Double Confession

Plot

Arriving late at night in the seaside town of Seagate, Jim Medway (Derek Farr) heads for his estranged wife’s isolated coastal cottage. As he arrives, he sees crooked businessman Charlie Durham (William Hartnell) coming out of the house. With the awareness that his wife had been having an affair with Durham, Medway embarks on attempts to blackmail the rich entrepreneur or frame him for murdering his wife. However, Durham's sinister homicidal sidekick Paynter (Peter Lorre) is out to protect his boss by arranging a little accident for Medway. Inspector Tenby (Naunton Wayne) slowly gathers clues to solve the mystery, and begins to suspect there is a less obvious culprit.

Critical reception

In The New York Times, Bosley Crowther commented, "it rambles around in maddening fashion for what seems interminable hours while Naunton Wayne as a deadpanned detective tries to figure out who killed whom...It is all very odd and disconnected, especially when Peter Lorre pops in from time to time to behave like a degenerate and offer to kill anybody in the house"; while more recently Allmovie wrote, "The presence of Peter Lorre assured a modicum of American business for the British meller Double Confession...Lorre's role is largely peripheral, but he does supply a few moments of genuine menace"; while Sky Movies wrote, "Director Ken Annakin showed in an earlier film, Holiday Camp, that he liked to be beside the seaside. But, in this superior crime drama, he makes the resort of `Seagate' appear a very sinister place indeed. The whodunnit plot benefits enormously from Peter Lorre's almost apologetic menace"; and The Digital Fix concluded, "it’s an excellent piece of work. Tightly constructed, exceptionally well-performed and with a wonderful sense of place, Double Confession deserves to find an enthusiastic audience."