Just a terrific little movie, with an absolutely crackerjack performance
from Patricia Dainton as a dutiful but troubled wife who finds when
her back is against the wall that she has reserves of pure steel!! She
is married to self centred composer Norman (Laurence Payne) who,
frustrated with what he feels are the confines of a stuffy middle class
marriage has started an affair with his wife's sister Peggy (Jane Griffith).
Once again it is Dainton as Helen who propels the plot, Peggy seems
one dimensional but in a confrontational scene Helen reveals that
Peggy has always been the spoiled darling of the family - the scene
also gives a Freudian clue to Helen's own psyche as well.
While driving Peggy home from a family dinner Norman runs over an elderly pedestrian and even though he doesn't give another thought to whether the old bloke is dead or alive, this is only the beginning of his problems. The plot twists come thick and fast - Peggy reveals her pregnancy but Helen refuses to give a divorce. Helen is coping with her own crisis - a bad heart which is not going to give her a long life. After some soul searching she visits Peggy to consent to a divorce but then overhears Norman and Peggy hatching an ingenious plot to murder her, with alibis a plenty!! There is also a strange old gent in a caravan over the way who seems to spend a lot of time observing the family's comings and goings!!
And as if that wasn't enough you have the added treat of hearing Dudley Moore's jazzy be-bop piano style and a super rendition of the film's theme "Now and Then" from Cleo Laine, both in their film debuts. From the sure and practised directorial hand of Montgomery Tully who had moved to a company called Eternal at the end of his cinema career in a burst of creativity.
Highly Recommended!!
While driving Peggy home from a family dinner Norman runs over an elderly pedestrian and even though he doesn't give another thought to whether the old bloke is dead or alive, this is only the beginning of his problems. The plot twists come thick and fast - Peggy reveals her pregnancy but Helen refuses to give a divorce. Helen is coping with her own crisis - a bad heart which is not going to give her a long life. After some soul searching she visits Peggy to consent to a divorce but then overhears Norman and Peggy hatching an ingenious plot to murder her, with alibis a plenty!! There is also a strange old gent in a caravan over the way who seems to spend a lot of time observing the family's comings and goings!!
And as if that wasn't enough you have the added treat of hearing Dudley Moore's jazzy be-bop piano style and a super rendition of the film's theme "Now and Then" from Cleo Laine, both in their film debuts. From the sure and practised directorial hand of Montgomery Tully who had moved to a company called Eternal at the end of his cinema career in a burst of creativity.
Highly Recommended!!