By Lee Pfeiffer
Post-WWII Britain saw an abundance of artistically impressive B&W white movies shot on low budgets by underrated filmmakers. Unfortunately, The Accursed! is not among them. The 1957 drama is mostly confined to a country manor house owned by Colonel Charles Price (Donald Wolfit), a former leader of a spy ring that operated on behalf of the Allies inside occupied France. Every year Price and his former team members (most of whom were Germans fighting against the Reich) meet at his house to toast the memory of one of their prominent colleagues who was killed by a double agent. An emissary from Germany is to arrive to inform Price of the identity of the traitor but when he arrives at the mansion, he is already mortally wounded and cannot divulge the person's name. The scenario then follows the standard format for every rip-off of Agatha Christie stories: every member of the group of former spies begins to suspect each other, as they all have something shady about their actions or backgrounds. Into the mix comes two American army intelligence officers- Major Shane (Robert Bray) and Lt. Grant (John Van Eyssen)- who ostensibly are there because they have been stranded due to car problems. Neither Price nor his colleagues are buying that excuse and Major Shane admits he is trying to track down the emissary who was to arrive at the mansion. (For various reasons, Price has kept the man's murder a secret and has hidden the body on the premises.) The pedantically-paced mystery muddles along as the group retires for the night- and in the glorious tradition of this cliched scenario, another murder is committed. One of most annoying aspects of this film is the obnoxious behavior of the film's nominal hero, Major Shane. He's loud, boorish and cynical- and played with a considerable amount of ham by Robert Bray. While some of the other cast members are also encouraged to overact by director Michael McCarthy, a few remain with their dignity intact: Wolfit, Jane Griffiths and a young Christopher Lee, playing against type as a milquetoast. The 78 minute running time doesn't prevent the film becoming a bore and the big revelation of the actual murderer is neither shocking or particularly interesting, thanks to a drab screenplay.
The Warner Archive has released the film on DVD but its primary value would be for ardent collectors of Christopher Lee's work.
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