Trent’s Last Case (1952) – Nostalgia Central

Filmed at Shepperton Studios for British Lion, Trent’s Last Case was competently adapted from E C Bentley’s classic Who-dunnit about an elegant, though shrewd, dilettante who challenges a suicide verdict when a ruthless tycoon is found dead in suspicious circumstances, but barks up the wrong tree before finally proving her instinct to be correct.

Sigsbee Manderson (Orson Welles in a false nose) – a malevolent millionaire American financier with worldwide business interests – is discovered by a gardener’s boy (future Carry On star Kenneth Williams in his cinematic debut) shot in the garden of his beautiful Hampshire home with a revolver belonging to his old Oxonian secretary, John Marlowe (John McCallum), by his side.

Calvin C. Bunner (Hugh McDermott), the deceased’s American secretary, tries to throw suspicion on Marlowe by suggesting that Marlowe and Manderson’s widow, Margaret (Margaret Lockwood in her first film for two years), were more than friendly, but a suicide verdict is given.

Ace crime reporter Philip Trent (Michael Wilding) is sent down to cover the story for the London newspaper The Record. Trent is not only a writer, an artist and something of an amateur detective, but a personable and romantic young man.

He interviews Margaret, Burton Cupples (Miles Malleson), Margaret’s kindly, philosophical uncle, and Marlowe, and eventually Marlowe reveals that Manderson, insanely jealous of Marlowe’s interest in Margaret, had planned to commit suicide in a manner that would result in Marlowe being charged with his death.

Cupples then butts in with a confession that he caught Manderson with a gun in his hand and accidentally killed him in the struggle.

Having fallen in love with Margaret during his investigations, and with his love promptly reciprocated, Trent decides to keep mum, marry the soulful-eyed young widow himself and make the Manderson case his last.

There is more dialogue than action, but the acting is impeccable, and Herbert Wilcox’s resourceful directing creates big suspense and a sensational surprise climax with minimal physical effort.

Look out for future Carry On star Kenneth Williams as a Welsh gardener’s boy in his cinematic debut.

Philip Trent
Michael Wilding
Margaret Manderson
Margaret Lockwood
Sigsbee Manderson
Orson Welles
John Marlowe
John McCallum
Burton Cupples
Miles Malleson
Calvin C. Bunner
Hugh McDermott
Martin
Jack McNaughton
Inspector Murch
Sam Kydd
Reporter in Court
Geoffrey Bayldon
Tim O’Reilly
John Chandos
Jimmy
Ben Williams
Horace Evans
Kenneth Williams

Director
Herbert Wilcox