GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Claire Dunne One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

tony-70-667920 This is the only feature directed by Stephen Clarkson. It's hard to see why, as he does a good job, and co-wrote the script with Maisie Sharman. I'm grateful to Renown and their Talking Pictures TV for the chance to see this rare film.A teacher at a south of England girls' school is murdered, and since she had a talent for angering her colleagues, there are plenty of suspects. The investigation is led by Inspector Campbell from Scotland Yard. He's a dour Scot with a chip on his shoulder (he'd definitely have voted for independence!) but fortunately he's played by Gordon Jackson, who's always a sympathetic presence. I saw him play a villain in another Renown offering, I think "The Delavine Affair," and he didn't ring true.One reviewer complained about the cut-glass accents, but given the date and milieu they're to be expected. The Queen still talks like that, and I agree it's irritating, but not as irritating as the inaudibility of so many modern American actors, which makes you wonder why their scriptwriters bothered writing dialogue."Death|" is unusual for a British B of the '50s is that there's some humour. When Campbell asks Miss Shepherd what book she's been reading she says "Death in Seven Hours", the book by Ms Sharman on which this film is based. She then needles the inspector by saying that an amateur sleuth solved the mystery. This gives the audience a clue, as later she solves the mystery before him, though to be fair that's because she'd seen something and not told him about it.All in all, an enjoyable way to spend 64 minutes.

howardmorley I could only award this 1953 film 5/10.As the diner guest in Basil Fawlty's restaurant at "Fawlty Towers" said when asked by Basil "Did he like his meal?" he responded, (the way I felt when I saw this film today with my wife, an ex-teacher at a primary school); "Well it was adequate".So I appear to damn the film with faint praise but look at the obvious production budget.In the year of the coronation most British cinemas showed a cartoon, Pathe news, a "B" feature before "the big "A" picture" and I suspect this would have been a "B" picture then.We must therefore expect cheaper relatively unknown actors/actresses and virtually no locational shots filmed outside the studio system.Indeed the only actors I recognised were:Gordon Jackson, Sam Kydd, Beatrice Varley and Barbara Murray, hardly household names then and probably unknown to our American friends who saw this film.Now having got the carping out of the way did it have some good points?Well yes, the screenwriters managed to keep "whodunnit" right to the end but the motive for murder was not sufficiently evident to me.There would be a job awaiting Miss Shepherd in the police if she wanted to give up music teaching but having teaching in my family, it tends to get into your blood.

nova-63 The scene is a girls school where a pupil discovers the strangled body of her teacher. The dead woman had made many enemies at the school during her stay so there is no shortage of suspects. Scotland Yard arrives with Inspector Campbell (Gordon Jackson) in charge of the investigation. Key to the probe is a small ladies footprint found at the scene of the crime, prompting Inspector Campbell to believe the woman was murdered by another staff member.The print I saw was clear and crisp and the production values nice for a low budget British mystery. The cast was solid but not spectacular in their work. The screenplay is somewhat staid and lacking an energy. The film tells the story from the viewpoint of the Police Inspector and a young schoolteacher who is under investigation. This crossing of views should deliver a interesting journey, yet it remains quite sedate.I enjoyed this film. It was nice to see Gordon Jackson in a lead role and it was nice to discover a rare, old British mystery. This is not a lost gem, but a nice film for fans of British mysteries, like myself.

junk-monkey Synopsis: An unpopular teacher at an all girls school is found strangled behind the sports pavilion with another teacher's scarf around her throat. An inspector from Scotland Yard and his sergeant arrive to investigate. One of the teachers provides him with the clues that lead to the murderer (another member of staff) but when presented with the evidence that will lead to her discovery the murderer takes an overdose of sleeping tablets and dies.Nicely photographed but talky and dull and, apart from a few MOS exteriors (arriving and departing shots), stays firmly in the same few sets. This film was made in the days when everyone in British movies talked with perfect diction and faultless grammar - indeed in this film characters actually correct each other's grammar. Not a long vowel sound to be heard. Everyone is so po-faced and brittle it hurts. The actors do their thing in the solid, constipated, stiff upper lip, style required at the time.The plot is thin, the characters have no emotional depth but above all it is marred by a weird narrative structure. Parts of the story are voiced over by one of the teachers as she does her own investigation but most of the time the camera follows the Scotland Yard men - it doesn't work....and it beggars belief that a Scotland Yard inspector would arrive at a crime scene, enquire whether anything has been disturbed, then light a cigarette and drop the match on the floor.