The Sinister Man is a 1961 British crime drama film directed by Clive Donner and starring Patrick Allen and John Bentley. It was one of the series of Edgar Wallace Mysteries, British second-features, produced at Merton Park Studios in the 1960s.
Plot
The body of an Oxford professor is found floating in the river Thames. He had previously been studying an archeological artefact known as the Kytang Wafers, and this is now missing. Scotland Yard investigates. The wafers are bits of ancient text that could alter the relations between Red China and a Tibetan type nation called "Kytang". An autopsy reveals that the professor was murdered by a karate blow.
Cast
John Bentley as Superintendent Wills
Patrick Allen as Dr. Nelson Pollard
Gerald Anderson as Major Paul Amery
Edward Atienza as Clerk
Wilfrid Brambell as Lock keeper
Yvonne Buckingham as Miss Russell
Michael Deacon as Angus
Jacqueline Ellis as Elsa Marlowe
Keith Faulkner as Lock keeper's assistant
William Gaunt as Mitch Hallam
John Glyn-Jones as Dr. Maurice Tarn
Peter Hager as Warden
John Horsley as Pathologist
Burt Kwouk as Captain Feng
Arnold Lee as Soyok
Robert Lee as Nam Lee
Brian McDermott as Detective Sergeant Stillman
Don McKillop as Reporter
Critical reception
MemorableTV.com described the film as "definitely one of the great Edgar Wallace entries with a fab cast that includes a pre-Steptoe Wilfred Brambell, Patrick Allen, William Gaunt and Burt Kwouk. John Bentley who took the lead as Superintendent Willis was a popular actor in the late fifties and early sixties but is all but forgotten these days"; while Classic Movie Ramblings wrote "The Sinister Man isn’t exactly a good movie but it has plenty of energy and a few intriguingly odd moments. I found it to be strangely appealing."
Home media
The film is included in Volume 2 of The Edgar Wallace Mystery series, released on region 2 DVD by Network, in 2012.