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1940-06-15
N/A
77 min
A man witnesses a murder that isn't a murder, only to get involved with the magician and his wife who created the illusion. The insanely jealous magician husband eventually kills his wife, making for complications in life of unhappily married man who is now involved more than he ever thought he would be.
Michael Redgrave "Peter" works by day on a building site, his wife "Pat" (Patricia Roc) works by night as a switchboard operator - they are saving up so they can, hopefully, stop living like ships that pass in the night. On his way to work one day, he is certain that he spies a brutal murder from the window of his train. Enlisting the help of the police, he arrives at the apartment of Paul Lukas, the almost maniacally possessive "Zoltini" and his young wife "Vivian" (Sally Gray), a magical duo who insist they were just rehearsing for their latest stage act. So no crime committed... yet!? It's got some interesting photography of pre-war London and some fun scenarios from the now long-gone music halls to compliment the quite humorous banter between the characters - especially the girls on the switchboard. The plot is a bit quirkier than you might expect, and the dashing Redgrave works well with the story. Therein lies the problem, though - the plot is weak, and Lukas overcooks his performance quite badly - both elements detract from an otherwise quite engaging 80 minutes with quite a suitable, if not entirely unexpected, denouement, too.
