Tonight's Movie: Lady of Vengeance (1957) - An MGM Blu-ray Review

LADY OF VENGEANCE (1957), one of a handful of crime films made by star Dennis O'Keefe in the UK in the 1950s, has just been released on Blu-ray by MGM.

I've previously enjoyed O'Keefe's UK films THE FAKE (1953) and THE DIAMOND WIZARD (1954), especially the former, but LADY OF VENGEANCE was new to me and my least favorite of this trio, but the TWILIGHT ZONE-esque screenplay by Irve Tunick definitely gets points for creativity.

O'Keefe plays powerful American William T. Marshall. Marshall lives in Great Britain, where he publishes an influential paper.

Marshall is devastated when his young ward, Melissa (Eileen Elton), commits suicide after he tries to end her romance with an American musician, Larry (Vernon Greeves). Incidentally, this happens under the opening credits so it's in no way a spoiler.

After Melissa's death Marshall receives a posthumous letter from Melissa explaining why she decided to end it all, and Marshall determines to kill the man who betrayed her and led her to end her life. And it won't be just a quick and easy murder; he wants the man to suffer.

To that end Marshall hires Emile Karnak (Anton Diffring). Karnak is an obsessive stamp collector, and Marshall has learned through his staff reporters that Karnak also plans crimes. Marshall's been sitting on the information rather than publishing it, and he decides to hire Karnak to perform the perfect torture and murder of the man whose behavior led to Melissa's death.

Marshall's loyal secretary Katie (Ann Sears) knows something is wrong with her boss, especially when he sends his butler (George Mulcaster) away on an unexpected vacation, but she can't quite figure it out...

This was a fast-moving, if very strange, 73 minutes. (Incidentally, several stills available online from scenes which aren't in the film left me with the impression the film's running length might have first been planned to be quite a bit longer.) As mentioned, the film has an original screenplay, including quite a twist which won't be revealed here.

That said, as the film went on I found what Marshall was doing to be increasingly creepy and distasteful. Plotting torture is not exactly attractive, and I disliked listening to Marshall plan the exact details with Karnak; I prefer O'Keefe in "hero" mold. 

 I was also left wondering whether Marshall's feelings toward his ward were strictly fatherly or if there was something more going on.

Sears, as Katie, is bright-eyed, confident, and appealing, and her character and sympathy (perhaps love?) for her employer keeps the viewer watching despite the movie's overall weirdness.  Plus I had to find out what would happen!

As for Diffring, he is definitely weird, if compelling, as a man who would kill for a prized postage stamp.

As one might tell from the above comments, the film is memorable and worth checking out, but it's also a roller coaster ride I'm not sure I'll feel the need to take again in the future, preferring to stick with more traditional crime fare.

LADY OF VENGEANCE was directed by Burt Balaban nd filmed by Ian Struthers.

The MGM Blu-ray print is in excellent shape. There's nothing particularly unique about the cinematography, but it's a nice crisp print with clear sound. I appreciated being able to check this movie out viewing it in such good condition.

There are no extras on the disc. English-language subtitles are provided.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and MGM for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. LADY OF VENGEANCE may be purchased from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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