BLACKOUT is a typical British noir flick of the 1950s with a fairly good turn from American import Dane Clark, who starts off being drunk out of his head and seduced by a blonde femme fatale (the exceptional Belinda Lee). When he wakes up the next morning he finds himself enmeshed in a murder plot and must fight to extricate himself. This film was one of the thrillers that Hammer made before moving into the horror genre and it's fairly average, not quite as good as others they made during the era (such as the underrated CLOUDBURST). Clark is a bit of a weedy hero and constantly out of his depth while the plot gets a bit bogged down during the middle stages, lacking that spark of suspense to keep it moving; the classic 'saggy middle'. Still, things do pick up for the twist-upon-twist climax, so at least it ends on a high, and the tragic Lee helps to make this worthwhile.

Drunken Dane Clark is picked out one night by a British socialite (Belinda Lee) who wants a marriage of convenience in order to receive an inheritance. This results in the murder of her father and the exposure of a sinister scheme for the villain to get control of the estate. Clark gets more than he bargained for as he tries to keep his name out of the list of suspects, questioning witnesses before he learns the not-so-surprising truth. A notch above the usual puzzling structure of similar tales (a staple of noir),this retains interest through a variety of eccentrics, dropping clues here and there to keep you guessing. Nobody is a shoe-in when it comes to being revealed to be the mastermind behind all the intrigue, and nobody is obviously innocent, either. That makes things much more intriguing and keeps the element of surprise always at a high. It softens a bit when Clark introduces Lee to his estranged family, but it doesn't remain soft for long.

The film begins with Dane Clark being offered a strange marriage proposal from a woman he just met. Not only that, she offers this drunk guy 500 pounds to do the deed! However, upon waking up the next morning, he finds he's implicated with murder and there's no trace of the lady! So, it's up to tough-guy Clark to investigate and clear his name.

Most fans of Film Noir will be surprised to hear that the British (not to mention, the French) made quite a few of these in the 1950s. Oddly, the Brit Noir films were made by Hammer Studios--the same folks who made tons of Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy films from the late 50s to the mid 1970s! And, oddly, this film is directed by the studio's foremost monster film director, Terence Fisher.

Overall, while this is far from a great film, it does stack up pretty well with the average American example, though I will admit that this film does have a few too many twists and turns (particularly for the character of Phyllis Brunner).