Trent's Last Case (1952 film)

A major international financier is found dead at his Hampshire home. The Record newspaper assigns its leading investigative reporter, Phillip Trent, to the case. In spite of the police cordon, he manages to gain entry to the house by posing as a relative. While there he manages to pick up some of the background to the case from Inspector Murch, the Irish detective leading the investigation. Despite Murch's suggestion that the death is suicide, Trent quickly becomes convinced that it was in fact murder.

At the inquest, the coroner swiftly concludes that the deceased, Sigsbee Manderson, had killed himself. Trent, however, is given permission by his editor to continue to pursue the story. His attention is drawn to Manderson's widow, Margaret.

• Michael Wilding – Phillip Trent
• Margaret Lockwood – Margaret Manderson
• Orson Welles – Sigsbee Manderson
• John McCallum – John Marlowe
• Miles Malleson – Burton Cupples
• Hugh McDermott – Calvin C. Bunner
• Jack McNaughton – Mr Martin, the butler
• Sam Kydd – Inspector Murch
• Henry Edwards – Coroner
• Geoffrey Bayldon – Reporter in court
• Robert Cawdron – PC
• John Chandos – Tim O'Rielly
• Ben Williams – Jimmy, the reporter
• Kenneth Williams – Horace Evans, the junior gardener

Margaret Lockwood had just signed a contract with Herbert Wilcox who was better known for making films with his wife, Anna Neagle. Neagle and Lockwood were among the most popular British stars in the country in the 1940s. Lockwood's career had been in a slump and this film was seen as a comeback. It was her first film in two years.[5][6] The arrangement with Wilcox would kill off Lockwood's career as a star.[7]

Herbert Wilcox wrote in his memoirs that he paid Orson Welles £12,000 for his role but because Welles was in so much debt the actor wound up with only £150. Wilcox and Welles worked together again on Trouble in the Glen (1954).[8]

Lockwood wrote in her memoirs that she adored working with Wilcox. She said "Orson is a genius and like most geniuses in my experience, sometimes a trifle off. His oddity, or so it seemed to me while making this picture, was that he wanted to play his love scenes with me entirely by himself; without me... I must say they were very successful."[9]

In one scene, Eileen Joyce is shown playing part of Mozart's C minor Concerto, K. 491 at the Royal Opera House with an orchestra under Anthony Collins.

Leonard Maltin rated the film 2.5 out of 4 stars and noted "superior cast in lukewarm tale of the investigation of businessman's death" while Jay Carr on the TCM website, wrote, "In Trent's Last Case, Welles shares the spotlight with his spectacular putty nose. It's a mighty ice-breaker of a nose, straight-edged as a steel blade, pulverizing all in its path, including whatever pretension to credibility this creaky British murder mystery might have retained."[10][11]

• Trent's Last Case (1952) at IMDb
• Trent's Last Case at TCMDB
• Review of film at Variety