People are voting emotionally.

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

A Viewfinder Films Production for British Lion/Bryanston Films. Released in the U.S.A. by Cinema V Distributing, Inc. New York opening simultaneously at the Embassy and the Murray Hill: 24 November 1964. Not copyrighted in the U.S.A. U.K. release through Bryanston/British Lion: 1 December 1963. Location scenes filmed in London. 8,409 feet. 93 minutes. Cut to 90 minutes in the U.S.A. U.S. release title: The MODEL MURDER CASE. SYNOPSIS: Inspector Birkett and Sergeant Saunders are called in to investigate the murder of a model, in whose ransacked apartment the only clues they find consist of a cheap ballpoint pen and a gun which has been hidden in the toilet cistern. They interview her neighbor, television actor David Dane; her mother, Mrs Gray; her friend, Perlita; Perlita's husband, Hammond, and his brother Jordon; all without making much evident progress. The investigation later goes further afield, and they interview Rodney Herter, manager of a select gambling club; former opera star, Madame Lavalle; and William Lamotte, a prominent shipping magnate.COMMENT: Very well directed (I particularly like the scene in the deserted prima donna's chamber, with Elizabeth Vaughan's enchanting voice on the sound track), beautifully photographed, but a script that, ingenious and witty though it may be, evidently lends itself to some curiously stiff and wooden performances. One could almost cite the entire cast with the exception of Fraser and Asher. Still, it's an entertaining film, far above the level of the usual Scotland Yard whodunit. (Available on a very good Odeon DVD).

Police realism and location shooting pre-Bergerac. Ian Hendry is the laid-back detective with the annoyingly perky wife. In a scene that initially looks like a fashion shoot, a part-time model is found shot. The detectives shuffle around her flat, which is decorated in busy patterned wallpaper, with frilly nylon underwear spilling out of drawers. They move upstairs, where lives a beautiful TV star (male), his Pekinese, his fur staircarpet and his ruched net curtains, played by James Villiers. Homosexuality was not legalised for a few more years, and attitudes were changing, but the word still couldn't be spoken. The poor man is eventually found (after a lot of plot twists) stabbed in a gay club. We get there via a washed-up opera singer's shrine to herself (shown off by devoted Rosalie Crutchley) and a dubious baroque casino. Any London film of this period has to end up at the river - the fog, the boats, the gritty docksides were a gift to film-makers. Underneath it all is a drug-dealing plot with clues hidden inside identical biros. A gem.

This film has recently surfaced on Movies4Men.It is the sort of police drama that would be the support to some big American film at the Odeon or ABC.Ian hendry who stars in this ,should really have become a big star,but his career spiraled downward in the seventies mainly due to his drinking which eventually killed him at a very early age.I in fact saw him in a sorry state in a pub in Golders Green Road.The film is really a bit of a mess.There are too many suspects with lots of red herrings.the murderer is rather unlikely with no clues given as to the killers identity.The detectives always just get home when the phone rings and they have to go out again.You just wonder at the great overtime bills they must be clocking up.They literally plod around crime scenes picking up items willy nilly in a way that could easily wipe any prints.Clearly no SOCO at that time.Ronald Fraser plays the slightly comic detective.However i have to say that all this film induced in me was sleep.

And no Christie either.Hence a rather unexciting detective story which blends Agatha's whodunit with film noir elements.A bevy of characters is overkill in lieu of a well-constructed mystery.The performances are a bit listless and the director tries a hand at humor with one of his inspectors'cold.Attshoo!The most interesting in this movie is the settings,chiefly in the second half.One of them seems to be a gay bar,but the word (it's 1963)is not uttered;Some scenes are filmed on location on the Thames banks; a chase in a graveyard is rather good.Nevertheless,it will satisfy neither Christie's countless following (the plot is too poor) nor the film noir buffs (too watered-down and not enough ambiguity).Stick with Hercule,Jane,and co.