SYNOPSICS
The Limping Man (1953) is a English movie. Cy Endfield has directed this movie. Lloyd Bridges,Moira Lister,Alan Wheatley,Leslie Phillips are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1953. The Limping Man (1953) is considered one of the best Crime,Drama,Film-Noir,Mystery,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
American Frank Pryor (Lloyd Bridges)) arrives in London to take up an interrupted romance with Pauline French (Moira Lister), whom he hasn't seen in six years. At the airport a man standing alongside Pryor is slain by an unseen sniper, and he is detained by Scotland Yard for questioning. Released, he goes to Pauline's apartment, and learns that she had an intimate association with the slain man and is not interested in talking about it. Scotland Yard also knows this and Pryor and Pauline are kept under surveillance. After complications involving the dead man's wife, it is found that the man Pauline knows isn't dead at all and isn't who he is supposed to be.
Same Actors
Same Director
The Limping Man (1953) Reviews
Mediocre Mystery
** Major Spoiler Warning** Currently available as part of a DVD double feature with the excellent "The Scar", this British mystery flick featuring Lloyd Bridges is moderately enjoyable, but takes forever to set up its premise (45 minutes out of an 80 minute movie) and the ending is preposterous, negating the entire story. (Think a certain season of "Dallas" with Bobby Ewing in the shower and you'll get the idea.) Although this is sold as film noir on the DVD, it doesn't really fit the genre. For me, noir is about finding a moral center in a morally ambiguous world. There's none of that here, none of the atmospherics, just a straight-up who done it/why done it. It borrows a page or two from "The Third Man" but is far less effective. If you pick up the DVD, "The Scar" is well worth your time, but this one is pretty pale by comparison.
Entertaining B-movie, but beware of the ill-conceived ending.
It was quite common in the '50s for British B-pictures to feature a fairly famous American star in the main role. Presumably most British B-movies would not otherwise have been granted an American release. In this film, it is the turn of Lloyd Bridges to lend his talents to a brief, brisk and reasonably entertaining mystery flick. Bridges plays Franklin Pryor, a former US soldier returning to Britain in the 1950s to rekindle a wartime romance with Pauline French (Moira Lister). As he disembarks from the plane at London Heathrow, Pryor witnesses the assassination of another passenger, gunned down by a sniper as he walks from the plane to the terminal. To make matters worse, when Pryor reunites with his old flame she seems to know more about the killing than she is letting on. The police even begin to suspect that Pryor himself may have had a role in the murder. The script is reasonably engrossing, starting with the mysterious murder and building from there with plenty more intriguing goings-on. Indeed, for a while the film threatens to become something far cleverer and far more unpredictable than most films of its ilk. However, it is let down (badly at that) by a totally thoughtless twist ending which will have most viewers groaning in disappointment. Still, apart from the feeble climax this is a decent little thriller, well worth 80 minutes (or thereabouts) of anybody's time. It's a difficult film to track down, but if you're lucky enough to find it it'll do nicely for a rainy day.
"We know you're alright, but we'd like you to stay that way."
"The Limping Man" has the makings of a fairly good mystery until the let down at the end of the film, which makes a more thorough review a moot point. Lloyd Bridges stars in this British film as former military man Franklin Prior returning to London to reunite with an old flame. However Pauline French (Moira Lister) may be mixed up in some kind of trouble involving the assassination of a former lover of hers. Now she's being blackmailed by, who else, the former lover, who's not really dead. So who's the limping man? Take your pick - the stage door manager at the theater where Helene Castle (Helene Cordet) performs walks with a cane. Assassin target turned blackmailer Kendall Brown (Tom Gill) uses a rifle fashioned as a walking stick. This would have all been wonderful fun if Bridges' character hadn't suddenly awoke from his trans-Atlantic flight to discover that he had just arrived in London, with character Brown sitting behind him on the plane. Shades of Dallas and Bobby Ewing, but at least you didn't waste an entire season of episodes to get hoodwinked. Here, it took less than an hour and a half.
Pity about the ending.......
The Limping Man is a fairly bland British B grade Noir with Lloyd Bridges imported from America to play the lead role and add appeal to a wider audience. The plot follows a reasonably intriguing path towards what should/could have been a dramatic conclusion before reaching a disappointing ending that might have been borrowed from a children's story. Despite this, the film has its moments with fine performances from Bridges and Alan Wheatley as the Inspector. Leslie Phillips appears as the inspector's subordinate and, as always, is typecast as the ladies man who ogles everything in a dress. Although the ending is flawed the film still has appeal as an interesting example of British Film Noir.
Hey, Presto!
Though I rated it a 6 I watch it more than some of my other favorite choices. When the plot goes to the music hall theater the song that Helene Cordet ,the magician's assistant, sings while doing the act just knocks me out. Her french accent and slight lisp somehow combine with the music arrangement to just make the movie better for me. Maybe it injects a bit of light humor in a suspense drama. In fact I enjoyed the next musical act about dancing on a big piano keyboard MORE THAN 3 DECADES Before THE MOVIE 'big". But then I always pay attention to musical interludes in movies even though they are suppose to be incidental. I agree with other reviewers about the early cameo bits by Jean Marsh, Rachel Roberts and the Lockeed Constellation. But I frequently find myself putting the movie and going to scene 5 just to hear her sing 'Hey Presto' again. In fact similar music interludes from B movies like MAN FROM CAIRO, CARRY ON SPYING,THE RAWHIDE YEARS,GIRLS AT SEA, make me wish that the soundtracks for audio use were available.