Product Details

• Actors: John Ireland, Honor Blackman, Geoffrey Keen, Eric Pohlmann, Sid James
• Directors: Montgomery Tully
• Writers: A.E. Martin, Paul Tabori, Richard H. Landau
• Producers: Anthony Hinds
• Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Vci Video
• DVD Release Date: December 26, 2006
• Run Time: 130 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000JJSJDW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,340 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Hammer Film Noir Double Feature, Vol. 5 (The Glass Tomb / Paid to Kill)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

The Glass Tomb (1955) - A circus barker stages a sensational new act, the world's longest fast undertaken by "Sapolio", on view in a glass cage. But this act also results in several murders, a kidnapping, and a poisoning! Paid to Kill (1954) - A man’s business deal fails and to provide for his "adoring" wife, he hires his best friend to kill him so his wife can collect on his insurance. The business deal comes through at the last minute but he finds he can’t call off the murder. His treacherous double-crossing wife has different ideas! First time on video. Bonus Features: Scene Selection| Bios| Advertising Galleries| Photo Galleries| Trailers| "The Glass Tomb" Commentary by Richard Roberts. Specs: DVD9; Dolby Digital; 130 minutes; B&W; 1:66:1/ 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio; MPAA – NR; Year - 1955, 1954; SRP - $14.99.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential purchase for Hammer fans, March 24, 2007

By 

David Blake (Basingstoke, Hampshire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hammer Film Noir Double Feature, Vol. 5 (The Glass Tomb / Paid to Kill) (DVD)

This series of films noir feature B movies made at Bray Studio in the years before Hammer shifted into the horror genre.

These films are, frankly, British attempts to ape America - using an American star and a British cast. As such, they are now very interesting windows on the English post-War scene - shell-scarred London, suburban side streets, working people just about making a living.

You only get this sort of truth in B movies, because the film-makers couldn't afford to build sets - so they took their cameras onto the streets.

I've bought - and recommend - all these volumes. On this particular set, "The Glass Tomb" has a poorer picture quality than the other films in the series.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Hammer Film Noir ... The Glass Tomb & Paid To Kill (1955) ... VCI Home Video", November 26, 2006

By 

J. Lovins "Mr. Jim" (Missouri-USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hammer Film Noir Double Feature, Vol. 5 (The Glass Tomb / Paid to Kill) (DVD)

VCI Entertainment and Kit Parker Films present "Hammer Film Noir Vol. 5" (1955) --- (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Film noir has sources not only in cinema but other artistic mediums as well...the low-key lighting schemes commonly linked with the classic mode are in the tradition of chiaroscuro and tenebrism, techniques using high contrasts of light and dark developed by 15th- and 16th-century painters associated with Mannerism and the Baroque...film noir's aesthetics are deeply influenced by German Expressionism, a cinematic movement of the 1910s and 1920s closely related to contemporaneous developments in theater, photography, painting, scultpture, and architecture...opportunities offered by the booming Hollywood film industry and, later, the threat of growing Nazi power led to the emigration of many important film artists working in Germany who had either been directly involved in the Expressionist movement or studied with its practitioners...Directors such as Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak, and Michael Curtiz brought dramatic lighting techniques and a psychologically expressive approach to mise-en-scène with them to Hollywood, where they would make some of the most famous of classic noirs. Lang's 1931 masterwork, the German M, is among the first major crime films of the sound era to join a characteristically noirish visual style with a noir-type plot, one in which the protagonist is a criminal (as are his most successful pursuers). M was also the occasion for the first star performance by Peter Lorre, who would go on to act in several formative American noirs of the classic era.

First up we have "THE GLASS TOMB" (aka: Glass Cage) (1955) (59 min. B/W) --- Under Montgomery Tully (Director), Anthony Hinds (Producer), Richard Landau (Screenwriter), A.E. Martin (Book Author "The Outsiders"), Walter Harvey (Cinematographer), Leonard Salzedo (Composer (Music Score) ------ the cast includes John Ireland (Pel Pelham), Honor Blackman (Jenny Pelham), Geoffrey Keen (Harry Stanton), Eric Pohlmann (Sapolio), Sid James (Tony Lewis (as Sidney James), Liam Redmond (Lindley), Sydney Tafler (Rorke (as Sidney Tafler), Valerie Vernon (Bella), Nora Gordon (Marie Sapolio), Sam Kydd (George), Ferdy Mayne (Bertie), Tonia Bern (Rena Maroni), Arthur Howard (Rutland ), Stan Little (Mickelwitz) ------ our story has "The Starving Man:" with the longest fast undertaken by Sapolio who will go food less for 70 days ... can he do it, or will he be found dead inside his glass cage ... several murders as the police investigate and our hero John Ireland side steps a poisoning and kidnapping ... the lovely Honor Blackman appears in the midst of drama and intrigue within the carnival world ... discover whose behind all of this and why.

BIOS:
1. John Ireland
Date of birth: 30 January 1914 - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Date of death: 21 March 1992 - Santa Barbara, California
2. Honor Blackman
Date of birth: 12 December 1927 - London, England, UK
Date of death: Still Living
3. Montgomery Tully (Director)
Date of birth: 6 May 1904 - Dublin, Ireland
Date of death: 1988 - Unknown

Second on the double bill is "PAID TO KILL" (aka: Five Days) (1954) (71 min. B/W) --- Under Montgomery Tully (Director), Anthony Hinds (Producer), Paul Tabori (Screenwriter), Jimmy W. Harvey (Cinematographer), Ivor Slaney (Composer (Music Score), James Needs (Editor), J. Elder Wills (Art Director) ------ the cast includes Dane Clark (James Nevill), Paul Carpenter (Paul Kirby), Thea Gregory (Andrea Nevill), Cecile Chevreau (Joan), Anthony Forwood (Glanville), Howard Marion-Crawford (McGowan), Avis Scott (Eileen), Peter Gawthorne (Bowman), Leslie Wright (Hunter), Hugo Schuster (Professor), Arthur Young Hyson), Martin Lawrence (Masseur), Ross Hutchinson (Ingham), Arnold Diamond (Perkins), Charles Hawtrey (Bill), Geoffrey Sumner (Chapter) ------ our story is a thriller to end all thrillers, when Dane Clark hires his best friend to kill him for the insurance money ... why you ask, so his wife can be provided for as his business has gone down the tubes ... is the wife on the up and up, or is she behind an alternative plot to kill her husband ... another first timer on DVD, has the entire Hammer Studio lot jumping for joy as this is one is the best released from this UK organization ... and oh by the way, Dane Clark has changed his mind and no longer wants to die, but can he stop whoever is trying to end his life ... you're in for the surprise ending that you've been waiting for ------ there's a great deal of entertainment here for all the film noir fans out there --- all courtesy of VCI Entertainment, who in my humble opinion is the best there is in restoring early serials and features like this one.

BIOS:
1. Dane Clark (aka: Bernard Zanville)
Date of birth: 26 February 1912 - Brooklyn, New York
Date of death: 11 September 1998 - Santa Monica, California

Great job by VCI Entertainment and Kit Parker Films for releasing the "Hammer Film Noir Vol. 5" (1955), digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more of the same from the '40s and '50s vintage...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment, stay tuned once again with a top notch "Classic Film Noir" that only VCI Entertainment (King of the Serials) can deliver --- Film Noir, the underdog down and out characters have always been my heroes!

Total Time: 130 mins on DVD ~ VCI Home Video #566 ~ (11/28/2006)

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Predictable stuff; perhaps worth getting if the price is low enough, May 22, 2007

By 

C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hammer Film Noir Double Feature, Vol. 5 (The Glass Tomb / Paid to Kill) (DVD)

The Glass Tomb:
"I want more chocolate!" says the sticky-faced tyke. "A clout is what you'll get!" says his frazzled mum. "Now turn around and watch the man starve like a good boy." The man is the great Sapolio, who is locked in a glass crypt determined to go 70 days without food. Pel Pelham (John Ireland) is selling tickets to this carny sideshow. He figures the pickings will be rich for 70 days as people pay to see whether Sapolio can hold out, give it up or die trying. However, there is one person who is going to opt for the last option. This man killed a young woman and he believes Sapolio may have glimpsed his face. Sapolio tells Pel and the police he cannot remember, but Pel knows Sapolio is a man who will never let things drop. Sooner or later Sapolio, locked in the glass cage with dozens of people staring at him, will finger the murderer. Sapolio may have considerably fewer than 70 days ahead of him. Except for John Ireland, a handful of interesting British actors, and an amusing but unlikely setup, this is all there is. There's no mystery; we know the killer. And because the writing and directing are so matter-of-fact, there's little energy and even less suspense.

Ireland made this British movie in 1955. It takes only 59 minutes to tell the tale but it often seems longer, especially when we're dealing with Ireland's precocious little boy and his loving but tremulous wife, played by Honor Blackman. Bits of the movie are just fine. Pel Pelham is an outsider, an unsuccessful promoter with something of a chip on his shoulder. He goes to wealthy bookmaker and old friend, Tony Lewis (Sid James) for some money to finance the Sapolio show. Tony writes him a check right then, but asks Pel to drop the "freaks" and come back and join him in the business. Pel takes the check and says, "I like being my own boss, Tony, and I like freaks." Ireland says that line with style. There's a party in Sapolio's apartment to celebrate the stunt he and Pel are setting up. There's a midget playing piano, a gorgeous woman who's effete husband has painted wings on her back, a very large man who sometimes sounds Russian and several more. They're all Pel's friends, all his "freaks," and they come across as happy, nice people. There's a scene in a subway where the killer is considering whether or not to push a blackmailer under the wheels of an oncoming train. He almost does it, and the play of emotions on the actor's face is wonderful. But when those 59 minutes are up, there's not much to look back on one way or the other.

Paid to Kill
If Paid to kill had had a more complex leading man, a sharper and less careless script, better actors, a director who knew how to sustain tension and a show-down that was considerably less over-wrought, there might have been a competent and tension-filled noir. Faint praise, I know. Yet there are the bones for a nasty little thriller here; it's just that the flesh on those bones is weak.

James Nevill (Dane Clark) is president of a British company that does something we're never sure of. The name is Amalgamated Industries. He's a hard-charging gambler, successful, and confident to a fault. When a major deal falls through, his company teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. So does he. No one knows this except himself and his loyal and attractive secretary, Joan. So he does what so many chief executives facing public failure would do...he arranges to have himself murdered so that his insurance will go to his wife. Then when the deal turns out to be a success, Jim can't locate the killer and tell him to forget it. Soon, Jim is being beaten on the head, chased down by a car on a lonely street and nearly blown up in his office. Joan, in whom he has confided, is determined to help the man she secretly loves. Jim's wife, on the other hand, may not be trying to help Jim. It all comes together late at night in the garden house of Jim's mansion. Let's just say that there are no surprises as all the key cast members show up.

Dane Clark was a short actor who came across as intense, confident and tough. To my way of thinking, however, he was never entirely convincing winning a fist-fight with a bigger guy. In Paid to Kill, I also wonder what sort of direction, if any, he was given. His hard-charging, hard headed American CEO of a British company is almost a caricature. It's a one note performance. The other actors fare little better, with acting that's awfully close to soap opera standards. The premise of Paid to Kill is intriguing but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
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The Glass Tomb and Paid to Kill are from volume five of the Hammer Film Noir Double Feature series. The DVD transfers of both are acceptable. Both look like fairly clean but old VHS tapes. If the price is right, which means low, you might be interested.