I realize the Brits have famously terrible teeth. I guess it never occurred to me that it was due to a critical shortage of dentists. I mean, if my dentist blackmails me I may or not pay him off on the blackmail, but for sure I'm getting my cavities filled by a different dentist. The LAST thing I do is go to the blackmailing dentist and let him use potentially lethal gas on me. For one thing, what if, after I've threatened to kill him in the previous scene, he decides it's too risky to keep blackmailing me and devises a plot to murder me. I mean, ''patient dies in dentist's chair" wasn't exactly rare in those days. It might not even result in a coroner's inquiry.
Anyway, if you can overlook that total implausibility, this movie is a decent crime thriller. It's expertly staged, directed and acted. Well above average for its genre and for British movies in general.
Plus, any movie with Haya Harareet (there are only 9, after all) is a rare treasure. It's not an exaggeration to say she was one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the silver screen.
Stewart Granger proves he didn't have to take his shirt off or shoot any lions to dominate the screen. Yet Bernard Lee nearly steals the show as a jaded veteran detective. And if he doesn't, the slovenly slum hotel desk clerk Willoughby Godard certainly does.
To say the story wraps up with an extremely satisfying philosophical note would be understating things. What a refreshing, mature surprise.
Anyway, if you can overlook that total implausibility, this movie is a decent crime thriller. It's expertly staged, directed and acted. Well above average for its genre and for British movies in general.
Plus, any movie with Haya Harareet (there are only 9, after all) is a rare treasure. It's not an exaggeration to say she was one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the silver screen.
Stewart Granger proves he didn't have to take his shirt off or shoot any lions to dominate the screen. Yet Bernard Lee nearly steals the show as a jaded veteran detective. And if he doesn't, the slovenly slum hotel desk clerk Willoughby Godard certainly does.
To say the story wraps up with an extremely satisfying philosophical note would be understating things. What a refreshing, mature surprise.