What Happened Then?

In a contemporary advertisement, Richard Bird endorses a popular brand of cigarette. He enjoys one '10 minutes before my cue'. Given some of his bizarre histrionics in this film, one can only wonder if some rascal substituted one of his favourites for a more exotic weed. His performance has to be seen to be believed. There's plenty of competition though for worst actor from Geoffrey Wardwell, a young-(ish) Raymond Huntley and the man playing the murder victim. While Kathleen Harrison reminded me of the great Stanley Baxter playing Kathleen Harrison.

Black and white British films are often erroneously designated as Quota Quickies on IMDb and other sites, but this is an example of the real thing. An almost non-stop talk-fest taking place on a couple of sets, it was adapted apparently from a Broadway play and clearly with the minimum amount of imagination. It's one of those films that earned the Quickies and by extension British films in general such a poor reputation among many contemporary domestic audiences. There are some decent performances including those from the always reliable Francis L. Sullivan, while George Zucco turns up in a small role as a police inspector, but these hardly make it worth watching.