Donald Edwards (Michael Gough) thinks that his wife, Helene (Erika Remberg) is having an affair with Robert Vaughn (John Justin). The two of them haven’t been getting along. Helene is a popular star and has decided to take an acting job in America. This way she can have some time away from her husband to sort things out. Edwards is a domineering and controlling man whose jealousy drives him to hire a hitman to kill his wife.
Edwards hires a German, Kersten (Hans von Borsody), to kill Helene. He picks the hitman up at the airport and brings him to a house in the country that he has rented. Edwards tells him that Helene is going out of the country the next morning, so he needs to take care of killing her tonight.
Helene is giving a sort of going away party at their home. Robert is invited as well as other friends. Edwards calls his wife and tells her that he won’t be able to make the party. He then positions himself at a downtown bar to give himself an alibi for the evening. Kersten shows up at the party to scope things out. Helene sees the uninvited stranger at her party and asks Robert if he knows who the man is. He doesn’t. Helene’s spidey sense kicks up and she tells Robert that she thinks the stranger is there to cause problems. Robert doesn’t believe it but tries to keep an open mind regarding her concerns. At the end of the night everyone leaves, including the stranger.
Shortly after that Kersten returns to the house and kidnaps Helene at gun point. When Edwards finally returns home, he finds the remnants of a struggle but no dead body. The next day, when he meets with Kersten, he demands proof of death before he will pay the hitman. Kersten, now suspicious of his creepy boss, tells him that he will return in three hours with Helene’s body. Kersten is no dummy and believes that as soon as he sees that Helene is dead, he will kill the hitman thereby removing the only witness.
Things fall apart from there.
“Candidate for Murder” was released in 1962 and was directed by David Villiers. It is a British “B” crime thriller and was based on a story by Edgar Wallace.
British filmmakers produced about 48 “B” movie films based on the works of Edgar Wallace. These were done about the same time that Germany was producing their version of Wallace’s works. The German films were referred to as krimis or Kriminalroman AKA crime films. The British films were made between 1960 and 1965.
The movies were later sold to America for distribution to television. The films were cut to 45 minutes to allow for commercials and distributed as part of a series called “The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre”.
The movie is short and sweet. The plot is basic, put there are enough twists and turns that it presents a rather decent ending. The movie may have started out average, but it ended up being quite enjoyable for its barely an hour run time.
Michael Gough and Anneke Wills, who plays Helene’s assistant, Jacqueline, met while filming the movie. They married in 1965 and were divorced in 1979.