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Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The plot makes no sense at all - just enjoy the acting from John Mills, Derek Farr and others. And the various flats and offices. Derek Farr is a bit of a playboy, and has a modernist flat with a trellis from which to hang flowerpots, modernistic sculpture and tribal art. John Mills's flat has an entrance in a mews, but is huge (mews cottages, converted from stables, are tiny). It also has a view of a Hawksmoor church, instead of the opposite side of the mews. Since his flat is being watched by baddies and the police, he's lucky there is another entrance up a fire escape and through a glass skylight. By the way, although the cast are admittedly middle-class, none of them live in the "suburbs", but in the centre of London, and it's always lovely to see glimpses of the city as it was.More goofs: Lionel Jeffries turns up at John Mills's consulting room pretending to be a journalist. He asks a lot of questions, but has nothing to write the answers on and takes no notes. John Mills then gets the mysterious phone call from "Charles" to pick up a German actress from a very classy London airport. He is told a lot of information: times, places, addresses, but again takes no notes - he is holding the phone in his right hand, and is right handed.When he and Lionel get to the airport, he has the actress paged, but then Lionel waves and says the actress has turned up and is in the car. John joins them, without telling the airport girl to stop paging Frieda.There's a nervous looking woman called Mrs Amber or Ambler who tells a story of finding a corpse with its head bashed in by a brass candlestick on Hampstead Heath which then disappears. Bits of the candlestick keep turning up, and Mrs Ambler keeps changing her story. I have no idea what this has to do with anything.The police sport enigmatic smiles and seem to know a lot they aren't telling John Mills. I love Francis Durbridge - how did he get away with it for so long? Perhaps it was the sophisticated ambiance - everyone keeps offering each other glasses of whisky and cigarettes from silver boxes.

I like the phrase "British post war suburban paranoia" that one of the reviewers used. It describes so well the kind of films John Mills excelled in ("The October Man" (1947), "The Long Memory" (1952)) in between "big" pictures ("Scott of the Antartic" (1948) and "War and Peace" (1956)).This distinctly "Eric Ambler" style plot had John Mills playing Dr. Howard Latimer, who promises his friend, Charles, (unseen) to meet a visiting German actress, Frieda Veldon (Lisa Daniely) at the airport. A creepy "reporter" Jeffrey Windsor (Lionel Jeffries) is in his consulting rooms at the time and offers to give him a lift but while he is tracking the actress down Windsor informs him she is already in the car waiting!!! (something fishy is going on!!!). Howard is dropped off for his date and thinks no more about it.The next night he finds her body when he arrives home from work, further more, he finds his friend Charles could not have rung him as he is still in New York and Windsor doesn't seem to exist. Earlier on a patient, Mrs Ambler(Rene Ray) who has been referred to him by Doctor George Kimber (Mervyn Johns) tells of her recurring dream about finding a dead body and a brass candlestick with a square base. It is a nightmare that is coming true for Howard but of course when Detective Inspector Dane (Roland Culver) interviews her, she denies all knowledge of the conversation - the candlestick is later found in the boot of Howard's Daimler.When Howard is lying low, Robert Brady (Wilfred Hyde-White) visits him. He calls himself a "friend" - he has a photo of Windsor that he wants to trade for a box of matches Frieda gave Howard at the airport. Howard returns to the flat, Charles rings and while Howard is on the phone an unknown assailant knocks him out and steals the matches!!! Who can he trust - who hasn't something to hide!!!This is a top thriller - not quite in the same class as "The October Man", but with John Mills doing what he does best - playing ordinary men caught up in impossible mysteries!!!Highly Recommended.

This interesting - if flawed - Hitchcock wannabe, unexpectedly delights in the period snapshots of London circa 1957/8. The embankment / London Zoo / 'London Airport', together with lots of cigarettes and social etiquette. Mills is accomplished in the role of the consultant/surgeon thrown into a game of 'cat and mouse', even if the dénouement is a little corny.In addition to the cameos by Lionel Jeffries, and a relatively young Wilfred Hyde-White, Roland Culver cuts a familiar, yet enigmatic, figure as the all-seeing, all-knowing Inspector - far better than many similar roles in some Hitchcock thrillers.

Several commentors here and elsewhere have noted that this is the type of story tat Hitchcock was able to exploit so well. Its a sort of post-noir noir where the capricious fate is preserved but the darkness is taken away.The big question is: why didn't this work and Hitchcock's stuff did? It isn't any of the usual suspects: actors or story or pacing or anything like that.I think it was the camera. Hitch's camera isn't connected to what his characters see and know. This camera (and Scorsese's for instance) are. When there's a puzzle, and we know that a certain fellow is the mark, it is a mistake to force the viewer to identify with him. That disconnected camera is a subtle effect, but powerful.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.