Murder at 3am

Murder at 3 a.m. is a 1953 British crime film second feature directed by Francis Searle and starring Dennis Price, Peggy Evans and Rex Garner. A Scotland Yard detective investigates a series of attacks on women.

Plot
There have been a series of attacks on women walking home in the early hours, and now a woman has been found murdered. Chief Inspector Peter Lawton investigates. His suspicion falls on Edward King, an ex-commando who is engaged to Lawton's sister Joan. He uses Joan to trap King, but King flees. It transpires that King is innocent; the killer is his half-brother Jim.

Cast

 * Dennis Price as Chief Inspector Peter Lawton
 * Peggy Evans as Joan Lawton
 * Rex Garner as Detective Sergeant Todd
 * Arnold Bell as Assistant Commissioner McMann
 * Greta Mayaro as Lena
 * Philip Saville as Edward 'Teddy' King/Jim King
 * Leonard Sharp as Old Skip
 * Nora Gordon as Nanna
 * Renee Goddard as Lady Branstead
 * Arthur Lovegrove as Inspector Cobb
 * Daphne Maddox as victim
 * Robert Weeden as CID constable
 * John Davis as transmitting constable (uncredited)

Critical reception
Kine Weekly said "The exuberant, if somewhat lurid and extravagent, yarn unfolds again bright night-club and realistic nocturnal London street scenes which cunningly create an illusion of scope. For its size it carries quite a kick. "; Monthly Film Bulletin said "A second-rate thriller, unimaginatively directed; the cast attempts to make something out of the too-familiar dialogue and situations."

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Shabby 'B' feature, tiresomely made"

To-Day's Cinema called it an "efficient specimen" of the crime thriller.