VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Alex da Silva .especially if you are married to someone else! What on earth was rich layabout Hugh Williams (Nick) thinking? I say layabout but he's actually the manager of his talented operatic singer wife Greta Gynt (Phillipa). She's the one with the talent, so, yep, he's probably a layabout feeding off her success. Anyway, his ex is violin player Rosalie Crutchley (Liz) and she ends up dead which is bad news for layabout boy. He's in the dock for murder and heading for the afterlife courtesy of the death penalty. Cue sharp-witted Greta to go out and prove his innocence.This film travels along at a good pace and is basically a thriller. The mystery element is taken away near the beginning of the film as the killer is revealed. This doesn't matter and takes nothing away from the enjoyment of the film as Gynt goes after the truth and puts herself in danger. Real danger! The film starts with an interesting voice-over from lawyer Frances L. Sullivan as he puts his case forward for the prosecution in court. Just sit back and let the film carry you along. There are some light touches thrown in along with moments of suspense. The shop-keeper and his opening times is quite amusing – don't open till 9:00 am – ha ha. The film is nothing special but it is enjoyable as you watch it.

XhcnoirX Successful opera singer Greta Gynt and her husband Hugh Williams have a marital quarrel over an ex of Williams. Gynt accidentally hurts Williams on his forehead, and he walks out to cool down. At the same time, his ex is strangled by another man, but not before she hits him over the head with a vase, also leaving him with a scar on his forehead. A man spots the killer, and based on items found with the ex linking her to Williams and the man thinking he recognizes Williams due to his scar and overall resemblance, Williams is arrested. Because they're ashamed and not understanding the severity of the situation, both Williams and Gynt initially give conflicting statements about their quarrel, digging a deeper hole for Williams. Gynt has to try and find the real killer before Williams is convicted in a seemingly clear case.In some ways this movie is nothing special, the story (based on a play) is good but not too surprising. The acting is also solid throughout with the gorgeous Gyn ('Dear Murderer') standing out with a nuanced and great performance. However, the execution is exceptional and this is where this movie impresses. First time director, and former cinematographer, Ronald Neame ('The Poseidon Adventure') plays with the narrative structure by using prosecutor Francis L. Sullivan ('Night And The City') to tell the story in voice over, as he presents his case to the court. As Sullivan reconstructs the murder, using Williams as the killer, the murder is shown, but with the real killer who does resemble Williams, disorienting the viewer. It's a small but clever trick that works, and even brings Hitchcock to mind (as do other scenes, especially in the way tension and suspense is created). His direction is focused while also managing to be playful and interesting. He is also helped tremendously by the excellent cinematography of Guy Green ('Great Expectations', future director of 'Portrait Of Alison', another great Britnoir). There are lots of shadows, stark lights, clever camera positions, but always in service of the movie. Neame and Green manage to turn a good movie into a great and stylish Britnoir/thriller, I was highly impressed by the visual and narrative language they used. A bit of a hidden gem? In any case, highly recommended!

Robert J. Maxwell Near the opening, Hugh Williams' wife, Greta Gynt, in a fit of jealousy, throws an item from her dressing table at him and it glances off his forehead. I was shocked. I'd always thought that the Brits, so skilled in the conversational arts, left those sorts of physical rows to us Americans.I recall such an exchange with my own wife. It was Hallowe'en night and she was dressed in a tiger costume and a plastic Mickey Mouse mask. I'd been baking and began throwing paper-thin cupcake tins at her. She danced from side to side, evading every one. I stopped when I realized what the scene would look like to an outsider: A man in an apron hurling tin cups at someone in a tiger outfit wearing an immutable Mickey Mouse grin. If I hadn't been disabled by laughter I would have tried strangling her, as Hugh Williams strangles the next woman, an ex lover, he has an encounter with.At least that's what he's accused of by Francis X. Sullivan, representing the Crown. Sullivan's booming narration talks us through the prosecution's view of events. The booming baritone is illustrated by multiple flashbacks, all of which make Williams look guilty as hell. All except one, which reveals the murderer to be a man we've never met. Sullivan's hypothetical scenario is interrupted from time to time to show us the rounds of the real killer. He has evidently been told never to blink.The victim, by the way, William's ex lover, is Rosalie Crutchley whose features and dark eyes are both striking and attractive. She was the arid housekeeper in "The Haunting." Williams' wife, Greta Gynt, is horribly upset that her husband is in the Crowbar Hotel and they're dusting off the gallows for him. She helps by following every possible link, and one of them improbably leads her to the murderer. The pace of the story picked up markedly. One of the relay points is the shop of a devoutly Presbyterian photographer in Edinburgh and it's rather funny. Nice to have a light spot in a drama like this. The climax is again violent, recalling Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt." In any case, not to worry. Near the beginning, when Crutchley writes a note to Williams, it's used as evidence against him in court. "Alas, the love of women! it is known To be a lovely and a fearful thing." The trouble begins with Lord Byron, then, but it also ends with Williams and Gynt together again, as if they'd never been apart. "I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all." A snappy and suspenseful thriller. I enjoyed it.

lucy-66 Made in that wartime and post-war black and white era when British movies at least looked good, employed fine character actors and dressed the cast glamorously. Greta Gynt may not be the world's greatest actress but she makes the most of her deadpan, slightly skewed beauty and nasal, refined voice. (Was English her first language?)She convinces least as the star of a ghastly modern opera (music by William Alwyn) in this tale of a man wrongly accused of murder.There's not much suspense. We know from the start that Marius Goring dunnit. And it's always good to see Rosalie Crutchley, who was quite a dish in her day. xxxx