Smokescreen

1964
6.9| 1h10m| en
Details

A fastidious insurance assessor investigates a potential case of insurance fraud.

Director

Producted By

Butcher's Film Productions

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Reviews

CommentsXp Best movie ever!
Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
howardmorley Yes I really fancied Yvonne Romain since I adore curvy dark brunette film stars.I kept hoping she would appear in every other shot as I had never seen this film before.Courtesy of "Talking Pictures" on channel 81, I saw this film tonight and was impressed by how much the producer did with his limited budget.Of interest was seeing loctional shots of Newhaven and other west Sussex resorts.Peter Vaughan for once discards his usual sinister role & plays the lead as an insurance investigator tracking down a fake life assurance fraud.I enjoyed seeing Derek Guyler again as an all purpose railway employee from his popular t.v.role of playing the school caretaker in t.v.'s 1960s "Please Sir".It was humourous seeing Peter Vaughan ordering multiple champagne cocktails from Sam Kydd (who this time played a bar steward), as his character was on a limited expense budget - the same as the film producer!
jjcarr-49015 A blazing car crashes over a cliff. No body is found. It belonged to a co-owner of a business. Both owners had recently taken out large insurance policies. The insurance company is naturally suspicious and send an agent (Peter Vaughn) to investigate. The time frame of the accident adds to his suspicions. To complicate matters it turns out that there was an offer to buy the business that the missing man rejected but which his partner wanted to accept. To further complicate matters the local insurer (John Carson) who sold the policies loves the missing man's wife (the beautiful Yvonne Romain).The film has a bit more depth than normal B-movie fare. Throughout there is a running theme about Vaughan's expenses. This seems to be for low comedic effect but later we learn why he is so tight with money. Similarly with the denouement we learn why the film's title is appropriate.This is a pleasant, undemanding little B-movie for all the family. I give it a 7 because it's a well-made, well-written, well-acted low budget film lacking star names. Had it had an A-list budget I'd have given it a 6.
n_adams1 Came across this little known British Thriller when searching the net for similar movies. This is one of a number made by Renown pictures and there are many available to buy from them or Amazon.This is the first one I watched and I liked it very much. The story revolves around a supposed life assurance fraud, possible suicide and maybe murder.Like a lot of similar films of the time it is very short at 66 minutes but that was the least of my worries.There are some great parts played by well known character actors like Patrick flood, Deryck Guyler and Glynn Edwards, however the show is stolen by the marvellous Peter Vaughan as the tight fisted assessor, although as we see later in the film he has good reason for his meanness. I googled him afterwards and see he is still working at nearly 90!An enjoyable hour or so and I look forward to watching more in the series.
keith.york Made on a zero budget as a programme filler in the mid-Sixties. Don't let this put you off. Worth watching for the quirky, amusing script and the central performance from the always excellent Peter Vaughan. The murder mystery isn't perhaps up to Agatha Christie's standard, but the idea of insurance investigator as detective is a fairly novel one. (OK so they did it in 'Double Indemnity') Also a decent document of Britain in the early sixties.