I can only assume that all the interesting and believable parts of this film were cut by the censor, as what's left doesn't work at all. Eddie, a middle-aged, uncharismatic barge business owner/barber and part-time hangman, has a chance meeting with young, attractive loner, Frankie, who appears to have some kind of past from which she is escaping. On Sunday they go to the cinema, and on their third meeting Eddie says 'will you marry me?' and she says 'yes, I love you very much.' At this point you immediately have trouble taking anything that follows seriously, since the central relationship is so absurdly implausible. Once married, Frankie is transformed into a happy-go-lucky housewife (bargewife actually,) with a new vitality, and a new accent (accents, in general, are not among this film's strengths). Eddie hands over his barber shop to his colleague Ron, and concentrates on the barge business, and a bit of hanging people on the side, unknown to Frankie. Trouble arrives in the form of Danish sailor, Olaf, handsome and lustful, who exploits Eddie's hanging absences by seducing Frankie, who might be realising that she's married a geriatric dullard who doesn't float her boat. Eddie returns early one evening, doesn't like what he sees, and takes Olaf on deck to give the bounder a good thrashing. After the obligatory punch-up, Eddie is pushed overboard, and can't be found. The police arrive, and treat Frankie as a suspect despite the fact that witnesses have just described how they saw the whole thing. The police go on deck, and Frankie takes the opportunity to shoot herself, as she can't believe she got involved with such a terrible script. The next morning, Eddie emerges onto the shore, having somehow survived a night in the Thames, and by this time his 'murder', and the arrest of Olaf, is already news in the papers. Olaf must hang, but Eddie can't go through with it, and instead decides to hang himself, and thinks that his barber friend Ron would appreciate it if he was the one to find the body hanging in his shop the next morning.
I find it astonishing that anyone can take this film seriously, let alone give it 10 starts. Nothing about is credible, it's slow-moving (not in a good way). lacks any kind of tension or drama, Eric Portman and Anne Todd do their best in thankless parts, Maxwell Read hams it up as the ne'er-do-well Olaf, and the rest of the cast are stereotypes, from cardboard coppers to the 'salt of the earth' barmaid. But the biggest flaw of the lot is the fact that the story is told in flashback by Eddie, who manages to describe events at which he was not present, and knew nothing about - did nobody spot this huge anomaly during production.
If this were a quota quickie, you half expect al these endearing gaffes, but this film seemed to have higher ambitions. Let's blame the censor.
I find it astonishing that anyone can take this film seriously, let alone give it 10 starts. Nothing about is credible, it's slow-moving (not in a good way). lacks any kind of tension or drama, Eric Portman and Anne Todd do their best in thankless parts, Maxwell Read hams it up as the ne'er-do-well Olaf, and the rest of the cast are stereotypes, from cardboard coppers to the 'salt of the earth' barmaid. But the biggest flaw of the lot is the fact that the story is told in flashback by Eddie, who manages to describe events at which he was not present, and knew nothing about - did nobody spot this huge anomaly during production.
If this were a quota quickie, you half expect al these endearing gaffes, but this film seemed to have higher ambitions. Let's blame the censor.