Well thats what the BBFC censor of the day would have said.I decided to make this post to correct some errors made in other posts.Up till 1967 when theatre censorship was abolished all stage performances came under the auspices of the Lord Chamberlain.Nudity on the stage was allowed provided that the nude did not move.So the maxim "if it moves its rude".So there were no strippers or nude dancing of any kind at The Windmill.There were "tableaux vivant" as they were called.Artfully posed nudes.So the show we see on screen is nothing like the one that would actually be performed on the stage.This film was made when the Windmill was still at its peak.In the fifties strip clubs would open up in adjacent Soho so men could go to see striptease without having to see variety acts,music hall at that time also dying.By the early sixties The Windmill had to close.The Theatre is still there but i believe that it is now a nightclub.This film is a historic reminder of what used to happen there.As they used to say "We Never Clothed".
15 Reviews
Walk Down Windmill Street
boblipton30 June 2017
A man is killed at that most dangerous place in the world: a theater. Movie stalwart Detective Inspector Garry Marsh shows up with comic-relief sergeant Jon Pertwee to investigate. This involves recreating the show, during which the front-row victim was offed.
The Windmill, for those of you who haven't seen MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS, was the London music hall that included tableaux vivantes to get around British law that forbade nudity on the stage -- unless the performer didn't move. Alas, the film producers never offer much more than the sort of semi-revealing costumes that I saw at Radio City Music Hall as a child. Neither was I terribly impressed by the mystery aspect. I spotted the killer early on, but found no clue leading to the detection until the final revelation.
Still, there are some good, if not particularly memorable revue numbers, and the performers are pretty young women. There is also one particularly funny bit in which a comic, used to a large, appreciative audience, is forced to go through his routine for two tired, stony-faced detectives. Although it's strictly a B movie, it's a very pleasant, bright time-waster.
The Windmill, for those of you who haven't seen MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS, was the London music hall that included tableaux vivantes to get around British law that forbade nudity on the stage -- unless the performer didn't move. Alas, the film producers never offer much more than the sort of semi-revealing costumes that I saw at Radio City Music Hall as a child. Neither was I terribly impressed by the mystery aspect. I spotted the killer early on, but found no clue leading to the detection until the final revelation.
Still, there are some good, if not particularly memorable revue numbers, and the performers are pretty young women. There is also one particularly funny bit in which a comic, used to a large, appreciative audience, is forced to go through his routine for two tired, stony-faced detectives. Although it's strictly a B movie, it's a very pleasant, bright time-waster.
Shot In The Very Front Row
bkoganbing16 February 2012
Murder most foul as Miss Marple would say has been done at the famous Windmill Theater in London. The famed theater for which a very ambitious Rita Hayworth wartime film Tonight And Every Night used as a model is the scene of a homicide. The victim sat in the very front row and was shot as forensics would have it right from the stage during the last performance.
The victim was a makeup salesman who was always trying to make a sale among the chorus girls of himself and his products. The only way that Inspector Garry Marsh and Sergeant Jon Pertwee can solve this thing if the show is run again. So the weary cast goes through its paces again after the last show.
Murder At The Windmill is an interesting if strange film. The rather thin murder plot is just an excuse to put on the Windmill revue for our benefit. The numbers are nice but not spectacular and the murderer is extremely obvious from the start.
The film's best asset are the incredibly patient Garry Marsh and his assistant Pertwee who seems to think that he will dazzle his superior with all kinds of arcane knowledge. Marsh just takes it all in stride.
Murder At The Windmill is a curious little film, more musical than murder.
The victim was a makeup salesman who was always trying to make a sale among the chorus girls of himself and his products. The only way that Inspector Garry Marsh and Sergeant Jon Pertwee can solve this thing if the show is run again. So the weary cast goes through its paces again after the last show.
Murder At The Windmill is an interesting if strange film. The rather thin murder plot is just an excuse to put on the Windmill revue for our benefit. The numbers are nice but not spectacular and the murderer is extremely obvious from the start.
The film's best asset are the incredibly patient Garry Marsh and his assistant Pertwee who seems to think that he will dazzle his superior with all kinds of arcane knowledge. Marsh just takes it all in stride.
Murder At The Windmill is a curious little film, more musical than murder.
Awash at the Windmill
JohnHowardReid31 January 2014
Warning: Spoilers
The Windmill Theatre had a reputation for catering to the voyeur – a reputation that was not deserved if this film is anything to go by. According to the Prologue, the movie was made in and around the actual theater "as far as practicable", and also employs some of the actual theater personnel and members of the company. However, the musical numbers shown here – although sung and danced for the most part in a lively fashion – are both tamely costumed and inexpensively staged. In fact, they are about as visually exciting as a suburban sidewalk on a rainy day. The "mystery" plot on which the musical interludes are pegged, is developed in a perfunctory fashion and failed to engage my interest – despite director Guest's rather clever device of using TWO off-camera narrators. In fact, I found his direction both static and dull. Worse still, the "humor" is over-played. The sheer tedium of the Jimmy Edwards interlude has to be sat through to be believed, In fact, the entire cast, although large, makes little impression. Diana Decker tries a bit too hard to be vivacious, but at least she exhibits some sparkle which other members of the cast – particularly Marsh, Livesey, Pertwee, Clive, Anstey and Edwards – signally lack. And even Elliott Makeham doesn't do much with a role that lent itself to some exploitation. However, for those who insist on seeing something of the Windmill, the opening Military Parade number is the most exciting. Some of the other songs are pleasant enough. Executive producers Daniel M. Angel and Nat Cohen are not noted for their generous budgets, but production values here are a bit above average for a British "B".
The Windmill never closed
greenbudgie2 February 2021
The Windmill Theater in London claimed they never closed. They certainly didn't on this night as all the performers and stagehands are kept behind after a member of the audience is shot through the heart. The CID Inspector insists they re-enact part of the show again. And that is the part when the police suspect the murder victim was shot from the stage.
You will need to be prepared for some song and dance numbers watching this. I was concentrating on the acts to see if I could detect the point at which a shot could have been fired at the audience. There are wise-cracking chorus girls but no famed Windmill nudity to be had. For a large part this can be seen as more of a slice of theater history than a mystery. But chances are you won't detect the murderer if you make the same mistake as I made.
There is an indication of what the Windmill Revues were like in the 1940s. American film stars of this period are impersonated on stage in one of the numbers which I thought was impressive. Among the performers is Jimmy Edwards who thrived on a terrible stage act for years which you can now see for yourself. Jon Pertwee is another known face as the police sergeant. And then there's Garry Marsh as the CID chief who British mystery fans will recognize from his many supporting roles in the 1930s and 1940s.
You will need to be prepared for some song and dance numbers watching this. I was concentrating on the acts to see if I could detect the point at which a shot could have been fired at the audience. There are wise-cracking chorus girls but no famed Windmill nudity to be had. For a large part this can be seen as more of a slice of theater history than a mystery. But chances are you won't detect the murderer if you make the same mistake as I made.
There is an indication of what the Windmill Revues were like in the 1940s. American film stars of this period are impersonated on stage in one of the numbers which I thought was impressive. Among the performers is Jimmy Edwards who thrived on a terrible stage act for years which you can now see for yourself. Jon Pertwee is another known face as the police sergeant. And then there's Garry Marsh as the CID chief who British mystery fans will recognize from his many supporting roles in the 1930s and 1940s.
Murder in the front row
guswhovian6 July 2020
When a man is killed at the Windmill Theatre during a performance, the police have to discover which of the actors and stagehands is a murderer.
Murder at the Windmill is bad. Apparently someone thought the film would be better with musical numbers, so there's a couple randomly shoehorned in at various intervals. The numbers are horribly staged, and the songs are terrible. You also get to suffer through a terrible comedy routine by Jimmy Edwards and some guy doing a Jimmy Stewart impression.
Jon Pertwee is the only good actor in the bunch, giving a fun comedic performance as one of the policemen. The rest of the cast is pretty unmemorable, with the exception of Diana Decker, who is horrendously annoying. Peter Butterworth has a bit part as a policeman.
Unless you're a diehard Jon Pertwee fan, I'd avoid this one.
Murder at the Windmill is bad. Apparently someone thought the film would be better with musical numbers, so there's a couple randomly shoehorned in at various intervals. The numbers are horribly staged, and the songs are terrible. You also get to suffer through a terrible comedy routine by Jimmy Edwards and some guy doing a Jimmy Stewart impression.
Jon Pertwee is the only good actor in the bunch, giving a fun comedic performance as one of the policemen. The rest of the cast is pretty unmemorable, with the exception of Diana Decker, who is horrendously annoying. Peter Butterworth has a bit part as a policeman.
Unless you're a diehard Jon Pertwee fan, I'd avoid this one.
Windmill Theatre mystery is a Time Warp experience
jcgdcj29 June 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Known in the United States as "Mystery at the Burlesque", "Murder at the Windmill"'s story is told in voice-over, first by a theatre staff member and then by the stage hand, Gimpy (Eliot Makeham), whose role in the events turns out to be significant.
A Scotland Yard Detective Inspector (Garry Marsh) is called in to investigate when cleaners find that an audience member in the front row stalls at London's Windmill Theatre has been shot dead. As the murder appears to have occurred during the performance, the Windmill Girls are told by the manager, Vivian Van Damm (the real name of the proprietor, but played by Jack Livesey), that they have to stay back while the police investigate.
The plot thickens when it turns out the murdered man was Jack Balfour, a regular visitor to the theatre who sold cosmetics to the show girls and showed particular interest in one, Patsy (Jill Anstey). The Detective Inspector realises the shot was fired from the back of the stage, meaning a member of the theatre company is most likely the culprit, and demands a repeat performance of "Kensington Gardens" by the theatre players which he and his bookish assistant (Jon Pertwee, named in the credits as Jon Pertwer) sit through, although in assumed boredom. After the Mexican musical number is performed, the suspect appears to be singer Donald (Donald Clive), who had a gun for his role. However, an alert Windmill Girl, Frankie (Diana Decker), points out that the cast sang "God Save the King" at the end of the show, as did the audience, and that the dead man would have been noticed immediately if he had not stood up. The murderer turns out to have been the second of the voice-over narrators, Gimpy, who had noticed the deceased making advances to his favourite Windmill Girl, Patsy and endangering her relationship with Jack Balfour.
The film ends with a musical number, "Go with the Swing." Gimpy is arrested and in a final voice-over tells a "Padre" (presumably while in gaol) the reason for the murder, namely his wish to protect Patsy from Balfour's villainous advances. The film closes with yet another musical number, but among the audience are both the investigating police officers who, despite their previous boredom, are now aficionados of the Windmill Theatre.
The rather feeble story line is largely an excuse for the performance of song and dance numbers by the nubile and at times lightly clad Windmill Girls for the Detective Inspector (the theatre's motto "We never closed", seen in the opening and closing shots in the film, was often humorously paraphrased as "we never clothed" ). One such number is "I'll Settle for You", where the male and female leads reject Veronica Lake, Dorothy Lamour, Danny Kaye and other star lookalikes for each other, followed by a disappointingly discreet solo fan dancer.
While, due to theatre censorship by the Lord Chamberlain (which remained in place until 1967) the Windmill had a struggle to keep its burlesque numbers out of trouble, the musical numbers in the film are likely to be much more prudish than what Windmill theatregoers actually saw.
The first film to be shot on the theatre's premises, it offers valuable shots of backstage as well as theatre décor.
A running gag in the film is the cast correcting each other's English. The Detective Inspector complains about his assistant's description of murders as "slaying" and a crying Windmill Girl who fears she has been accused of being a murderer is corrected by Gimpy for not using the word "murderess".
This was Val Guest's first film after the Second World War . Many of the cast are actual Windmill regulars, and the film also features comedian Jimmy Edwards as himself. He had made his stage debut at the Windmill in 1947 and his name is on the list of stars who got their start at the Windmill which is seen in the opening shot. (The last two names on the list are Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers). Edwards' stand-up routine about how to play the trombone is somewhat dated but his closing line (about the theatre producer who got married and absent-mindedly issued tickets for the first night) still has some zing.
This film is a valuable record not only of the long-vanished Windmill Theatre but also of attempts to deal with the prudish sex standards which bedeviled English stage and film productions until the late 1960s. The Windmill Theatre shut in 1966; a telling indication of the profound changes to social values at this time can be seen from the fact that the Rocky Horror Picture Show film was released in 1975, less than a decade afterwards.
A Scotland Yard Detective Inspector (Garry Marsh) is called in to investigate when cleaners find that an audience member in the front row stalls at London's Windmill Theatre has been shot dead. As the murder appears to have occurred during the performance, the Windmill Girls are told by the manager, Vivian Van Damm (the real name of the proprietor, but played by Jack Livesey), that they have to stay back while the police investigate.
The plot thickens when it turns out the murdered man was Jack Balfour, a regular visitor to the theatre who sold cosmetics to the show girls and showed particular interest in one, Patsy (Jill Anstey). The Detective Inspector realises the shot was fired from the back of the stage, meaning a member of the theatre company is most likely the culprit, and demands a repeat performance of "Kensington Gardens" by the theatre players which he and his bookish assistant (Jon Pertwee, named in the credits as Jon Pertwer) sit through, although in assumed boredom. After the Mexican musical number is performed, the suspect appears to be singer Donald (Donald Clive), who had a gun for his role. However, an alert Windmill Girl, Frankie (Diana Decker), points out that the cast sang "God Save the King" at the end of the show, as did the audience, and that the dead man would have been noticed immediately if he had not stood up. The murderer turns out to have been the second of the voice-over narrators, Gimpy, who had noticed the deceased making advances to his favourite Windmill Girl, Patsy and endangering her relationship with Jack Balfour.
The film ends with a musical number, "Go with the Swing." Gimpy is arrested and in a final voice-over tells a "Padre" (presumably while in gaol) the reason for the murder, namely his wish to protect Patsy from Balfour's villainous advances. The film closes with yet another musical number, but among the audience are both the investigating police officers who, despite their previous boredom, are now aficionados of the Windmill Theatre.
The rather feeble story line is largely an excuse for the performance of song and dance numbers by the nubile and at times lightly clad Windmill Girls for the Detective Inspector (the theatre's motto "We never closed", seen in the opening and closing shots in the film, was often humorously paraphrased as "we never clothed" ). One such number is "I'll Settle for You", where the male and female leads reject Veronica Lake, Dorothy Lamour, Danny Kaye and other star lookalikes for each other, followed by a disappointingly discreet solo fan dancer.
While, due to theatre censorship by the Lord Chamberlain (which remained in place until 1967) the Windmill had a struggle to keep its burlesque numbers out of trouble, the musical numbers in the film are likely to be much more prudish than what Windmill theatregoers actually saw.
The first film to be shot on the theatre's premises, it offers valuable shots of backstage as well as theatre décor.
A running gag in the film is the cast correcting each other's English. The Detective Inspector complains about his assistant's description of murders as "slaying" and a crying Windmill Girl who fears she has been accused of being a murderer is corrected by Gimpy for not using the word "murderess".
This was Val Guest's first film after the Second World War . Many of the cast are actual Windmill regulars, and the film also features comedian Jimmy Edwards as himself. He had made his stage debut at the Windmill in 1947 and his name is on the list of stars who got their start at the Windmill which is seen in the opening shot. (The last two names on the list are Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers). Edwards' stand-up routine about how to play the trombone is somewhat dated but his closing line (about the theatre producer who got married and absent-mindedly issued tickets for the first night) still has some zing.
This film is a valuable record not only of the long-vanished Windmill Theatre but also of attempts to deal with the prudish sex standards which bedeviled English stage and film productions until the late 1960s. The Windmill Theatre shut in 1966; a telling indication of the profound changes to social values at this time can be seen from the fact that the Rocky Horror Picture Show film was released in 1975, less than a decade afterwards.
Unbelievable Waste of Celluloid
JANMAYFEB13 March 2021
I believe this is the single worst movie I have ever seen. I kept hoping something would improve. Cant believe I sat through the whole thing. The acting was astonishingly horrible. The script ridiculous. The conclusion was improbable and not worth having suffered through all the previous minutes.
"That's what we taxpayers pay you to find out"
hwg1957-102-2657046 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Directed by the versatile Val Guest 'Murder at the Windmill' combines a mystery with musical numbers. Set in the well known Windmill Theatre it starts with the ending of a performance. Then it is discovered that a man in the front row has been shot dead. To re-enact the crime a Detective Inspector orders the last half hour of the performance to be repeated. So we then get bland musical numbers and a bit of unfunny comedy while the theatre staff interact with each other backstage and the police investigate. It's more of a curio than anything else but passably entertaining.
The reliable Garry Marsh plays the Detective Inspector and John Pertwee is his eccentric Detective Sergeant. Some of the real Windmill performers also appear in the film. Familiar Peter Butterworth, of many film and TV credits, plays a policeman here in only his second film
Interesting use is made of two people narrating including one who is the killer but you only find that out at the end in a nice twist. The time of the murder is fixed because everyone stood up for the National Anthem at the end so the victim could not have been dead beforehand, a plot detail that certainly dates the film!
The reliable Garry Marsh plays the Detective Inspector and John Pertwee is his eccentric Detective Sergeant. Some of the real Windmill performers also appear in the film. Familiar Peter Butterworth, of many film and TV credits, plays a policeman here in only his second film
Interesting use is made of two people narrating including one who is the killer but you only find that out at the end in a nice twist. The time of the murder is fixed because everyone stood up for the National Anthem at the end so the victim could not have been dead beforehand, a plot detail that certainly dates the film!
Murder at the Windmill
Prismark1016 August 2023
The actual Windmill theatre is London had a racy reputation. As this movie was made in 1949, the censorship laws meant it could only touch upon this with one fan dance.
The movie begins with an audience member found dead at the end of the show.
The police are called in which includes the unassuming Detective Sergeant (Jon Pertwee) anda blustering Detective Inspector. It seems the dead man was shot.
So the entire's night performances is recreated to smoke the murderer out. This includes dancers, singers and a very long, dragged out an unfunny comic routine by Jimmy Edwards. He should had been caned by someone!
Basically this contrived movie is a way to recreate a sanitised revue of the Windmill. I guess people were easily pleased in the old days.
The murder mystery itself is an afterthought. Even with the vintage theatrical performances this was a poor movie.
The movie begins with an audience member found dead at the end of the show.
The police are called in which includes the unassuming Detective Sergeant (Jon Pertwee) anda blustering Detective Inspector. It seems the dead man was shot.
So the entire's night performances is recreated to smoke the murderer out. This includes dancers, singers and a very long, dragged out an unfunny comic routine by Jimmy Edwards. He should had been caned by someone!
Basically this contrived movie is a way to recreate a sanitised revue of the Windmill. I guess people were easily pleased in the old days.
The murder mystery itself is an afterthought. Even with the vintage theatrical performances this was a poor movie.
A chance to see a Windmill show.
1bilbo1 January 2003
In order to find out who fired the fatal shot during a performance the windmill theatre cast each have to go through their entire routine - in front of a police inspector.
This film is actually just an excuse for us to sit back and watch an entire Windmill theatre performance. The cast in the film are the actual girls who worked there and the routines are what they really did - week in week out.
The Windmill (now sadly long closed,) was in Soho, London - just off Piccadilly circus and a whole generation of actors and comedians got their first break there. The formulae was simple, strippers and erotic dancers would perform on the stage and a comedian would come on in between each act. So, to get the attention of a crowd of sleazy men who had snuck in for a glimpse of flesh you had to be good. And a glimpse was all they ever got - the British censorship laws prohibited anything else. There used to be a plaque of names outside the door with a list of who had played there with names like David Niven, Harry Seacom and a host of others (Norman Wisdom failed the audition). The plaque also boasted that during WW2 `We never closed'.
A lot of countries would think that a slice of history like this would be worth preserving but not us British. As with the Liverpool Cavern club (now replaced with a silly replica,) The Bronte museum (full of phoney replaced artefacts,) and other places where the short term profit from a slice of land or property was more important than any heritage.
So, if you can get a copy this film it is a (slightly sanitised) snapshot of a world long gone. When Piccadilly circus had a real round about with the Eros statue in its centre and every building in the circus had a huge fantastic neon advert. A very enjoyable old film with the subject matter not quite as sleazy as it really was.
This film is actually just an excuse for us to sit back and watch an entire Windmill theatre performance. The cast in the film are the actual girls who worked there and the routines are what they really did - week in week out.
The Windmill (now sadly long closed,) was in Soho, London - just off Piccadilly circus and a whole generation of actors and comedians got their first break there. The formulae was simple, strippers and erotic dancers would perform on the stage and a comedian would come on in between each act. So, to get the attention of a crowd of sleazy men who had snuck in for a glimpse of flesh you had to be good. And a glimpse was all they ever got - the British censorship laws prohibited anything else. There used to be a plaque of names outside the door with a list of who had played there with names like David Niven, Harry Seacom and a host of others (Norman Wisdom failed the audition). The plaque also boasted that during WW2 `We never closed'.
A lot of countries would think that a slice of history like this would be worth preserving but not us British. As with the Liverpool Cavern club (now replaced with a silly replica,) The Bronte museum (full of phoney replaced artefacts,) and other places where the short term profit from a slice of land or property was more important than any heritage.
So, if you can get a copy this film it is a (slightly sanitised) snapshot of a world long gone. When Piccadilly circus had a real round about with the Eros statue in its centre and every building in the circus had a huge fantastic neon advert. A very enjoyable old film with the subject matter not quite as sleazy as it really was.
Good little mystery
dbborroughs29 January 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Murder mystery set (and filmed ,with the performers and staff playing them selves) at the Windmill theater in London. The plot has a man found dead in the front row after a performance. It appears that he was shot on stage at some point during the performance. The police come in to investigate (including a young Jon Pertwee) and we're left with a neat little thriller. The fact that this was filmed in a real place really helps the film a great deal. My only real complaint with the film is that there are too many musical numbers. The problem is not so much the number, rather the music isn't all that good. Still its a cracking little thriller and worth your time.
Murder and a show. All in all, not a bad night.
mark.waltz21 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Absolute cornball, but fun in its way, and in spite of being quite dated and nearly plotless, it is interesting from a historical aspect. There's a little bit of exposition of what goes on in the Piccadilly area of London, and directions of how to get to this long gone theater, a music hall of glamorous acts of all kind, documented as a war musical, "Tonight and Every Night", starring Rita Hayworth in 1945 in gorgeous Technicolor. This film, released four years later, could have easily been released a decade before, was in black and white. Not sure about British movie musicals, but Technicolor in 1949 Hollywood movie musicals was pretty standard for about 4 out of 5 musicals, only B films still done in black and white.
It's a talented cast performing the show as a detective forces a show to be presented to him so he could figure out how someone was shot and killed sitting in the front row. The comedy is pretty lame, and a few of the musical numbers really don't have much creativity. The plot only interrupts the musical numbers sporadically. The mostly unknown cast is energetic, so it's watchable for fans of classic musicals, but it's no "Murder at the Vanities".
It's a talented cast performing the show as a detective forces a show to be presented to him so he could figure out how someone was shot and killed sitting in the front row. The comedy is pretty lame, and a few of the musical numbers really don't have much creativity. The plot only interrupts the musical numbers sporadically. The mostly unknown cast is energetic, so it's watchable for fans of classic musicals, but it's no "Murder at the Vanities".
A fascinating glimpse at a long - dead world.
ianlouisiana20 September 2008
Warning: Spoilers
"Murder at The Windmill" is just as much an important picture of life in early post - war England as any contemporary documentary.More so in some ways because it contains no political axe - grinding.Here is the working - class bereft of the faux nobility so often attributed to it by its "betters".The deliciously grubby environs of "The Windmill Theatre" and its lonely unloved patrons desperate for a glimpse of unclothed female flesh,the cheery indifference of the "Windmill Girls" towards the sad men staring at them across the footlights......all this is shown unflinchingly and without comment - accepted as the way things were. That great comic Mr Jimmy Edwards - himself a Windmill graduate - does a typical routine of the time that would get him booed off the stage today when freedom of artistic expression is but a dim and distant memory. In the days when the Lord Chamberlain held sway,the "Windmill" was cutting edge,the soft porn of its time.A few hundred yards away in deepest Soho a handful of dark and dingy flyblown shops sold trusses,packets of condoms as thick as rubber tyres and - if you came with the right introduction - envelopes of well - thumbed "artistic poses" looking as if they dated back to the Boer War.That was the state of the nascent sex industry in 1949.If navigating these shark - infested waters was too dangerous for you ,your spiritual home was at the theatre that never closed during the recent war,the breeding ground of a generation of British comedians,a refuge for the drifter,the unwanted and the spiv,the marvellous "Windmill". The eponymous "Murder" is a McGuffin,the whole raison d'etre of this movie is to watch a typical "Windmill" show of that time in the respectability of a mainstream cinema.There is no better record of the social mores of the era,the last bawdy struggles of the rapidly dying "Music Hall" tradition enshrined in such titles as "Nudes of the world" and "Strip,Strip Hooray!" Watch this whilst our past entertainments are being airbrushed from history and our grandchildren are being taught that before "Big Brother" there was only the "Big Bang".
Delightful murder at the theatre with some idyllic circumstances
clanciai7 July 2017
This is like no other murder case. More interesting than who done it in this case is how it was done. It could only have been done from stage, so the helpless inspectors have no choice but to endure the whole show over again from the beginning to investigate at which point the shot could have been fired and how. They reach the end of the show until before the finale in a hilarious Mexican number all the girls on stage fire their own pistol.
This is a criminal comedy at its very best. It couldn't be more hilarious. At the same time, it's almost documentary, since this theatre actually never closed during the war but kept on giving shows day and night and was extremely popular in its charming location off the Piccadilly.
The poor inspectors have to suffer through one silly number after another, plagued by a bassoon pedant, silly dances with dogs, satirical ballets making fun of Hollywood, and in between lots of gags in the canteen, police officers getting lost in the theatre falling over chairs, one trying to escape and so on, while the girls keep playing cards when they are not on stage.
It's a wonderful rendering of how life at the Windmill actually went on almost non stop throughout the war with all its idyllic professional but endearing silliness. Applause, and applause again with cries for joy. It's simply adorable.
This is a criminal comedy at its very best. It couldn't be more hilarious. At the same time, it's almost documentary, since this theatre actually never closed during the war but kept on giving shows day and night and was extremely popular in its charming location off the Piccadilly.
The poor inspectors have to suffer through one silly number after another, plagued by a bassoon pedant, silly dances with dogs, satirical ballets making fun of Hollywood, and in between lots of gags in the canteen, police officers getting lost in the theatre falling over chairs, one trying to escape and so on, while the girls keep playing cards when they are not on stage.
It's a wonderful rendering of how life at the Windmill actually went on almost non stop throughout the war with all its idyllic professional but endearing silliness. Applause, and applause again with cries for joy. It's simply adorable.
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