Change Partners (1965) User Reviews

Murder Is A Woman's Job

[boblipton · 6/10 · 29 September 2019]

Anthony Dawson is having an an affair with his business partner's wife, Betty Gallen. So partner Basil Henson begins an affair with Dawson's wife, Zena Walker. When they meet, however, they are observed by Kenneth Cope and his girlfriend, who are wondering how they can make money off this. When Cope and Miss Walker murder their spouses in a way that convinces everyone it's a lover's suicide pact, they move in.

It's one of the Edgar Wallace mysteries produced in the 1960s. At slightly less than an hour in length, it's suitable as a second feature in a theater, or very slight trimming for packaging on television. None of the talent was famous, but they were very competent.

When Edgar Wallace wants to be nasty, he knows how to write the characters to do it. I enjoyed the hints of voyeurism, with Joe Trent and his girlfriend watching Zena Walker and Basil Henson; the calm way that Miss Walker goes about things so calmly, while Henson dithers. When the blackmailing begins, you begin to wonder what, if anything, we are supposed to believe about events not seen.

Usually I like to sympathize with someone in a movie, to invest myself in a good outcome; if it doesn't happen, it's a tragedy and if it does, it's all good. In a movie like this, however, where they're all thoroughly rotten, I find myself thinking that it would be for the best were they all wiped out.... and try to figure out how that's going to happen.

Slaughter in Esher

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 17 August 2018]

Zena Walker plays a homicidal wife who wants shot of her husband so she can enjoy life with his partner.Unfortunately their plans are discovered by blackmailed Keneth Cope.So apart from killing their redundant spouses she ask plots the demise of the blackmailed and his girlfriend.However as usual the best laid plans are thwarted.Entertaining if hardly original.

A TV noir.

[Mbakkel2 · 8/10 · 30 July 2021]

"Change Partners" (1965, United Kingdom). Directed by Robert Lynn. Starring: Zena Walker, Kenneth Cope and Basil Henson.

I've seen several films in the 1960's series "The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theater" recently. It's a mixed bag, but I really liked "Change Partners". Although the story mostly takes place in daylight, far from the hustle and bustle of the big city, it's still a close relative of film noir classics such as "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice". For fans of noirs, "Change Partners" is recommendable!

It features two strong women (one of whom is a femme fatale) and a weak male protagonist. Lust, infidelity, money and murders. This is what I associate with a good crime film. Note that I have not written violence, shootings, car chases or life-weary policemen with the same facial expression throughout the film.

If "Change Partners" had been made in the United States during the classic noir era of the 1940s, I could have imagined Bruce Bennett and Gene Tierney as the unfaithful couple and Dan Duryea and Audrey Totter as the blackmailer couple.

SPOILER ALERT: Anna Arkwright and Cedric Gallen meet at the same place every Tuesday and Friday. They are noticed by Joe Trent, who lives with his girlfriend Jean in a caravan nearby. Joe writes down the registration numbers of the cars and finds out that they are registered to Ben Arkwright (Anna's husband) and Cedric Gallen respectively. They are partners in a large company. That means money!

Cedric tells Anna that his wife Betty will never agree to divorce and that Ben Arkwright has the financial control of the company and will use it, if Cedric takes his wife away from him.

One day, Joe Trent discovers that Cedric Gallen is fixing the ignition on Ben Arkwright's car. Ben is drunk, and Cedric asks Betty to drive him to their villa. When the car has driven into the garage, the door closes behind them. It's impossible to get it up. It is also impossible to switch off the car engine. They die of carbon monoxide poisoning. Cedric has put an undated and unaddressed love letter, which Ben had written to Anna, in Betty's drawer. He wants to make it look like Betty and Ben had an extramarital affair, and that they died in a suicide pact.

Routine

[gnok2002 · 4/10 · 23 May 2017]

I'm inserting reviews for films I've seen that currently lack one, this is the 2nd such review I've added today for a routine entry in the E.Wallace series that I viewed in 2009, my note at the time was...''E.Wallace? Thriller a con man and his girlfriend are staking out a couple who get involved in adultery & murder, it passes an hour.''

Pretty standard formula.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 4 November 2023]

This film is worth one viewing to experience and move on, one of the lesser entries in the Anglo Amalgamated series of supposed Edgar Wallace adaptions that only gives the slightest bit of character development and even that isn't enough to give a new take on a plot that's been done a thousand times and much better. Once again, it's the old story of the businessman (Basil Henson) having an affair with his partner's wife (Zena Walker) and convinced by her to commit murder.

Of course, things go horribly wrong after it seems that everything's going right, and as we know, crime never pays and the innocent have to pay before the criminals do. A predictable low budget thriller, not remarkably written, directed or acted, but having some nice location footage, one such scene leading to a fiery car flying over a cliff. Walker's a great femme fatale, but she's not exactly the kind worth risking everything being tossed out just because of passion. Harmless at just over an hour, but you won't loose sleep if you completely skip over it.