An incredibly slow moving plot, where nothing happens for what seems like hours, is somewhat salvaged by a disarming final twenty minutes or so, where we find out that things are not what they seem. Adulterous wife, Anne, of blind composer, Paul, openly flaunts her affair with Ricky, a painter of unsaleable art works. She wants Paul's money, and tells Ricky that their affair is over unless he agrees to bump Paul off in order to fund their future together. But it turns out that Ricky is an even more incompetent murderer than he is a painter, so Paul survives and explains the plot to him. Ricky is actually a stooge, set up by Anne to take the rap for the murder, while she and her true lover, Mike, take off with the loot - she and Mike have kept up an act of mutual antipathy in all public appearances as cover for their affair. Anyway, Paul outsmarts them, and the police nab the villains.
Okay, so the ending creates some unexpected interest, but you wonder whether the revelation of Anne's affair with Mike rather undoes the logic of what's gone before. For example, why does Mike need to pretend to Paul that he saw Anne and Ricky in a restaurant together - the lovers' plan does not require that Paul knows anything about the affair, they only need Ricky to believe that Anne plans a future with him once Paul is dead? Also, as far as we see, Anne spends every available minute away from Paul, on various phoney pretexts, having sex with Ricky, and Mike is meant to be okay with that is he? We have no idea when Anne and Mike are getting their quality time together, so in this sense the film doesn't really play fair with the viewer. And, if the 'perfect murder' plan is plausible enough to convince Ricky, why not just do the deed themselves, and save Anne all the wasted time, and sex, with a man she has no interest in?
A competent cast do their jobs largely convincingly, just a shame about the needless Ronnie Carrol, and those hideous songs.
Okay, so the ending creates some unexpected interest, but you wonder whether the revelation of Anne's affair with Mike rather undoes the logic of what's gone before. For example, why does Mike need to pretend to Paul that he saw Anne and Ricky in a restaurant together - the lovers' plan does not require that Paul knows anything about the affair, they only need Ricky to believe that Anne plans a future with him once Paul is dead? Also, as far as we see, Anne spends every available minute away from Paul, on various phoney pretexts, having sex with Ricky, and Mike is meant to be okay with that is he? We have no idea when Anne and Mike are getting their quality time together, so in this sense the film doesn't really play fair with the viewer. And, if the 'perfect murder' plan is plausible enough to convince Ricky, why not just do the deed themselves, and save Anne all the wasted time, and sex, with a man she has no interest in?
A competent cast do their jobs largely convincingly, just a shame about the needless Ronnie Carrol, and those hideous songs.