The happy marriage of Liz and Peter Rossiter is shattered after Liz is paralysed in an accident. Peter soon finds solace with Honor, his sister-in-law, but when she tells him she is expecting his child he is racked with guilt and turns to drink. When Honor is found murdered with Peter's gun next to her, the police arrest him. Unable to remember his movements he must discover the secret behind "The Rossiter Case".
Reviews
THE ROSSITER CASE is a very low budget and slow paced mystery yarn from Hammer Films, made on a particularly tiny budget. The main characters are a disabled woman and her husband, who is carrying on a secret affair with her own sister. You get an hour of slow-witted melodrama and inaction followed by some brief murder elements, but it's all very trite and hackneyed and not a patch on the other thrillers that Hammer would put out both during the 1950s and 1960s. It says something that the only fun here is from witnessing a pre-stardom Stanley Baker in a cameo during the opening pub scene.
Maybe the music director decided that the dreadfully slow drama needed beefing up.So he thought it could do with a touch of the Max Steiners.So every dramatic moment is overlaid by screeching violins which at times render the dialogue inaudible. This film only warms up in the last 15 minutes.This despite the fact that the writers and director were very experienced in making this sort of film.
Well-made if somewhat slow-paced British melodrama involving an aristocrat cheating on his paralyzed wife with her sister. Sheila Burrell's portrayal of the husband-stealing sister is powerfully disturbing even negatively impacting her physical appearance as her character unfolds throughout the movie. The condoning of the overt affair by family and friends is remarkably insensitive to its impact on the paralyzed woman, Liz Rossiter. Helen Shingler's Liz Rossiter is selfless without becoming pitiful. This is a good movie that requires patience due to the snails-pacing.
Not bad for this little flick from UK and directed by the prolific Francis Searle, as were Godfrey Grayson, Monty Tully, Vernon Sewell and many other filmmakers who worked for small companies: Butchers, Danzigers etc...Pleasant, entertaining tale of a paralysed young woman after a car accident who have to face her husband and his new mistress. Predictable, as you may guess, especially between the two women. But it remains an acceptable time waster, and really well acted. The seventy five minutes are quick for the viewer in front of his TV set.I can't although tell it's a film noir, as I am used to. But at least a fairly good drama.