Man Bait

Diana Dors in Man Bait (dir. Terence Fisher, 1952).

The first Hammer noir, and the first Hammer film directed by Terence Fisher (Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, etc.). British title: The Last Page. The main setting is a bookstore. Featuring the Prince of Dullness George Brent as the hapless store manager, and Marguerite Chapman as his long-suffering ex-nurse who is terribly in love with him but he has this invalid wife, blah blah blah. Peter Reynolds' portrayal of the sociopathic shoplifter/murderer is very Hitchcockian--maybe an attempt to evoke Robert Walker's sinister Bruno from Strangers on a Train, released the previous year. The real center of attention, though, is Diana Dors, the titular man bait. She's all pouty and bratty and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and stuff.