A sensational comic performance by Glynis Johns will have you completely entranced, and she shares honors with veteran British music hall star Cicely Courtneidge in this version of a lesser known Agatha Christie mystery. Johns and husband John Justin (along with Justin's daughter from a previous marriage, Wendy Turner) have leased a large home where a mysterious intruder is found murdered leading towards all sorts of intrigue (often comical in nature) that has the local police baffled yet has the audience both in stitches and biting their nails.
Sliding panels, secret drawers in desks, choreographed direction (in the tradition of the best stage farce) and frantic performances add to the frazzled characterizations of everyone present. Johns, achieving world wide recognition after "Mary Poppins", was already a huge success on the British stage and in cinema, is letter perfect. She moves around the crowded sets with the grace of a veteran ballerina and doesn't give one false note in her perfect performance. Cicely Courtneidge steals every scene she's in as the caretaker, and it's impossible not to adore her.
Jack Hulbert, Ronald Howard and David Nixon (not Niven as I mistakingly read in the credits) add delightful comic support, and the sets, direction and photography (along with a comical musical score) aide immeasurably to the success of this nearly flawless British comic mystery. This is a gem of British cinema that after discovering that I will delightfully revisit over and over again.
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