Double Confession

The fictional southern English resort town of Seagate is the setting for this unusual postwar British thriller which blends film noir plotting and summer-holiday local colour. New in town, the arrival of twitchy leading man Derek Farr coincides with two dead bodies turning up at a secluded nearby inlet, yet suspicion falls on bar-owning spiv-made-good William Hartnell and his volatile right-hand-man Peter Lorre - whose strikingly febrile performance hints at both homoerotic yearning and psychopathic impulses. Meanwhile, director Ken Annakin, taking a cue from his successful 1947 family comedy Holiday Camp, includes much light-hearted portraiture of the English seaside, bringing a degree of light and shade to a story which otherwise focuses on the challenging legacy of lives torn apart by the recently ended war. It's an utterly fascinating combination, unfolding over a tight time-frame, and brilliantly shot by ace cameraman Geoffrey Unsworth, who carries off noir-influenced shadowy visuals and documentary-style location work with equal aplomb.