Film Listings – Bognor Regis Observer – Friday, 21 October 1955

PAVILION, SELSEY. A tense thriller from the pen of radio's top mystery writer, Francis Durbridge, comes to the screen in "THE TECKMAN MYSTERY". The plot concerns Philip Chance, a young successful author, who is commissioned by his publisher to write the biography of an airman, Martin Teckman, who crashed tragically while testing a new secret plane. From the moment he agrees to do this, Chance is beset by a number of "accidents" and meets a number of people who seem determined that Teckman's past shall not be investigated. Lovely Margaret Leighton stars as Helen, Martin Teckman's sister, while John Justin plays the determined author, and Ronald Culver gives a delightful performance as the M.I.5. chief. Set in Venice "THE STRANGER'S HAND" is a story of mystery and intrigue adapted from Graham Greene's novel. Roger Court (Richard O'Sullivan), a young schoolboy, arrives in Venice on holiday to meet his father, Major Court (Trevor Howard), whom he has not seen in three years. He finds a room booked for him at the hotel, and receives a telephone call from the Major, who says he is on his way to the hotel. However, he fails to put in an appearance. Worried and lonely, Roger is befriended by Roberta (Alida Valli), hotel receptionist, and the police are informed of his father's disappearance. They are reluctant to act, however, until pressure is brought to bear upon them by the British Consulate. Major Court has, in fact, been kidnapped by enemy agents. Lovely Maureen O'Hara teams up with Hollywood's Macdonald Carey in "MALAGA", a modern smuggling drama in Technicolor. Joanna Dane (Maureen O'Hara) is an an undercover agent for the Customs and Treasury Departments in Tangier. Her job is to find the leader of a vast smuggling organisation which has its headquarters in Tangier. During her investigations, she becomes involved with many dubious characters. "LAXDAL HALL" with Ronald Squire, Kathleen Ryan, Raymond Huntley and Sebastian Shaw, tells the story of the only five car-owners at Laxdale, a small isolated village in the Inner Hebrides, who refuse to pay their road fund licences until they get a new road and pier. A parliamentary delegation is sent from London to investigate what in Whitehall seems remarkably like anarchy.