Kill Her Gently (1957)

"Martin" (Griffith Jones) is driving home one evening when he picks up two hikers. Once in his car, he realises that they are those wanted by police having just escaped from prison. They don't know he knows, and so are rather taken aback by his proposal. He will give them money and a path out of the country - if they agree to murder his wife "Kay" (Maureen Connell). The more brutal of the two - "Connors" (Marc Lawrence) readily agrees and his sidekick "Sven" (George Mikell) is soon on board as they arrive at his home where he concocts a plan to get their money whilst they do the deed. Of course, things don't quite go to plan - the police are looking for the escapees and his wife isn't quite the shrinking violet type. Is she toast or will they manage to get away with it? The premiss is quite interesting by virtue of the supposed spontaneity of the plan. Sadly, though, once they are all housebound the plot starts to unravel and there is just a bit too much hysteria as "Connors" decides killing is not the only crime he wants to get up to. The last ten minutes do have a certain vindication to them, but by then the thing had largely run out of steam. Though I did quite enjoy this, the narrative could have been better focussed around a cast of competent B-listers who do their jobs adequately in a feature that had more potential.