The Desperate Man is a 1959 British crime film directed by Peter Maxwell and starring Conrad Phillips, Jill Ireland, William Hartnell, Charles Gray and Peter Swanwick. its plot involves a writer who investigates a murder in the tower of a castle. It is adapted from the novel Beginner's Luck by Paul Somers, the writer better-known as Andrew Garve.
Respectable wife Ruth attempts to conceal her secret past as a criminal from neighbours and from her husband Chris. However, when a neighbour is burgled and Ruth mysteriously disappears, she becomes the police's prime suspect. Husband Chris searches the city for Ruth, in hopes of proving her innocence.