Vicious Circle

    Vicious Circle stars John Mills stars as Dr. Howard Latimer, a Harley Street specialist who becomes the prime suspect in a murder hunt when a German film actress Freda Velda, whom he has been asked to meet at London Airport by film producer Charles Caufmann, is found dead in Latimer's flat. Dr. Latimer is left to solve the mystery himself in order to prove his innocence.

    There are a couple of distinctive parallels to be drawn between this 1958 film Vicious Circle and the Prisoner. Firstly the Prisoner begins and ends with a clap of thunder and the grimaced face of the Prisoner behind the wheel of his Lotus 7. Vicious Circle ends and begins with a telephone call for Dr. Howard Latimer from Charles Caufmann, wanting Latimer to meet a film actress at London Airport. Also during The Chimes of Big Ben No.6, having become doubtful due to the time of his watch and Big Ben being the same, when the watch should be an hour different, discovers that a tape recorder hidden in a cupboard is playing a sound effects tape of London traffic noise. And when No.6 pulls the plug the sounds of the London traffic falls silent!

     Again in Vicious Circle when Dr. Howard Latimer pays a call on a friend at his flat in order to return his latch key, he hears the noise of a party going on inside the flat, music, the chatter of voices. Using the said latch key, Latimer lets himself in on the party going on in the flat. Only when he closes the door and strolls into the lounge, there is no party, the flat is empty, save for the disembodied voices of the party goers and the pianist playing the piano! Latimer goes over to the radiogram and sliding the door open, he discovers that both the voices he hears and pianist are being played on the record. Lifting the tone arm reduces the flat to absolute silence!

I'll be seeing you again next time round!