Smokescreen (film)

Plot

Mr. Roper, an insurance investigator, travels to Brighton to assess the apparent death of a businessman, after his burning car was seen crashing over a cliff into the sea. The insurance company are suspicious, as the man had only recently taken out life insurance for a large sum. When the car is recovered and no body is found, Roper and the police have to find out whether they are dealing with an accident, an insurance fraud or a murder.

Cast

Critical reception

The Radio Times: "this above-average programme filler has a passable plot (involving a little bit of skulduggery in suburban Brighton) that's kept moving swiftly and painlessly by director Jim O'Connolly...Vaughan plays with a dogged determination that is efficient, engaging and quite at odds with the more sinister characterisations he would essay later in his career". BFI Screenonline described the film as "an utterly charming B-film comedy-thriller that emphasises character as much as plot and makes full use of extensive location footage."

The film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane selected Smokescreen as one of the 15 most meritorious British B films made between World War II and 1970. They describe it as an "uncommonly neat little insurance racket-cum-murder thriller" and praise the way that its comic relief is "built into the fabric of the film's main narrative action".