6/10
Elaborate Movie From John Dickson Carr Novel
26 June 2022
Wilfrid Hyde-White is rich, aristocratic, and has a lot of people with good reason for killing him, from his collection of jewelry and antiques, to his son, whose marriage he suggests he may forbid, to his daughter, who is married but carrying on an affair. So it's hardl surprising that he's killed at the 30-minute mark in this movie derived from John Dickson Carr's The Emperor's Snuffbox.

Carr is an outsized figure in the evolution of the murder mystery. Not only was he a leading proponent of the locked room mystery, produced so many books he had a pseudonym almost as famous as his real name, and was an early proponent of the historical mystery. The book this was based on was not one of his regular series, but it is considered one of his best.

As for the movie, it's an engaging mystery, with Phyllis Kirk, Petula Clark and Dan O'Herlihy in good-sized roles. Still, it spends most of its time concentrating on the elaborate unraveling of the mystery, rather than the characters, who become thinly realized as a result.
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