It's not just Dirk Bogarde's central performance but the noir photography, the location shooting, the suspense plot and the ensemble cast that make this a great film. I love films where a group of disparate characters band together to run down a criminal or right a wrong. Here barrister Farr gets together with a Cockney ticket clerk to track down the blackmailers who drove his "friend" boy Barrett to suicide. One by one others turn out to be connected, and the web runs from an elderly barber to an aging matinée idol to a sleek car salesman to the head of a photographic agency (his mews flat is just a little too tasteful). All are victims of the blackmailers. Hanging around the periphery are another camp couple ("I wish we could go home to Cheltenham, PH.") who turn out to be running another scam altogether. Bogarde wanted to escape his own matinée idol box and deliberately flouted filmic rules he felt were stifling him. He insisted on keeping in takes where he cleared his throat mid-sppech, and talking with his back to the camera - naturalistic tropes that now seem clichés, but were unusual for the time. It does mean, though, that characters spend a lot of time unburdening their hearts while leaning on mantelpieces.
