Calling Paul Temple (1948) User Reviews

Second of four Paul Temple flicks and it's better than the first

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 30 October 2015]

CALLING PAUL TEMPLE is the second of four feature films starring radio detective Paul Temple, who along with his sidekick Steve (a woman) investigates various murders and crimes at the behest of Scotland Yard. This follows on from the sub-standard debut feature SEND FOR PAUL TEMPLE and was followed by the rarely-seen PAUL TEMPLE'S TRIUMPH.

The story is a straightforward one of murder and intrigue as Temple and Steve find themselves hot on the trail of a murderer by the name of Rex. Rex specialises in bumping people off at random, often when they're just about to reveal his identity; shades of THE 39 STEPS with the Mr. Memory assassination. Still, this is a well-paced and enjoyable little affair, with plenty of red herrings and suspense to recommend it.

It's not a perfect film by any means. Just after the arresting opening, things slow down for an endless nightclub song routine which seems to go on for about twenty minutes. Afterwards the plotting is a little crammed due to this endless filler material. Still, John Bentley and Dinah Sheridan have plenty of chemistry as the crime-fighting duo, and fans will find this reasonably entertaining.

Second film in the Paul Temple series is more confusing and not up to the first film

[dbborroughs · 6/10 · 28 December 2009]

Second film in the brief Paul Temple Film series has Temple and his new wife living in flat in London. The pair gets mixed up in a series of blackmail murders that are being committed by fiend that signs himself Rex.

Not quite up to the first film, the plot is even more confused and confusing, though it moves along at a good clip with a couple of nice action set pieces sprinkled through out which helps to get through its over length. I liked the film but at the same time thought it wasn't up to the first one. I kind of understand why the films in the series were few in number. Mystery fans may want to take a look.

6 out of 10

Quaint but very dated whodunnit B film

[geoffm60295 · 5/10 · 6 November 2020]

With the British public still experiencing severe rationing in 1948 and bomb sites scarring the landscape of many of our cities, people needed the cinema as a much needed form of escapism and in this respect 'Calling Paul Temple' - inspired by the 'Paul Temple' long running BBC radio programmes, delivers just that! Our eponymous handsome, suave and debonair hero, played by John Bentley, is plunged into investigating a catalogue of mysterious murders, and by generously helping Scotland Yard, who appear clueless, our well dressed sleuth takes on the challenge to track down the killer, accompanied by his wife and 'sidekick,' the elegant and delightful Dinah Sheridan, who always seems to be dressed up for a special social event. Both our cheery husband and wife, only seem to patronise the best restaurants as well as expensive night clubs, all the time smiling relentlessly and exchanging endearments. Of course, it's a million miles away from the real world of Scotland Yard detectives, investigating sordid crimes in dingy and mean streets of London. But the film makes no pretence at social realism as it's something which the audience were being confronted with on a daily basis. The storyline is strictly light hearted, and the tempo is bright and breezy. I was interested to see Dennis Wheatley featured in the film as his 'stock in trade' was playing the dastardly smarmy villain. On the whole it's worth watching just to see how much social etiquette has changed as well as the centre of London.

"I'd know that handbag. Like a sausage it was"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 8 October 2020]

Paul and Steve Temple solve the mystery of 'Rex' who is a blackmailer and a murderer. This second Temple film improves on the first one ('Send For Paul Temple' in 1946) by the casting of John Bentley as Paul and Dinah Sheridan as Steve. They have a believable relationship with sparky dialogue. The identity of 'Rex' comes out of nowhere really. That is explained better in the longer original radio series. Having two musical numbers in the first fifteen minutes doesn't help the clarity of the narrative either.

It does have decent actors like Abraham Sofaer, Hugh Pryse, Alan Wheatley and Margaretta Scott to keep one's interest and pleasant pictures of beautiful Canterbury. Not a classic but easy to watch if you like this kind of thing.

Wish it were better

[robert-temple-1 · 6/10 · 20 November 2010]

This is a moderately entertaining, if rather insipid, film based on the BBC radio series written by Francis Durbridge, with Paul Temple, the writer of detective novels, acting as a detective himself. Here he is played by John Bentley, the first of his three films as Paul Temple. He is a very personable and adequate actor for the role. His wife 'Steve Temple' is played in lively fashion by Dinah Sheridan. She looks so eerily like the contemporary British actress Rosamund Pike that I kept imagining I was watching Pike in the role. A true mystery would run something like this: could they possibly be related? Both were born in London. Oh well, probably not, but it is just uncanny, that's all: a case for Paul Temple. And as all writers named Temple know, solving mysteries can be a lot of fun. The credited continuity girl for this film was June Faithful, although it does not appear in her list of credits on IMDb. I knew her much later in her career, and have absolutely no idea whether she is alive or not, for that is not recorded on IMDb either. This was probably her first continuity job. The cinematographer for the film was Geoffrey Faithful (and in his case, it does appear on his lengthy list of credits on IMDb; he died 1979, aged 86), who shot VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960), MURDER SHE SAID (1961), and countless other films between 1913 and 1971, when he retired. He was probably June's father, and may have got her into the job on this first picture. This film is notable for containing much excellent location cinematography of the town of Canterbury as it was in 1947, with streets nearly empty of traffic, and before the town was largely ruined by tourism, chain stores, and rampant commerce. Much of the action is set there. A lot of the cinematography is atmospheric, commencing with the opening sequence inside the corridor of a moving train at night. If only the story and the direction had been better, this film could be something of a classic, but alas, it is not. A series of murders of women are taking place, and various sinister characters are 'set up' for us as either the real culprit or as red herrings, one of them played by the remarkable Burmese-Jewish actor Abraham Sofaer, who never failed in many a film to deliver an impeccably chilling rendition of a potential villain, aided by his weird looks. Another possible villain of the piece is ominously played by Hugh Pryse, who does a really good job of it indeed. Pryse died at the age of only 44 in 1955, only seven years after this film. He should have gone on to enjoy a distinguished career as an older character actor, for which he was eminently suited. Who is really killing all these women? They all turn out to be patients of Abraham Sofaer. Well, you can imagine the rest, but I shall not tell whodunit because that would be telling whodunit.

Brisk British thriller,

[langmike29 · 7/10 · 28 December 2017]

First of four B films adapted from very popular radio programmes of the 40s and 50s Highly enjoyable for fans of old fashioned mysteries. Nice location work in Canterbury though matte shots from cars involving rolling scenery date it. Leads both good including Sheridan who would move onto A films including the wonderful "Genervive"

British postwar mystery

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 11 January 2024]

I'm giving this a 6 because I like British mysteries. I was not familiar with the actors, except perhaps Dinah Sheridan. I was interested to read that the lead actors all lived into their nineties. Wow.

This film apparently is part of a series of B movies based on a radio show. Paul Temple is a dlfictiin writer of detective stories who is attempting to learn the identity of "Rex," a person who has killed several women.

In this film nearly everyone is a suspect. The most interesting thing about the film is the trip to Canterbury, which was fascinating. I'm not sure the cast was really there, but the footage was great.

In the end, not knowing any of the actors, I had a tough time telling the men apart. Therefore after sitting through this I don't know who Rex was. Good luck.

They Should've Called For Phillip Morris, Or Perhaps William Morris

[boblipton · 5/10 · 28 November 2019]

Paul and Steve Temple are back, even if this time they're John Bentley and Dinah Sheridan. They're helping Scotland Yard track down a blackmailer who signs his murders "Rex". This puzzles the Yard, since dead women rarely pay ransom.

I agree with their reasoning. The trail leads to Abraham Sofaer, who's a psychiatrist and hypnotist, his suspicious-seeming secretary Margaretta Scott, who comes to Bentley for help, then seems to almost get him and Miss Sheridan blown up. Then there's..... oh, everyone, to the extent that I was growing suspicious of Shaym Bahadur, who plays their valet, Rikki. He didn't look like that in the last movie!

The mystery aspect of this one is not as good as the last one. The red herrings get piled on in such confusion that when the bad guy was revealed, it seemed a random choice. Canterbury seems to be about three minutes by car from Scotland Yard. In addition, the movie-serial nature of this movie stuck out, including a couple of cornball cliffhangers that went out of style in the 1930s, and the sort of canned music that Universal kept in stock to be plugged in just before the the car went over the cliff and the gong sounded.

Sigh. Well, it's Maclean Rogers directing; I'm sure that if you gave him a good budget, a good script and some real talent, he could direct a heck of a good movie. I don't think anyone ever did. This was Nettlefold Studios with Butcher's Film Service distributing, so money was tight; besides, the character was established on the radio and in the first movie, so it was likely a matter of they didn't need it good, they needed it Tuesday. At least there's some nice second-unit shot of Canterbury and some pleasant night-time shooting by Geoffrey Faithfull.

Calling Paul Temple

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 5 January 2023]

Like many films based on radio plays; the writing tends to forget we also have images to process too and so they run a bit to language. This gentle detective murder-mystery falls into that trap and the wordy dialogue robs the thing of pace somewhat. That said, John Bentley and Dinah Sheridan deliver engaging, cheery performances as they are brought in by Scotland Yard to assist in the search for "Rex" - a mysterious blackmailer/murderer who is preying on women. Features some eerily lit scenes in Canterbury which add significantly to the tenseness of the drama with some hypnotism and fisticuffs at the end.

A Canterbury Tale

[richardchatten · 4/10 · 6 November 2020]

The second Paul Temple film and John Bentley's first in the role begins with an atmospheric scene on a train possibly inspired by 'A Study in Scarlet' and towards the end has elements that had been employed in the 'Dr Mabuse' films.

Between whiles we get shootings, an explosion, and a closeup of a corpse with open eyes fifteen years before Herschel Gordon Lewis claimed to have pioneered it. Yet it remains for the most part talky, overlong and dull; and only carried a 'A' certificate when first released.

The film's biggest extravagances appear to have been the ladies' wardrobes and sending the leads on a day trip to Canterbury (during which passers by can be seen looking at the camera).

The two stars excel in entertaining thriller

[wilvram · 9/10 · 30 March 2012]

Once again, the assistance of crime novelist Paul Temple, recently married to 'Steve' Trent is required by Scotland Yard. They're baffled by a particularly repulsive character signing himself 'Rex' who blackmails women then murders them.

This scores over the other two films in the series I've seen, SEND FOR PAUL TEMPLE and PAUL TEMPLE RETURNS, not least for the enjoyable performances of John Bentley and Dinah Sheridan who were ideal as Paul and Steve; there's a real chemistry and sense of fun and romance between them. Bentley was very much at home in this kind of role, evoking that air of cheerful authority that Roger Moore was later able to bring to his portrayal of The Saint and interpretation of James Bond. Exquisitely beautiful Dinah Sheridan lights up the screen in a sparkling performance with her diverting, amusing repartee with Paul and benefits from a script that gives Steve an equal role in tracking down the killer, discovering several vital clues. By comparison, in the BBC TV Paul Temple series, made at the turn of the 1970s, Steve had little to do, with the producers considering writing her out altogether at one point. It all gets off to a flying start with Celia Lipton - whatever happened to her? - as the nightclub vocalist, de rigueur in this kind of British B, falling dramatically down the stairs in the middle of her second number, Steve Race's "What's Cooking in Cabaret?". I've seen acts die before, but not like this. From then on there's red herrings galore as suspicion falls on most of the characters in turn, played by some admirable actors including Abraham Sofaer as a therapist, his mysterious secretary Mrs. Trevelyan (Margaretta Scott) and salesman Hugh Pryse, who could almost be a younger, Welsh, relation of Alastair Sim. Good old Wally Patch is Temple's underworld grass Spider Williams; he also supported Bentley in the two films featuring John Creasey's hero The Toff, both also directed by Maclean Rogers and now apparently lost. There's time for some fascinating glimpses of Canterbury as it was then, and for Paul and Steve to be tied up in a cellar with the water rising remorselessly. Then the time-honoured denouement with all the suspects gathered together in one room and finally an almighty punch-up between Temple and the villain, to a reprise of the melodramatic title music. Great escapist fun 1940s style.

Cheerful hokum.

[johnshephard-83682 · 5/10 · 10 February 2020]

Sort-of likeable ragbag of every thriller cliché imaginable about a serial killer, in which amateur sleuth Paul Temple is called in by the professional cops to more or less tell them how to do their job. It has all the usual ingredients of the type: coincidences, red herrings, witnesses who are bumped off precisely at the moment when they are saying 'the killer is ...' (you can get away with this once, perhaps, but three times??), a villain who is obvious from the start, a laughable hypnosis scene (only the hypnotist can bring the victim out of the trance, except that Temple can do it as well, by using the magic of speech!), and a final, Poirot-style gathering of every suspect still alive in a room, and a fist fight. Temple and his wife Stevie cheerfully brush off the killer's attempts to shoot them, blow them up, and drown them like it's just another day of routine events in the Temple diary. Luckily, they have a vaguely racial stereotype of a servant, complete with funny foreign accent, to assist them.

A couple of plus points - some nice shots of 1940s Canterbury, and a night club song called Lady on the Loose, with a lyric that might have come from an Amy Winehouse song, such as 'I want a man who's true to me to the end of the night,' and 'Ladies, shut your windows, lock your doors, the man I'm after might be yours' I can't trace the song, partly written by Steve Race.

Pedestrian Thriller Abounds In Clichés and Red Herrings

[malcolmgsw · 4/10 · 23 July 2011]

This adaptation of a BBC radio series soon betrays its origins.There are a number of mini climaxes,which would normally be where the programme would stop awaiting the unfolding of the latest quirk in the story the following week.However here we have the laboured device of a number of characters about to divulge the name of the murderer Rex when all of a sudden they are shot or poisoned.The problem is also that so many characters are murdered that it all becomes rather commonplace and clichéd.The film is not helped by the fact that there is a nightclub scene shortly after the beginning which seems to bring the whole plot grinding to a halt till Celia Lipton has trilled a couple of songs and expired.By the way the murderer is not too difficult to guess if you know what British actors tended to play villains.This film was clearly intended to play as a first feature but i have to say that the majority of British B crime films are far more entertaining than this woeful effort.

Too Predictable!!!

[mrblckxx · 1/10 · 20 April 2024]

Not even good as a B movie serial....the movie drags on for way too long with predictable scenes. Some serials do not translate well into movies. Too many stereotypes!!! Each scene was so unrealistically self serving as to set up implausible scenarios to reach it's very predictable non climatic conclusion. The only mystery about this movie was just how bad the writing, acting, and directing was presented. You could never tell whether you were watching a comedy or a mystery. I try to watch these movies with an open mind and a positive attitude but I am finding it more difficult to find good things to say about them.

Mysterious murders baffling everyone but the murderer and Paul Temple

[clanciai · 8/10 · 13 October 2023]

The Paul Temple thrillers were always tricky, as if the writer concentrated all his efforts and going at any lengths in obfuscating the plot behind the plots, strewing red herrings all around and scattering strange murders all over the place. To make the stew more sizzling there is a hypnotic trance session as well and a very atmospheric sightseeing of Canterbury at night along the murky waterways to hidden entrances to old medieval monasteries - only ghosts are missing in this virtuoso display of intrigues, all about death, while some clarity is missing. You never get a clear statement of the motives behind the murders, there is blackmail indeed and a lot of clues, especially by the victims just before they are shot, leaving messages unfinished, with only the murderer's name missing. You have to be a fan of Francis Durbridge to like and enjoy this kind of thing, but whoever gets to know him, will be a fan of his. His thrillers are always intelligent and sophisticated, there is a fresh touch of elegance and high class wit in everything he wrote, and his intelligence is far more refined than any of the others - in some ways, he is second only to Sherlock Holmes. Some will be confused by the jam of intrigues here, but it would be satisfaction enough if you just could enjoy the atmosphere.