A suicidal writer, a criminal makeover, and the cheapest alibi money can buy.
Robert Ayres plays a moody author with a suicide complex. Ayres' melancholia plays right into the hands of a gang of thieves. For a lofty fee, they convince the author to confess to their crimes and then kill himself. Yes, you're way ahead of us: Ayres has a change of heart and decides that he loves life. Delayed Action was produced by Robert Baker and Monty Berman, the men behind the popular 1960s TV adventure series The Saint.
Acting
Ayres sells the spiral with minimal melodrama.
Writing
Tight 58-minute hustle—no fat, all noir.
Director
John Harlow
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Producers Baker and Berman later struck gold with The Saint TV series—this was their scrappy apprenticeship.
1954 Britain was drowning in bleak kitchen-sink realism; this crime potboiler slipped through as disposable entertainment that accidentally captured postwar exhaustion.
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