Sorry, this movie sucks

The acting in this movie is really good.

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

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

This little mystery is great fun, and zips along familiar cinematic paths with professional skill, all the Warner technicians called into play to fashion a quickie "B" mystery with some of the best of the character actors around, and one new guy, Turhan Bey, who was still wet behind the ears, but managed to be "clever and cunning" and craftily mysterious.From the opening shots on a foggy wharf, with a mysterious large box hoisted off as ship and into a truck, the extremely mobile camera transports us quickly to an English boarding house crammed with lamps and antimacassars and ferns and portraits and zooms from upstairs to downstairs and in and out of doors as suspects in a crime skulk about and share concerns and accusations with mild hysteria lurking just below their civilized surfaces.But this is not a serious film; it is a fast-paced gem full of strange relationships, a murder or two, folks running about in disguises, and, at last, a clueless police force showing up as things get out of hand, a couple of bodies in locked upstairs rooms. I was never bored, was often amused, had a devil of a time attempting to pin down who-done-it, and much enjoyed the offbeat characters written into the script. Would that much of today's major films had the virtues of succinctness!

Keeping in mind that this movie is totally American and the UK had been at war for quite a while, most people everywhere were looking for something to enjoy and smile about. Those who critique this movie as lacking some action/adventurous mystery just don't understand the feelings and thoughts of the early 1940s when the US would be facing Pearl Harbor in just 9 months from this release. And for the Warner Bros. to send a kind and light-hearted film to the UK when they were facing bombs and death was a good thing. Some of the critiques here went as far as criticizing the actors - all of whom did their jobs very well. But then I'm familiar with those who think they know more than they actually do know. The bumbling police, the silly portrayal of the women were all designed in the story to bring that light-heartiness to the viewer. I'm surprised there wasn't a cute Scottish Terrier running around. So if you like a Light movie without the blood and guts as some people here wished to have seen, this is a pleasant stage play turned into a cute movie for a hour's time.

The blurb on my DVD says "the creatively twisted ending is what has contributed to the popularity of this movie for the past six decades"!!!!! Don't believe it. I would class the ending as very annoying and in the "it's all a dream" category - even though it isn't.As in many of these "little' films there are tons of stars. Frieda Inescourt plays the owner of a boarding house.Heather Angel plays Sylvia, the landlady's daughter. I adore her. In the same film collection as this one she is also in "Bulldog Drummond Escapes" - where she is very smart and sassy.Phyllis Barry, who in 1932 made such a splash as a jilted shop girl in "Cynara", 10 years later was reduced to playing maids and uncredited bits. In this film she plays Lucy, the put upon maid.Bossy (and married) Mrs. Armitage, the boarding house owner, is having an affair with Mr. Reynolds (Paul Cavanaugh), who, in turn, is having an affair with Lucy, the parlour maid.Turhan Bey (in between Maria Montez and Sabu films) plays a mysterious boarder.Strange things start to happen - someone is found unconscious under a bed. (You find out who did that early in the film). There is a strange person in a shawl on the stairs (the clues lie in a conversation at the beginning of the film.) Then Lucy disappears. Then Mr. Reynolds is shot dead. Mrs. Armitage has hysterics. There is also a mysterious note delivered half way through the film. "Dear Dwight - Why are you going under the alias Hugh Bromilow". Why indeed - everything is explained in the end.

Witty little British Whodunit based on the Frank Vosper play "Murder on the Second Floor" has everyone in the cast suspected of murdering one of the tenants of the Armitage Lodging House where they all live in, but who did it? Joe Reynolds is found stabbed to death in his room and everyone in the lodge may have a good reason to have done him in.Ram Sigh, Turhan Bey, who we saw at the beginning of the film together with Joe, at the London docks, working for an organization to free India from British rule. Singh as a patriot and Reynolds as a profiteer. They later got into an argument at the lodge about the money, $500,000.00, that was supposed to go to that organization. Singh is later attacked in his room by some thug whom he killed, who may have worked for Joe. Sella Armitage, Fredia Inescort, the owner together with her husband Tom, Milles Mender, has been having an affair with Joe. Tom earlier in the movie caught her and Joe embracing without them knowing about it. Did Tom kill Joe in a fit of jealous rage? There's Lucy, Phyllis Barry, the lodge's maid who was also having an affair with Joe behind Stella's back. Did Lucy murder Joe because he broke it off and at the same time did Stella kill Joe for him two-timing her? The last three person residing at the Armitage Lodge are Tom & Stella's daughter Sylvia, Heather Angel, playwright Hugh Bromilow, Bruce Lester, and spinster Phoebe Martis St. John Snell, Mary Field.On the surface the three don't seem to have any reason for killing Joe but there something in the past that we'll find out later in the movie that he did to one, or all, of them to make them murder him. All I can say is that even the great Sherlock Holmes would have a hard time solving this murder mystery much less the audience.