): 10. 7 November 1959. ProQuest 1771207911.
  6. ↑ Mavis, Paul (2011). The Espionage Filmography : United States Releases, 1898 Through 1999. McFarland & Company. p. 212. ISBN 978-0786449156.
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