Trent's Last Case (1952)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This is pure whodunit,in the grand tradition of Agatha Christie and there are similarities with the lady of crime's "murder on the links" ,but the solution is not as brilliant as hers ,because in this field,she has no equal.Anyway ,everyone who likes Christie will relish .A desirable mansion ,where a man took his own life (or was it murder?) and suspects including two secretaries,one of whom may be in love with the dead's wife and the other one may be jealous.But the main asset of the movie is the wealthy (suicidal?) businessman ,masterfully portrayed by Orson Welles whom we only see in flashbacks :the scene when we hear his formidable voice ,but only the back of his armchair gives the jitters. Michael Wilding has no gray cells,but he displays flair for clues ,as though he had be trained by Hercule Poirot.Entertaining whodunit.

I am sure my summary above confused you. Let me explain. Although "Trent's Last Case" is not a terrible film, I would have rather it have been bad because at least it would have been interesting (albeit in a bad way). Instead, the film just meanders....and none of it seemed very interesting.The film begins with the death of some dude. Everyone is a Brit...so why does it later turn out the dead man is an American (Orson Welles). Well, that isn't important...but it did perplex me. Anyway, everyone thinks it's a suicide and the inquest rules it as such. But a dogged detective (Michael Wilding) has reason to believe it was a murder. After he finds the murderer (about halfway through the film), the movie backtracks to explaining why it occurred...though I was bored by this and especially by Welles' overblown performance (subtle it wasn't).Overall, competently made but really, really uninteresting.

It's good news for Welles completists that this, the better of the two films he made for Herbert Wilcox in 1952 (to help finance his on-off-on but finally magnificent film of 'Othello') is now available on DVD, though dismally free of extras. As a thriller it is a puzzle almost devoid of suspense, though there are some clever twists at the end. There are polished performances by Margaret Lockwood, John McCallum, Michael Wilding as the classy sleuth Trent, Miles Malleson in one of his best roles and Welles. Welles appears for no more than 20 minutes, in flashback, but, with his formidable false nose, is an intimidating presence as the late Sigsbee Manderson. In a fraught dialogue with McCallum he talks about 'Othello' and the production he's recently seen: "Didn't like the leading actor!" The leading actor was Welles himself, performing at the St James' theatre - a performance I was privileged have seen a year or two earlier, when Ken Tynan, long before PC was thought of, headed his review 'Citizen Coon'!

A very dull movie on a novel which was famous because it tried to be the reversal of the usual mystery novels. A long work by the amateur detective which results in an impregnable indictment of the murder, until in the end someone confesses having witnessed what was an accident. The picture is too talky. Even its denouement is talked. No suspense at all. By 1952 Herbert Wilcox had proved not to be the notable director they claimed he was in the thirties. Good performances by Michael Wilding and Orson Welles. Indifferent by an aging Margaret Lockwood.