This plays just fine as a straight forward mystery movie, but the play has more potential than that and as a straight forward mystery without the rich suggestive overtones the plot is admittedly a bit out there. So when you play something straight that isn't straight what you get is this.
Guy Hamilton doesn't add much to the proceedings and the performers mostly go through the motions in a surface way that is totally at odds with the material. There is no building sense of doom or desperation to most of the thing. It's slow and steady. Actually much of the flat footed surface approach I'd put the blame on Hamilton. At his worst he was one of those, "oh this is all just a movie" approach to too much of his output. Part of this made him perfect for Goldfinger but also helped camp up and ultimately start to wreck the Bond films later on. Most of his pre Goldfiner work is, like this film, pretty flat.
The music score is pretty lousy, though there isn't much of it, especially the stupid end credit music that further eats away the tone of the piece.
There are risky elements for the time and had the film been made in America then it would have been a disaster. Sim is quite good but perhaps a bit too laid back, though he has most of the best moments performance wise, it is again a bit of a missed opportunity to have him not rip loose ever. His expression at the end is memorable. The young brother and sister character's probably come off best, though Bryan Forbes drunk act at one point turns into a good Stan Laurel or Charlie Chaplin thing, that isn't really appropriate.
Well photographed and produced, the DVD is spotless. I suppose most or anyone who's heard of this story saw the lat 90's revival which I liked better than this film.
So if you prefer your drawing room mysteries done very dry and very safe you'll love this film and it's good on that level if you can still buy into the things that don't stick perhaps to convention.
But we'll have to wait for a less safe, more dramatic version of the very good source material rather than this film which prefers melodrama.
Guy Hamilton doesn't add much to the proceedings and the performers mostly go through the motions in a surface way that is totally at odds with the material. There is no building sense of doom or desperation to most of the thing. It's slow and steady. Actually much of the flat footed surface approach I'd put the blame on Hamilton. At his worst he was one of those, "oh this is all just a movie" approach to too much of his output. Part of this made him perfect for Goldfinger but also helped camp up and ultimately start to wreck the Bond films later on. Most of his pre Goldfiner work is, like this film, pretty flat.
The music score is pretty lousy, though there isn't much of it, especially the stupid end credit music that further eats away the tone of the piece.
There are risky elements for the time and had the film been made in America then it would have been a disaster. Sim is quite good but perhaps a bit too laid back, though he has most of the best moments performance wise, it is again a bit of a missed opportunity to have him not rip loose ever. His expression at the end is memorable. The young brother and sister character's probably come off best, though Bryan Forbes drunk act at one point turns into a good Stan Laurel or Charlie Chaplin thing, that isn't really appropriate.
Well photographed and produced, the DVD is spotless. I suppose most or anyone who's heard of this story saw the lat 90's revival which I liked better than this film.
So if you prefer your drawing room mysteries done very dry and very safe you'll love this film and it's good on that level if you can still buy into the things that don't stick perhaps to convention.
But we'll have to wait for a less safe, more dramatic version of the very good source material rather than this film which prefers melodrama.