Lack of good storyline.

Excellent but underrated film

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Despite a tendency to be overshadowed by the likes of Carol Reed, David Lean, etc, Puffin Asquith was arguably the finest all-round Director to emerge from England turning out consistent high quality product unlike Reed, for example, whose early work was risible. By the mid forties Asquith was on a roll and between 1945 and 1952 he turned out six exceptional movies, The Way To The Stars, While The Sun Shines, The Winslow Boy, The Woman In Question, The Browning Version and The Importance Of Being Earnest. The first was an Original Screenplay by Terence Rattigan, the next two were adaptations of plays by Rattigan, the fourth was an Original by John Cresswell, the fifth was another adaptation of a Rattigan play and the sixth was by Oscar Wilde. Jean Kent featured prominently in two of the six, this one, and its successor, The Browning Version, a masterpiece and one of the finest films ever produced in England. Beside Rattigan and Wilde the name John Cresswell gets lost in the shuffle and perhaps rightly so; this was his first screen credit and though he achieved a dozen or so more this was arguably his finest hour and even that was a rip-off of Rashomon. It was arguably Jean Kent's finest performance and she revelled in the chance to play Astra the Gypsy Fortune Teller who failed to foresee her own demise and who was five women in one, depending on whether it's Hermione Dabbely, Dirk Bogarde, Susan Shaw, Charles Victor or John McCallum who's describing her. Baddely and Victor provide strongest support with Bogarde so inept that one wonders how he was able to sustain a career - his American accent is so ludicrous that eventually (presumably as a bow to his limitations) he is forced to admit that he hails from Liverpool which is even more ludicrous as he sound pure Home Counties. McCallum and Shaw appear to have struck a private wager on who can deliver the hammiest performance and honours are about even. Despite all this it remains a highly watchable effort.

***SPOILERS*** Clever Rashomon-like British film involving fortune-teller Madam Aster who was found strangled in her flat in an obvious crime of passion by someone she may not have been that passionate with.With policemen Supt. Lodge and his partner Inspt. Butler called on the scene they check out all the clues to Madam Aster's murder and come up with five suspects. As the movie goes on we get statements, and flashbacks, from the five suspects in Madam Aster's murder that all contradict each other. It becomes very apparent to both Lodge & Butler that Madam Aster had deeply offended everyone of the five persons suspected of murdering her. The trick is who of those that she offended was driven to the point of killing her! There's Madam Aster's landlady, and suspect #1, Mrs Finch who didn't like the company that she kept in her apartment that included, suspect# 2, double-talking BS artist and carnival mind reader Bob Baker. It was Baker who left Madam Aster for her far more attractive sister, and suspect #3, Catherine Taylor after she threw him out of her apartment! We, as well as Supt. Lodge & Inspt. Butler, can't leave out the kindly neighborhood "Mr. Fix It All", and suspect #4, Albert Pollard. The meek and always available Pollard was always trying to get the much younger Madam Aster to fall for him and, with both Pollard and Madam Aster still married, become his sex slave or live-in lover. All that the frustrated Pollard ever got from her, for his noble and unselfish services, was nothing more then a handshake smile and thank you!And finally we come to the insanely jealous rummy and bar-room brawler, as well as suspect #5, Sailor Mike Murray who wherever he went violence always followed. Sailor Mike went nuts when he showed up unexpectedly at Madam Aster's apartment, after being out at sea for three months, and finding her with an other man! Throwing Madam Aster's boyfriend, or possible John, down a fight of stairs a fired up Sailor Mike then checked out and got himself juiced up in a local ginmill. With Sailor Mike coming on the scene after Madam Aster's body was discovered by the police was that his way to show that he was innocent of murdering her or him just playing ignorant in order to throw the police off his tail! ***SPOILERS*** It's Supt Lodge who finally cracks the case not by having the evidence lead him to Madam Aster's murderer but the murderer him or herself unknowingly doing the job for him!

Investigating the brutal murder of a fun-fair fortune teller, a detective encounters five different witnesses' accounts of her character.This ingenious noir thriller provides an opportunity for Jean Kent to give the stand-out performance of her career as the murder victim who is seen though different eyes throughout the narrative. Every critic in the world has pointed out this obvious fact, but very few have zeroed in on Susan Shaw who gives a far more subtle but nonetheless equally telling interpretation of the victim's sister as her part in the drama is also recalled by the various witnesses.Also handing out an astonishingly well-rounded performance is Dirk Bogarde who cleverly overdoes the bogus American accent in order to tip the audience off to his real persona. He fooled me completely.All the actors are well-nigh perfect. The only player I have any problem with is Duncan Macrae in the key role of Superintendent Lodge. To my mind, Macrae lacks the charisma for this important part and I would have much preferred to see Duncan Lamont, a fine actor, who does wonders with his small and inconsequential role as a direction finder at the fun fair.Asquith has handled his players well, although I thought that a little more ingenuity in camera angles would have made the film even more noirishly appealing.

'The Woman in Question' shows the same person, the fairground fortune-teller Astra (real name: Agnes) as five different people saw her. Astra has been found strangled and the police chief tries to put together what has happened to her.Jean Kent is excellent - for me, she was at her best in sleazy, tarty roles and the episode seen from her sister's (Susan Shaw) point of view is no exception. I love the moment when we first see this version of Astra, sprawled in bed in a messy room, drunk. The music is wonderful here.Charles Victor plays Mr Pollard, the pet shop owner, with a fine degree of understatement. Hermione Baddeley is equally good as the nosy neighbour Mrs Finch.Jean Kent (in 'Sixty Voices' by Brian McFarlane) felt the episode closest to the character in her view was the happy-go-lucky girl as seen by the Irish sailor played by John McCallum. Her least favourite was the Susan Shaw episode. Apparently Bette Davis had originally been in mind for the part.A very cleverly made film and a classic British film.