The Limping Man

Plot synopsis:
Former soldier Frank Prior arrives in London to visit a wartime girlfriend, whom he hasn't seen in six years. His plane's landing at the airport coincides with a fellow passenger being killed by a sniper.
Scotland Yard inspector Braddock and detective Cameron are assigned to investigate. The dead man, identified as Kendal Brown, is carrying forged documents as well as a photograph that leads them to Pauline French, an actress.
Pauline is the woman Frank has come to see. She also happens to be an expert marksman with a rifle. After they kiss, Pauline tells Frank that she had tried unsuccessfully to notify him to delay his visit.
An autographed picture of another actress, Helene Castle, is found in Kendal Brown's flat. The detectives learn that Helene is the victim's ex-wife. In the meantime, Frank spends a few hours with Pauline on her boat. When they later go to a pub, a limping man seems to menace and unnerve Pauline, who runs away.
Pauline confesses to Frank that she once let Kendal Brown use her boat for a smuggling operation. He began blackmailing her with letters she wrote, which Helene now possesses. At the theater, the limping man turns out to be George, the stage manager. But to everyone's shock, the late Kendal Brown turns up very much alive. The victim on the plane was a man he'd hired to impersonate him.
After knocking the limping man unconscious, Kendal Brown ends up in a fistfight with Frank in the theater's balcony. But as these events reach their climax, a huge surprise is revealed, one involving Frank and his fellow passengers from the plane.

Tags: violence

Review:
In this film, it is the turn of Lloyd Bridges to lend his talents to a brief, brisk and reasonably entertaining mystery flick.Bridges plays Franklin Pryor, a former US soldier returning to Britain in the 1950s to rekindle a wartime romance with Pauline French (Moira Lister).
The police even begin to suspect that Pryor himself may have had a role in the murder.The script is reasonably engrossing, starting with the mysterious murder and building from there with plenty more intriguing goings-on.
The Limping Man is a fairly bland British B grade Noir with Lloyd Bridges imported from America to play the lead role and add appeal to a wider audience.
The plot follows a reasonably intriguing path towards what should/could have been a dramatic conclusion before reaching a disappointing ending that might have been borrowed from a children's story.
Leslie Phillips appears as the inspector's subordinate and, as always, is typecast as the ladies man who ogles everything in a dress.Although the ending is flawed the film still has appeal as an interesting example of British Film Noir..
In fact similar music interludes from B movies like MAN FROM CAIRO, CARRY ON SPYING,THE RAWHIDE YEARS,GIRLS AT SEA, make me wish that the soundtracks for audio use were available..
In a parody of "The Famous Writers' School" a teacher recommends that no matter what corner you have painted yourself into, literarily, you can always end it with "then I got run over by a truck." In this film the audience is run over by a truck.
There are nice plot twists all along the way, especially involving the female protagonist who has gotten herself in some big time trouble.
It stars Lloyd Bridges and Moira Lister, two good actors.
An assassination happens as Frank Prior (Bridges) gets off a plane in London, where he is to see Pauline French (Lister) for the first time in six years, since the war.
The Limping Man of the title is a shadowy figure, which is why I'm calling this a noir film.
American actor Lloyd Bridges plays a former American army captain who returns to England six years after the end of the War to renew a romance with his old flame, played by Moira Lister.
There are some good atmospheric shots down along the Thames in the East End of London at now-vanished riverside locations; it is ironical that much of what survived the German bombing has been destroyed in the past twenty years by developers, and the only way to see it now is in old movies like this one.
Rachel Roberts, in her second film, plays a barmaid at the Spread Eagle pub in the East End. She was later to marry Rex Harrison, and she became a favourite British film actress in the 1960s, her most famous role being in 'This Sporting Life' (1963).
The 'limping man' of the title is a mysterious limping sniper who assassinates Lister's man friend on the runway at London airport, just as Bridges turns and asks him for a light for his cigarette.
The police eventually discover the coincidence of Bridges being present at the murder of the man who had been involved with Lister, whom Bridges then visits, so that it all looks like a complicated conspiracy.
The Limping Man is one of a large number of competent British mysteries made in the '50's and featuring American actors in leading roles.
While the film does not fall into any predictable pattern of clichés, neither does it fit neatly together into the satisfying structure one expects of a good taut British mystery.
Good movie that came to a bad ending.
The movie has a lot going for it – it has a solid cast, is fast paced with good location shots and atmosphere, has the odd flash of humor (great scene where a couple of kids are caught watching TV.
Although I'm glad I saw this movie and may well see it again, the ending was a huge let down.
As Lloyd Bridges lands in London after six years divorce from his beloved, he turns to a fellow passenger on the airfield for a cigarette, while a car stops some hundred yards off, a man on crutches gets out of it, loads a rifle and shoots the man as he stands with Lloyd Bridges.
There is another actress too, that's Lloyd Bridges' sweetheart, but although she still loves him after six years, she is hopelessly tangled up in complications with, as it turns out, the man that was murdered and his murderer.That's only the beginning.
Neither this nor Wikipedia mention that there was a 1937 film called "The Limping Man".
That was why I looked for "The Limping Man" in Wikipedia and to my surprise found only this later film.
It wasn't Frank Prior (Bridges) who gets involved through happenstance, which wouldn't have happened if girlfriend Pauline (Lister) had met him at the airport as she was supposed to.
At least that's the way things appear.Bridges fans like myself may be disappointed since his role is clearly secondary to Lister's and somewhat incidental to the plot.
Anyway, it's a pretty good time passer, ending or no, with a number of entertaining touches..
You mean to tell me I watched 1 hour 16 minutes of this somewhat interesting film for last 1 1/2 minutes to be this big of a let down?!!
But the story would have been fine if the ending matched the film better.4/10.
Even Lloyd Bridges, usually a natural for a crime movie, is completely wasted here.
** Major Spoiler Warning** Currently available as part of a DVD double feature with the excellent "The Scar", this British mystery flick featuring Lloyd Bridges is moderately enjoyable, but takes forever to set up its premise (45 minutes out of an 80 minute movie) and the ending is preposterous, negating the entire story.
"The Limping Man" has the makings of a fairly good mystery until the let down at the end of the film, which makes a more thorough review a moot point.
Lloyd Bridges stars in this British film as former military man Franklin Prior returning to London to reunite with an old flame.
However Pauline French (Moira Lister) may be mixed up in some kind of trouble involving the assassination of a former lover of hers.
The police reveal that the dead man was Kendal Brown a known criminal .
Frank Pryor goes to visit an old flame Pauline French who it later transpires knew Kendal Brown I came to write up my review of THE LIMPING MAN and before did so looked through the comments on this page which are unanimously along the lines of " OMG what a terrible ending that totally ruined the film " but I can't help thinking everyone is missing the point and are tearing away at the ending without giving too much scrutiny to the rest of the film which doesn't hold up without that ending The problem I had is that it's the lead up to the ending that is the problem .
A man is shot dead while an American is visiting London and yet everyone the American meets in London knew Kendal Brown in some capacity including the love interest of the American Frank Pryor .
Throughout the film I kept chuckling " Yeah right " then when the shock twist ending happened it did make a sense of sort within the film's own reality .
It might be a cop out but how many films have you seen where everything relies on coincidence and no shock plot twist happens ?
A great deal seems to happen in a relatively short time in this entertaining murder mystery and it's this pace that plays such a significant part in making "The Limping Man" so enjoyable to watch.
Apart from murder, its story also involves blackmail, smuggling and a serious case of mistaken identity, as well as a series of surprising plot developments that all add to the intrigue that deepens consistently as the murder investigation progresses.American ex-serviceman Frank Prior (Lloyd Bridges) returns to London to meet up with the girlfriend that he left behind six years earlier.
As he and the other passengers disembark from their plane and walk towards the airport terminal, he turns and asks the man behind him for a light, but when his fellow passenger obliges, he's immediately shot dead by a bullet from a sniper's rifle.
Frank's disappointed when his girlfriend Pauline French (Moira Lister) isn't at the airport to meet him and then, because of the circumstances of the murder, has to be interviewed by a couple of Scotland Yard detectives.
During his conversation with Inspector Braddock (Alan Wheatley) and Detective Cameron (Leslie Phillips), Frank learns that the dead man's papers indicated that he was Kendall Brown.When Frank eventually meets up with Pauline, she's thrilled to see him and explains why she wasn't at the airport when he arrived.
A photograph that the police found on Kendall Brown's body leads them to his apartment and a lady in the picture turns out to be Pauline.
Clearly, when he decided that he wanted to reunite with his wartime sweetheart, Frank could never have imagined that it would lead him into such a web of intrigue.There's a lot to enjoy in "The Limping Man" as it's very competently directed by blacklisted director Cy Enfield (who wasn't able to be credited for his work), the acting performances are consistently good and there are interesting cameo appearances by a very young-looking Lionel Blair and the well-known illusionist, Robert Harbin.
THE LIMPING MAN is a dull vehicle for Hollywood exile Lloyd Bridges, shot in Britain on a low budget.
The rest of the film charts a police investigation into the murder while at the same time the film's protagonist, Bridges, learns that his old flame is mixed up in a sinister conspiracy plot.This film is a perfect example of wasted potential.
The opening makes for arresting viewing but after about 20 minutes the pace falls flat and the story just limps along lifelessly with little in the way of energy to see it through.
THE LIMPING MAN also has one of the worst twist endings in all of cinema, yes, no joke, it really is a case of "it was all a dream" and just as awful as that sounds..
Good film with an interesting ending.
I'm surprised that so many people seem to be disappointed with the ending of this film.
The story is typical of a 1950s British crime film with good performances by all - but this ending makes it a bit different.
It has the inevitable American lead, in this case the excellent Lloyd Bridges, to make it attractive to the US.
***SPOILERS*** Nobody knew at the time when the film "The Limping Man" came limping into the theaters in late 1953 what an impact it would have on it's audiences who were still around, if they didn't walk out earlier, for the films last few shocking and totally unexpected moments.
It started out as your usual crime assassination flick with returning US WWII veteran Frank Prior, Llyod Bridges, getting off a plane from NY in London to rekindle an affair he had with his British girlfriend Pauline French, Moria Listen, six years ago.
That soon lead to one of the plane passengers getting gunned down by an unseen sniper as Frank was about to give him a light!
As for Pauline she seemed to have had some romantic relationship with the murdered man revealed to be Kendal Brown, Bruce Beebe, who was involved in smuggling contraband into the country.It soon turns out that whoever murdered Kendal Brown had a noticeable limp, from the footprints found at the scene, and it was that limp or limper whom both the police Scotland Yard as well as Frank were out looking for to find Browns killer.
There's also the late Kendal Brown's estranged wife showgirl and magician aid Helene Castle, Helene Cordet, who identified his body at the London City morgue who didn't seem to show any emotion at all in knowing that he's gone and now not paying her rent or clothing bills!***SPOILERS*** The movie leads up to a number of unexpected surprises in that we as well as Frank & Palline find out that Brown wasn't killed at all but faked his death by using some unknowing stooge, in not realizing what's to happen to him,to replace him and end up getting murdered!
The film ends with such a confusing climax that you have to re-watch it to get the massage that it's trying to tell you.
Whoever is responsible for the story that told by this film simply didn't know of a reasonable way to pull it together, and so just let it fall apart.After an unexplained separation of six years, an American flies to the UK to meet the woman whom he loves, an actress of some fame.
A search for the blackmailer is begun; he has for no very good reason disguised himself as the fellow with the crutch, and when the police begin looking for a man with a crutch, it does not occur to him to chuck the thing aside; instead, he retreats to a balcony.
People had told me about the ending of "The Limping Man" - my response was how bad could it be - the answer - extremely bad!!!!
It would have been so much easier to end the film on a more conventional note - but no, someone with a vivid imagination thought - I will make this really memorable - it was memorable but for all the wrong reasons!!!Frank Prior (Lloyd Bridges) is flying back to England to see whether the girl he met during the war still loves him as much as he does her.
After being cleared to go by the police, Frank, tries to contact his friend, Pauline, whose photo just happens to be in the dead man's (Kendall Brown) pocket.
She was Kendall's wife but they have been separated for 3 years - or so she says!!!Meanwhile Frank and Pauline spend a leisurely day on the river but when the boat runs out of petrol the man who comes to their assistance seems to know her, as does a stranger from the pub.
Then Frank sees the limping man!!!!
For about 98% percent of its running time, "The Limping Man" is a good, decent little thriller, well worth of seven stars or more.
The performances are good and there is a nicely atmospheric evocation of London shortly after World War II, complete with wharves, pubs and clubs.
Understood as a clean, straightforward 'divertissement, it's good.Lloyd Bridges plays the leading character, perhaps he's not necessarily one of my favorite actors, Moira Lister is his girlfriend, and a beautiful one, though some might find her face a little too masculine..
The ending of The Limping Man, however, is so arbitrary and dishonest it makes clear how little regard for the audience, or for the integrity of their own movie, the producers must have had.
World War II vet Frank Prior (Lloyd Bridges) returns to London from America after six years to look up an old flame, Pauline French (Moira Lister), now a successful actress.
As he and the other passengers deplane and walk across to the terminal, Frank pauses for a moment and asks the man beside him for a light.
After Prior leaves the police to find Pauline, Wheatley and Cameron visit Brown's lodgings...and find a photo of a good-looking young woman.
The mix includes blackmail, smuggling, magic acts, gritty Thames-side docks, backstage theater doings, a pouting French singer and, Frank discovers, some indiscretions in Pauline's past.
She gives such an overly bred, mannered performance it seems unlikely she'd ever be attracted to an American ex-GI like Lloyd Bridge's Frank Prior.
The ending of The Limping Man is a complete cheat.
Cy Endfield, who directed the movie, did so under the name of Charles De la Tour, a man he paid to front for him.
A horrible ending ruins an otherwise decent film....
Lloyd Bridges stars in this British film.
The film begins with him arriving in London to see his sweetheart who he hasn't seen since the war ended six years ago.
On the tarmac, a shot rings out and the man next to Bridges is killed by a sniper!
It's all reasonably good---even though several times, Bridges tries to work out the case himself instead of just letting the police do their job (a film cliché).
However, before the twist ending, I would have given the film a 6 or possibly a 7—but it was SO bad, I think a 4 is perhaps a bit generous.
When in the middle of this film, Lloyd Bridges asks about a certain clue, "What do you make of it?", you may, like me, expect the flamboyant Johnny from "Airplane!" to jump in and say, "A hat, a broach, a pterodactyl!".
It is difficult to separated him from these roles even though he originally played either heavies or action heroes before changing his image by stating, "Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!" Here, he's all serious, an American visiting England who was at the airport when a sniper shot a mystery man who turns out to be the other man in a triangle with Bridges' estranged girlfriend (Moira Lister).
Bridges learns the truth and details about his girlfriend's secret life that leads him into all sorts of intrigue.American stars in British film noir and thrillers added a smooth touch to the stiff upper lip pretense of the English in all sorts of parts, good and evil, and the results could be very mixed at times.
Perhaps there were two limping men, the stage door manager and the professional hit man.
(Watch for Rachel Roberts and a cameo by lovely Jean Marsh in her movie debut).