The opening shot has a tall, elegant young woman hurrying down the staircase of an old country estate, her skirt flaring. She looks up at the ceiling, presses her fists to her cheeks, and lets out a terrified howl. That's a frightened lady if there ever was one.
I presume the lady is Rachel Kempson, since she seems to be about the only woman in the cast besides Cathleen Nesbitt, who is Lady Lebanon. Kempson is Nesbitt's secretary. Actually Rachel Kempson is pretty appealing. Attractive without being exactly conventionally beautiful, she has long slender limbs and a natural grace. Her ululation, by the way, was caused by her finding a bolt across her bedroom door. Enough to scare the pants off anyone, at least the first time. I got used to it during my marriage.
Cathleen Nesbitt's character is old and brusque, an unlikable aristocrat who bosses everyone around. She's pretty old. Hitchcock used her several times. The last was in 1972's "Family Plot." That's a difference of 36 years and she doesn't look much older then than she did in 1938. One wonders what her diet was like.
Felix Aylmer as a corrupt doctor is another familiar face. He was Polonius in Olivier's "Hamlet." And I was surprised to see an uncredited Torin Thatcher as a guest at Lady Lebanon's dance.
A cheeky chauffeur who knows too much gets himself strangled with a scarf from India. And thus, an investigation by Scotland Yard is initiated. The twisted story is too complicated to explain but observes some of the conventions of the "mad murderer" genre -- a maniac who cackles at the top of his voice and crashes about in the darkness, some red herrings, bell ropes to call the servants, the bedroom that has been kept locked since the Lord of the House died in it.
There are some good lines sprinkled here and there. "It's revolting, being married to produce children. Rather like a Derby winner." Otherwise it's a routine B-level mystery, but not a boring one. At least it was engaging enough to keep me sitting through to the end, to find out who the murderer was. It reminded me a little of Agatha Christie's work in that the objective isn't so much to explore characters as it is to solve a puzzle and restore the social order.
I presume the lady is Rachel Kempson, since she seems to be about the only woman in the cast besides Cathleen Nesbitt, who is Lady Lebanon. Kempson is Nesbitt's secretary. Actually Rachel Kempson is pretty appealing. Attractive without being exactly conventionally beautiful, she has long slender limbs and a natural grace. Her ululation, by the way, was caused by her finding a bolt across her bedroom door. Enough to scare the pants off anyone, at least the first time. I got used to it during my marriage.
Cathleen Nesbitt's character is old and brusque, an unlikable aristocrat who bosses everyone around. She's pretty old. Hitchcock used her several times. The last was in 1972's "Family Plot." That's a difference of 36 years and she doesn't look much older then than she did in 1938. One wonders what her diet was like.
Felix Aylmer as a corrupt doctor is another familiar face. He was Polonius in Olivier's "Hamlet." And I was surprised to see an uncredited Torin Thatcher as a guest at Lady Lebanon's dance.
A cheeky chauffeur who knows too much gets himself strangled with a scarf from India. And thus, an investigation by Scotland Yard is initiated. The twisted story is too complicated to explain but observes some of the conventions of the "mad murderer" genre -- a maniac who cackles at the top of his voice and crashes about in the darkness, some red herrings, bell ropes to call the servants, the bedroom that has been kept locked since the Lord of the House died in it.
There are some good lines sprinkled here and there. "It's revolting, being married to produce children. Rather like a Derby winner." Otherwise it's a routine B-level mystery, but not a boring one. At least it was engaging enough to keep me sitting through to the end, to find out who the murderer was. It reminded me a little of Agatha Christie's work in that the objective isn't so much to explore characters as it is to solve a puzzle and restore the social order.
