Delayed Action (1954)
58 min | Mystery, Crime, Drama | July 1954 (UK)
A suicidal man agrees to confess to crimes committed by two criminals before he kills himself.
Director: John Harlow
Writer: Geoffrey Orme (screenplay)
Stars: Robert Ayres, June Thorburn, Alan Wheatley
58 min | Mystery, Crime, Drama | July 1954 (UK)
A suicidal man agrees to confess to crimes committed by two criminals before he kills himself.
Director: John Harlow
Writer: Geoffrey Orme (screenplay)
Stars: Robert Ayres, June Thorburn, Alan Wheatley
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00I want you to meet Mr. Cruden. Mr. Mark Cruden.
00:04How are you, Mr. Edison? Quite recovered, I hope.
00:07I'd like to know what all this is about.
00:09Who are you? What are you?
00:11A philanthropist.
00:13A breed went out with Dickens.
00:15Did you arrange to have me slugged and brought in here?
00:20I want to buy something that you seem to have no further use for.
00:24Oh? What?
00:26Your life.
00:30Is that meant to be funny? Not at all.
00:33I want to secure an option. On my life?
00:35No. On your dead body.
00:37It doesn't add up. Why not?
00:39At the risk of getting your feet wet, you could have dragged it out of the river.
00:42Oh, no, no, no. That wouldn't do at all.
00:44Would it, Saylors?
00:46The value of your life to me is that it must be available on demand.
00:52And how long do I have to stay on the hook?
00:55Oh, let's say 18 months.
00:58Then if I don't take up the option during that time, you'll have made a clear profit.
01:02How much?
01:06A thousand down.
01:08One hundred a month.
01:10And a further two thousand when the time comes.
01:15You're crazy.
01:16The bargain is rather an odd one because our business is hardly, shall we say, routine.
01:22Is it, Saylors?
01:24Oh, Mark and I have kicked around, you know.
01:26It's a tough world.
01:28We found a way to get what you want is to take it.
01:32Including dead bodies?
01:34Exactly.
01:35When I retire, I don't want to spend the rest of my life worrying about the police.
01:40So I occupy your coffin while you're on your way to, shall we say, South America?
01:45Only in the unpleasant contingency that the police should get on my tracks.
01:50Well, Mr. Ellison?
01:56I'd like to think it over.
01:58Naturally.
02:00Bob.
02:05Show Mr. Ellison the spare room, please.
02:08Pleasant dreams, Mr. Ellison.