This really only works as a piece of nostalgia, nowadays - but it has a gentle charm to it that illustrates a semblance of community spirit (and mischievous bloody-mindedness) that just about keeps it watchable for an hour. It all centres around a local campaign to save the one remaining gas lamp in a small community. This lamp requires the services of a full-time lamp-lighter and the council have decreed that electric lighting is cheaper and more efficient. Councillor "Jack" (Francis Matthews) is the principal driver of this change and when he infiltrates a protest meeting he falls for "Lisa" (Mary Clarke) and perhaps romance can blossom - despite the fact that they are on different sides of the argument? Meantime, this proposed change is all very much to the chagrin of the "Potts" siblings (Ian Fleming and Amy Dalby) who have a bit of history when to comes to dealing with unwelcome problems - and Hoover salesmen. Poor "Jack" is now on their radar, and things look pretty perilous for him. There is a fun and well written dynamic between the "Potts" but they don't have quite enough screen time to sustain the rest of the mediocre acting and a really rather flat effort from Miss Clarke. I did rather enjoy the ending, though, and it's still worth watch.
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CinemaSerf11 February 2023
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Paularoc9 September 2012This early sixties British film is enjoyable thanks to the portrayals of the elderly brother and sister who want to halt all progress including the replacement of the last remaining gas street light. The light is located in their street, interestingly named Assassin Mews. The elderly siblings have an especial aversion to vacuum cleaner door to door salesmen and are gleefully killing them off. A community activist who wants more controlled development becomes acquainted with them. The "villain" in the movie is councilman Jack Norton who is a strong advocate for development and progress. So, the siblings decide to knock him off with amusing if predictable results. When I hear references made to "the good old days," I am reminded of what some wit said about nostalgia: if you miss the good old days, turn off your air conditioning.
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boblipton5 February 2023In a small township, the forces of progress on the council are opposed to the forces of tradition in the collection of citizens called 'Save Mornley's Beauty Spots', with its leader schoolteacher Lisa Daniely. The current furor is over the last gaslamp around, in Assassin Mews, for which the borough employs a full-time lamplighter. Given that Ian Fleming and his sister Amy Dalby have been electrocuting vacuum-cleaner salesmen and been disposing of their bodies in a nearby tip, the matter seems important. Its chiefest proponent, Francis Matthews, goes incognito to a meeting of the opposing groups, and falls in love with Miss Daniely. She likes him too. Miss Dalby recognizes him, but thinks that telling Miss Daniely would be distressing to the youngster, so they decide to kill Matthews, who has just moved into the Mews.
It's an amusing black comedy, quite obviously derived from Arsenic And Old Lace, and the two oldsters provide much of the fun in the show with their familial bickering and failed attempts. Will their murderous rampage be discovered? Will the young lovers somehow get together? Most important, will the lamp be saved from the oppressive regime of progress, always progress? If you wish to know, you'll have to look at it yourself. -
barahona28 November 1999The Showtime cable network a few years ago showed several British black and white movies from the early 60's that were each a little over an hour long. I found a few of them enjoyable (at least they were short!). This oddball comedy is about an elderly couple who kill a couple of people for reasons I really can't remember. (Assassin Mews is the name of the street they live on). Nothing special but painless attempt at making murder hilarious.
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malcolmgsw28 April 2023This is a production of the Danzigers made at their New Elstree studios. It was produced for distribution by United Artists. So if they were lucky and the film went out with a successful American A feature they would make a lot of money from Eady Levy.
This is an attempt at a black comedy which only comes off for a while. Its almost an attempt to take off,in a small way,Arsenic and Old Lace. The old couple having done away with a number of vaccum cleaner salesmen.. Francis Matthews and Lisa Danielle make rather bland leads. So it is left to the supporting characters to lend a bit of colour to this film.