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The Black Glove aka Face The Music
Hammer Film Noir Double Feature Collector?s Set 2
Hammer Film Noir Double Feature Volume 6
Alex Nicol, Eleanor Summerfield
Written by Ernest Bornemann based on his Novel
Directed by Terence Fisher
Originally released 1953
VCI Entertainment 2007
85 minutes
The Black Glove aka Face The Music is one of two mystery movies on volume 6 of the Hammer Film Noir Double Feature series from VCI Entertainment that is also available as Hammer Film Noir Double Feature Collector’s Set 2, a 4 DVD 8 film noir box set. If you like your mystery noir, The Black Glove delivers. It is a good whodunit and is visually interesting. The movie still looks good DVD and on a large screen TV even if the star, Alex Nicol wears a jacket that strobes at the beginning of the movie.
Film noir is basically a genre where an innocent is plunged in a corrupt world while trying to prove his innocence or find out who is trying to kill him. The movie must have a certain look and lighting and camera angles are very important to that look. The Black Glove is your basic boy meets girl, girl dies, boy must prove he didn’t murder girl. Here, famous American loud trumpet player Alex Bradley (Alex Nicol) meets English chanteuse Maxine Halbert who is found dead after a very British encounter with him. He is accused of her murder and must prove his innocence based on only two clues and the knowledge he did not do the girl. His second biggest problem is someone is trying to kill him too.
The other title associated with The Black Glove, Face The Music, is perhaps more appropriate as this is a jazz heavy mystery. Bradley goes around the jazz club world to do some of his investigating and there are many occasions to hear a tune. There is also an interesting touch of the comic here. This is in part a contribution of Bradley’s manager, a man who really likes to worry a lot but also due Ernest Bornemann’s writing which includes quite a few witty repartee for Bradley.
Also on this double film noir DVD is Deadly Game, another Hammer Film Noir.
Kudos must be given to whoever at VCI Entertainment worked on the presentation of the Hammer Film Noir Double Feature Series. The animation for the menu is really cool, simply superb, and absolutely right for this genre. It is nice when somebody really cares about the movies.