Old Secrets Still Cut Deep

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MOVIE REVIEWS
Brit Noir Collection IV
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Genre: Film Noir, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Year Released: 1954–1955, 2026 Blu-ray
Runtime: 3h 49m
Directors: Wendy Toye, Don Chaffey, Val Guest
Writers: Francis Durbridge, James Matthews, Ella Adkins, Allan MacKinnon, Val Guest, Val Valentine, Leonard Mosley
Cast: John Justin, Margaret Leighton, Dennis Price, Renée Asherson, Patrick Barr, Terence Morgan, Yolande Donlan, André Morell, Anthony Oliver
Where to Watch: available September 29, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: www.kinolorber.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: A title like BRIT NOIR COLLECTION IV suggests darkness, but these three films are much less interested in shadowy alleyways than they are in respectable rooms where somebody is lying. Each comes from the mid-1950s, and all three find different ways to turn seemingly ordinary British life into something uneasy. A writer gets too curious, a supposedly dead husband comes home, and a condemned murderer claims he knows the identity of a spy. None of the films need to push hard to make their worlds feel suspicious because distrust is already built in.

That shared quality helps make Kino Lorber's fourth Brit Noir collection feel like a real collection, not three old movies placed in the same case. THE TECKMAN MYSTERY, TIME IS MY ENEMY, and THEY CAN'T HANG ME approach crime from different directions, yet all three are fascinated by the danger created when the past refuses to stay put. War, espionage, hidden identities, and old relationships keep returning to complicate lives that appeared settled. Even when one of the films comes up short, there's enough connective tissue to make watching them together more rewarding.

THE TECKMAN MYSTERY is the most immediately appealing of the three. John Justin plays author Philip Chance with an easy confidence that keeps the movie from becoming too stiff, especially once his research into supposedly deceased test pilot Martin Teckman starts producing questions nobody seems particularly eager for him to answer. Wendy Toye doesn't bury the story beneath oppressive gloom. There's a lighter touch here, including dry humor and a lead character who can wander into danger without transforming into some hardened detective the moment trouble arrives.

That makes the mystery surprisingly approachable, although it also keeps some of its darker possibilities at arm's length. The story can become overly complicated as new information arrives and the investigation expands, and there are stretches where conversation does more of the work than suspense. Still, Justin carries those quieter sections well, while Margaret Leighton gives Helen Teckman enough distance to keep you wondering exactly how much she knows. When the movie finally tightens its grip, the earlier restraint starts paying off.

TIME IS MY ENEMY has a nastier hook and considerably less room to work with. Barbara Everton believed her first husband, Martin Radley, died during the Blitz, rebuilt her life, and remarried. Martin's return isn't emotional or romantic; he's a small-time criminal who quickly realizes that his supposed death gives him another opportunity to exploit the woman he left behind. Dennis Price is well suited to that kind of unpleasant opportunist, making Martin slimy enough to dislike without pushing him into cartoon villain territory.

At barely over an hour, you'd expect the movie to race, yet this is the entry where the production's limitations show most clearly. Too much important information arrives through dialogue rather than action, and the film sometimes feels like it's describing a better crime story happening just beyond the edges of the screen. Logical questions also surround Barbara's remarriage, and they become harder to ignore once you start thinking about the situation too closely. Renée Asherson helps tremendously because Barbara's fear and frustration give the story a human anchor, even when the mechanics surrounding her aren't entirely convincing.

The simplicity works in its favor too. Unlike THE TECKMAN MYSTERY, which occasionally risks getting tangled in its own plot, TIME IS MY ENEMY has a direct emotional problem at its center. A man who should no longer have any control over Barbara suddenly has an enormous amount of it, and the film understands how ugly that situation is. It's modest and sometimes visibly constrained, but there's something effective about how little glamour it finds in Martin's behavior.

THEY CAN'T HANG ME changes the energy again and may be the most entertaining film here once it gets moving. André Morell plays Robert Pitt, a senior civil servant awaiting execution for murder who announces that he can identify a master spy involved in the theft of atomic secrets. His offer immediately creates a problem for the authorities. They need the information he claims to possess, but saving a convicted murderer simply because he has something useful to trade isn't exactly an appealing solution.

Val Guest treats that dilemma as a ticking clock rather than a moral lecture. Terence Morgan's Inspector Brown and Anthony Oliver's Inspector Newcombe spend much of the film chasing leads. At the same time, Pitt waits to see whether the information inside his head is valuable enough to save the rest of him. Morgan and Oliver have an easy rapport that prevents the investigation from becoming mechanical, and the occasional humor between them gives the story personality without draining away the pressure.

Morell is the standout because Pitt has the strangest position in the entire collection. He's condemned, dangerous, potentially useful, and completely aware that everyone around him would prefer to get what he knows without giving him anything in return. Morell doesn't need to make him sympathetic. He simply makes Pitt interesting enough that his presence hangs over scenes even after the investigation moves elsewhere.

The spy plot itself isn't airtight, and a few developments work better if you keep moving rather than stop to question them. That's true of all three movies to varying degrees, which may be the biggest thing preventing BRIT NOIR COLLECTION IV from reaching another level. These are smart, economical thrillers, but they're rarely as clever as they initially appear. Their twists, coincidences, and bits of withheld information sometimes exist because the story needs another ten minutes of uncertainty.

What survives those weaknesses is character and atmosphere. These films come from a Britain where World War II is over but hardly feels distant, while Cold War anxiety has already found its way into everyday life. A dead man might not be dead. The person sitting next to you might know more than they're admitting. Government secrets can become bargaining chips, and even a comfortable home can be invaded by someone you'd hoped had disappeared forever. The threats change from film to film, but the uneasiness remains.

Kino Lorber also gives the set some welcome context rather than treating the movies as anonymous catalog titles. All three are presented from 4K restorations by StudioCanal, and each film receives a new audio commentary: Daniel Kremer on THE TECKMAN MYSTERY, Laurene Lerman on TIME IS MY ENEMY, and Julie Kirgo with Peter Hankoff on THEY CAN'T HANG ME. For movies most viewers likely won't recognize, individual commentaries for all three are exactly the kind of extra that makes a collection like this more worthwhile.

BRIT NOIR COLLECTION IV doesn't uncover three forgotten classics, but that's almost beside the point. It brings together three solid, distinctly British crime stories that reflect slightly different corners of the same anxious period, with THE TECKMAN MYSTERY offering the strongest mystery, TIME IS MY ENEMY keeping things smaller and meaner, and THEY CAN'T HANG ME delivering the most momentum. At 3.5 out of 5, the collection succeeds because even its weaker moments remain interesting pieces of a larger picture, and because forgotten doesn't always mean forgettable.

Product Extras:
• NEW Audio Commentary for The Teckman Mystery by Film Historian Daniel Kremer
• NEW Audio Commentary for Time Is My Enemy by Film Historian Laurene Lerman
• NEW Audio Commentary for They Can't Hang Me by Film Historian/Writer Julie Kirgo and Writer/Filmmaker Peter Hankoff

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[photo courtesy of KINO LORBER]

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