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Without a proper explanation, John Gray (Henry Kendall) finds a camera
in his car. He figures someone must have dropped it there by accident, and
decides to develop the last of the pictures in the camera to find a clue
to its actual owner. The photo seems to show a murder! Then, while Gray is
distracted for a moment, the camera, the photograph and the negative get
stolen. Gray, who has lived a boring life most of his life, sees a mystery
unfolding, and thus develops the rest of the photos he found in the camera
to find a clue, any clue to its owner. Eventually, he finds a trail to
Mary (Ida Lupino), who turns out to be the sister of the camera's owner,
Ernest (John Mills), who has gone missing. At first, Mary is all for
helping Gray to find her brother, but then a policeman stops by her place
to inform her that Ernest is suspected of a jewellery heist, and now Mary
only agrees to accompany Gray, who doesn't know about her brother's
involvement in the heist, to obscure her brother's trail. But even though
Mary tries to sabotage Gray's investigations every step along the way,
despite the fact that she feels more and more drawn to him, Gray manages
to follow the trail to some ruins where he determines the photo of the
murder must have been taken ... and he and Mary find a corpse. Of
course, the corpse puts Ernest on the spot and makes him a murder suspect,
and it's only a matter of days before he is found, tried and convicted.
Sure he has a story about his involvement in the crime: He admits to
having been involved in the heist, but later felt remorse and wanted to
photograph his accomplices to hand them over to the police ... but then he
photographed the murder, somehow got hold of the heist's loot - nothing
but a priceless diamond -, hid it in the camera, and from then on he was
on the run, not so much from the police but from his accomplices. Now this
is a story noone believes, and the only thing that could corrobarate his
testimonial is the camera, that has gone weirdly missing. It seems the
affair is all over, when a policeman stops by Gray's place with a search
warrant ... and wouldn't you know it, he finds the camera in his apartment
- seems the thief must have dropped it. Only Gray soon finds out the
policeman is not a policeman at all but the baddie of the whole piece, and
he manages to overpower him ... and having him and the camera, it's an
easy thing to free Ernest - and of course get the girl in the end. A
very nice light-footed thriller that doesn't put as much emphasis on
exciting scenes and setpieces as it puts on moving the narrative along, a
film that's carried by a subtle directorial effort as well as the
performances of Henry Kendall as the unlikely hero and Ida Lupino. Totally
enjoyable!
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