Simply Perfect

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

A different way of telling a story

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

THE TECKMAN MYSTERY is the kind of programmer that routinely appears on television but regularly released in cinemas in the Forties and Fifties. It concerns a writer, Philip Chance who is asked to write a book about a recently-deceased pilot Martin Teckman. Initially reluctant to do so, he is drawn into a web of intrigue, organized by Martin's sister (Margaret Leighton), in which Martin is revealed to be not dead at all but the victim of a conspiracy that leads to his attempt to kill himself.The film offers some good exterior shots of mid-Fifties London, with mercifully less traffic but plenty of secret areas where corruption thrives. The cast don't have too much to do with their roles: Justin acts the part of the debonair writer in more danger than he thinks, while Leighton is marginally too old for her role. Lovers of Fifties curiosities will note that this thriller is directed by a woman, Wendy Toye, one of the few British women to be operative at that time.

This is based on a story by Francis Durbridge, so we can sit back and enjoy an episodic tale with a twist every ten minutes, in a setting of luxury, cocktails and ever-present cigarettes. Everybody has a fag in their hand the entire time. Roland Culver and Raymond Huntley are always worth watching, and I liked the dry inspector and the bouncy valet. Never mind the plot (actually do, it's a great Durbridge plot), writer Philip Chance's flat has a Whistlerian mural in the entrance hall and is stuffed with antiques and Chinese vases, piquantly set off by modernist paintings by a follower of Braque. (Writers earned more in those days.) Helen Teckman's flat (from the sketches lying about she must a dress designer but this is oddly never mentioned) is full of Lucienne Day textiles and modernist sculptures that get mistaken for ashtrays. Michael Medwin is good as the missing pilot, though you wonder why he never got his teeth fixed. Margaret Leighton as Helen is extraordinary. She is still wearing 30s eyebrows. She makes her second appearance, just dropping by Chance's flat about dinnertime, dressed as if for a Buckingham Palace garden party in a hat and an extraordinary dress with a demi-crinoline that starts life about halfway down her thighs, set off with pearls and a fur wrap. And gloves and a charm bracelet. Yes, she is the height of glamour, but painfully, painfully thin. Her legs look like twiglets. She keeps getting asked out to dinner and lunch, and she even offers Chance tea with sandwiches, but does she ever eat anything? Jane Wenham is good as the pilot's wife. The view from all windows is of a skillful painting of a London skyline, but there are some location scenes - especially in the gripping denouement at the Tower. As well as smoking all the time, everybody drinks too much and this is thought to be terribly witty. A marvellous period piece.

Novelist Philip Chance is pushed into writing a biography about young Pilot Martin Teckman, a young man that died testing a plane (The F109.) He's all set to begin when he gets a job offer in Germany that's almost too good to be true, after being out celebrating with his publisher Maurice Milller he returns home to find a dead man, Garvin, in his living room. Garvin was known to Maurice, and was a friend of Teckman. Philip had made the acquaintance of Teckman's sister Helen on a flight home, she's quizzed by Inspector Hilton and Major Harris. Garvin had worked on the test plane with Teckman. Philip is pulled off his flight, and Helen gets a phone call from whom she thinks is her brother.Frances Durbridge's work has been made adapted several times, but there is always a particular flavour to his work, so much mystery, suspense and intrigue. I'm a huge fan of Melissa, a series penned by Frances, there are definitely similarities.Really enjoyable film, lovely performances, John Justice and Margaret Leighton were particularly good, you are literally left guessing until the very last, 8/10

Considering Miss Toye's over-vaunted reputation with the "in" crowd, it's a wonder this extremely middling "A" feature hasn't made it to DVD. Perhaps even the most desperate distributor would admit that 90 minutes is far too long to engage even the most amiable viewer in a mystery that most disappointingly turns on that over-used plot device: spies. Miss Toye's plodding, stolidly unimaginative direction doesn't help. Neither does Margaret Leighton's rather flat portrayal. Admittedly she is saddled with a thoroughly unconvincing part. Justin does what he can to fill the gap, playing with so much more animation than usual that he could be accused of over-acting. Roland Culver, alas, is saddled with a role that is both small and colorless. Raymond Huntley, it appears at the conclusion, was supposed to be a red herring, but his acting is so stiff that few, if any viewers, would even consider him as a suspect. Likewise Michael Medwin seems thoroughly unconvincing as the subject of a smash-hit biography. Fortunately, Duncan Lamont comes across as an absolute delight as the sarcastic police inspector. All told, however, the film is weighed way down with a surfeit of talk. Twenty minutes of deft editing would certainly improve an audience's lot, even if it meant postponing Miss Leighton's entrance and eliminating the final super-mild exit in the plane. Assistant art director: John Hoesli. Production manager: John Palmer. Assistant directors: Adrian Pryce-Jones, Peter Maxwell. Set continuity: Shirley Barnes. Music played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Western Electric Sound Recording.