Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

A few years before "Jigsaw" the County Borough of Brighton Police as it was called in those days was embroiled in one of the worst corruption scandals of the 20th century. From Chief Constable downwards many officers were arrested,some charged others sacked over a culture of taking bungs from local villains. It was known as the "Bucket of blood" case after the eponymous drinking club where the money changed hands. As a result morale fell exponentially and a once - proud force struggled for some years to restore public confidence. By 1962 green shoots were showing and detectives were able to set relatively confidently about their tasks without general opprobrium. Hence messrs Warner and Lewis were reflecting a more bullish attitude than they might have done a little earlier. Certainly the town had its seedy side.It was still the go -to place for dirty weekends with obliging landladies welcoming cash - bearing adulterers with open arms and certainly the shady relationship between the murderer and victim wouldn't have raised an eyebrow within or without the C.I.D. The film reflects the grinding monotony of most police work. In fact without DNA,CCTV,computers or other such aids it is remarkable that any serious crime was detected at all. A tribute to the doggedness of the officers and their determination to get not just "a" result - but the right result. Before it became a "Rainbow" city Brighton was very suitable to monochrome photography and "Jigsaw" captures its elusive spirit very well. It has become fashionable to dismiss British films before the New Wave directors got their middle - class Oxbridge hands on them as dull and provincial. This excellent example of the genre gives the lie to that calumny.

This film starring Jack Warner as a police Deputy Inspector was made during Warner's peak of fame. For 21 years, from 1955 to 1976, Warner played the policeman George Dixon in DIXON OF DOCK GREEN, in a total of an astonishing 432 episodes. This film was therefore guaranteed a good reception by the British public because Warner as a policeman had become a national institution by this time. The film was extremely well directed by Val Guest, who will probably always be best remembered for his superior science fiction films THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (sic; also starring Jack Warner, 1955) and THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE (1959). The female lead in the film is the American actress Yolande Donlan, Val Guest's wife. He had already directed her in ESPRESSO BONGO in 1959, the film he made before this one. Donlan is very good in the part. Val and Yolande were a very pleasant couple. I visited them at their home in St. John's Wood in London and they were charming and excellent conversationalists. That was long ago, when Yolande was in her forties and very much still a vibrantly attractive woman with a lively personality. I do not know why she did not appear in more films and chose to retire in 1981. She only died a few months ago at the age of 94. This film is based on a novel by the American mystery writer Hillary Waugh, who was no relation to Evelyn Waugh. There are many Waughs in Britain related to Evelyn, and I suppose one could call them the long-tailed Waughs, in which case Hillary Waugh might be styled a short-tailed Waugh, in order to differentiate him from the British variants of his species. They all come from Ireland anyway, and in the mists of time they must all have been one big Oneness, sitting by their peat fires dug from the same bog. The story is a good one, and the title refers to the fact that the police are trying to fit together the pieces of an exasperating jigsaw in order to solve a woman's murder. There are so few clues that the story of detection is fascinating. The film is set in Brighton, and there is a great deal of location shooting there and in Lewes, which show the towns as they were back then, nearly deserted and entirely lacking the sleaze of modern commercialism and identikit chain stores. Living conditions in Britain in 1961 were so basic, and that comes across well. John Le Mesurier has a minor role in this film, and has to do a lot of emoting and crying, for which he was by means noted in his later career as a droll and comic figure. One simply is not used to seeing Le Mesurier sobbing like that, so it makes a change. Le Mesurier commenced his film acting career as long ago as 1938 so he was very much a veteran of the screen already by this early date, six years before he became a national institution as one of the stars of the popular TV series DAD'S ARMY. Le Mesurier had however already made a name for himself in comedy by appearing with Tony Hancock in various episodes of HANCOCK'S HALF HOUR (1957-1960), which are now considered prize classics of their genre. Supporting Jack Warner as the other main policeman is that stalwart of TV and screen, Ronald Lewis. It is sobering to think that he was 41 years younger than Yolande Donlan when he died. This film is certainly a very good yarn, and highly entertaining.

I first saw this film at the ABC Golders Green on 26th September 1962.It was a film that stuck in the memory.I watched it again last night and I have to say that it has lost none of its atmosphere over the years.I have been going to Brighton for over 50 years so I remember the Brighton of the era shown in this film.The film was a very straight forward plot which it tells exceedingly well.It isn't that difficult to guess the murderer but that doesn't spoil it.The only performance out of kilter is that of Donla who is allowed to go well over the top for no good reason.One interesting point is that there is little in the way of forensics in this film just plain legwork.

brilliant atmospheric film set on the Brighton coast in 1962. Jack Warner (66 years of age in real life) is the slightly caustic but nevertheless kindly commanding officer who runs the investigation. Great support from Ronald Lewis and a dazzling role from Michael Goodliffe(spooky to think that they both committed suicide in reality).See if you can spot the killer before Jack, believe me it is a shocker. Also there is a nice little twist at the end. The cast is top notch and there is a general seediness at the locations that the Brighton tourist board must have had concerns about.For a taut procedural police study this film is right at the top of the tree matched only by the Long Arm(Jack Hawkins) an absolute corker of a film and thanks to Nigel for providing me with a DVD of this film. This film is a must see.