Director: GERALD THOMAS. Screenplay: Francis Durbridge, based on his TV serial, "The Brass Candlestick". Photography: Otto Heller. Film editor: Peter Boita. Music composed and conducted by Stanley Black. Art director: Jack Stevens. Wardrobe supervisor: Vi Murray. Make-up: Jill Carpenter. Hair styles: Marjorie Whittle. Production manager: Basil Keys. Assistant director: William Hill. Sound editor: Richard Marden. Sound recording: Len Page. Producer: Peter Rogers.A Beaconsfield Production for Romulus. Released in the U.S.A. through Kassler Films. New York opening at the Art Theatre: 15 April 1959. U.K. release through Independent Film Distributors/British Lion: 22 September 1957. Australian release through 20th Century- Fox: 25 September 1958. 7,560 feet. 84 minutes. (Available on an excellent ITV DVD). U.S. release title: the Circle.SYNOPSIS: A German actress is found dead in a doctor's apartment. Circumstantial evidence points to the doc's guilt.COMMENT: A complicated thriller that is none too thrillingly directed, and none too thrillingly written either — thanks to poor characterization, flat dialogue and a somewhat absurd plot.Nonetheless, the movie is of more than passing interest for the mystery movie connoisseur. Thanks to his radio and TV excursions, Durbridge was enormously popular in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. He created Paul Temple, who not only starred in novels but on the radio and (to a much lesser degree) on the big screen in three Butcher quota quickies in which he was played by John Bentley.

I like the phrase "British post war suburban paranoia" that one of the reviewers used. It describes so well the kind of films John Mills excelled in ("The October Man" (1947), "The Long Memory" (1952)) in between "big" pictures ("Scott of the Antartic" (1948) and "War and Peace" (1956)).This distinctly "Eric Ambler" style plot had John Mills playing Dr. Howard Latimer, who promises his friend, Charles, (unseen) to meet a visiting German actress, Frieda Veldon (Lisa Daniely) at the airport. A creepy "reporter" Jeffrey Windsor (Lionel Jeffries) is in his consulting rooms at the time and offers to give him a lift but while he is tracking the actress down Windsor informs him she is already in the car waiting!!! (something fishy is going on!!!). Howard is dropped off for his date and thinks no more about it.The next night he finds her body when he arrives home from work, further more, he finds his friend Charles could not have rung him as he is still in New York and Windsor doesn't seem to exist. Earlier on a patient, Mrs Ambler(Rene Ray) who has been referred to him by Doctor George Kimber (Mervyn Johns) tells of her recurring dream about finding a dead body and a brass candlestick with a square base. It is a nightmare that is coming true for Howard but of course when Detective Inspector Dane (Roland Culver) interviews her, she denies all knowledge of the conversation - the candlestick is later found in the boot of Howard's Daimler.When Howard is lying low, Robert Brady (Wilfred Hyde-White) visits him. He calls himself a "friend" - he has a photo of Windsor that he wants to trade for a box of matches Frieda gave Howard at the airport. Howard returns to the flat, Charles rings and while Howard is on the phone an unknown assailant knocks him out and steals the matches!!! Who can he trust - who hasn't something to hide!!!This is a top thriller - not quite in the same class as "The October Man", but with John Mills doing what he does best - playing ordinary men caught up in impossible mysteries!!!Highly Recommended.

This is no minor classic. But I wouldn't dismiss it quite as quickly as my fellow reviewers. It looks and feels rather like one of those British 'Quota quickies' churned out sausage-style by Butchers films in the 1950's and 60's. Which is not a bad thing. It's longer than those efforts, though, and has more 'names' - the star is John Mills.I enjoy the way that the piece depicts safe, sterile suburban middle class life turned upside down. Well, not quite 'turned upside down' exactly: there's a charming little scene where dear Johnnie takes his mind off the fact that he's a man on the run for murder by playing a few rounds of golf. The film has a most agreeable atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. Certainty and normality fray at the edges. Nobody can be trusted. Your smoothly amiable best friend of longstanding just might have it in for you. Your fiancée may not be what she seems.There are some very enjoyable performances. I particularly liked Wilfrid Hyde-White as a civilised but sinister late-night caller. In fact, pretty much everybody in this film does civilised and sinister rather well. Mills is his usual watchable self. The direction is largely uninspired but is nicely unobtrusive: events unfold with pace and sharp simplicity.If you want to catch a true lost masterpiece of suburban British post-war paranoia, look for Lance Comfort's "Pit of Darkness", with William Franklyn as another urbane professional who finds his routine existence up-ended. There's only one moment in 'The Vicious Circle' to match that film for my money. Don't ask me why, but the scene where Mills turns up at a 'social gathering' and finds only an empty apartment flooded with the sound of pre-recorded party chatter unnerves me every time. It seems that there's a tinge of genuine madness and disruption just lurking at the corners of the frame.

When Dr Latimer ( John Mills ) is asked by a friend ,to pick up a German actress, from London airport, and take her to her hotel, he agrees,later when he returns to his flat he finds the body of the murdered actress. This leads Mills into a world of blackmail, murder and a fake passport scam John Mills gives his usual solid performance, and other British stalwarts Derek Farr,Wilfred Hyde-White, Lionel Jeffries and Ronald Culver, make this film well worth watching.