The Gilded Cage (1955)

Quite an unremarkable crime caper that sees the theft of a valuable portrait - quite a smudged one at that - of an un-named woman. Poor old "Harry" (Michael Alexander) is front and centre on the suspects list, but luckily his beefcake brother "Steve" (Alex Nicol) arrives from the US just in time to look into these shenanigans. Any art historian would have conniptions at the manner in which this supposedly priceless work of art is handled - especially at the end when the cunning deception is cleverly exposed. What budget there was went on Nicol's air fare - the rest of the thing is seriously basic with pretty banal dialogue and though the principle of the conclusion is quite quirky, the execution is a bit shoddy. By no means the worst film ever made by John Gilling, but it's twenty minutes too long and the love interest from a very matronly looking Veronica Hurst ("Marcia") just clutters up the pace.