Watchable mystery comedy, in a good-looking lodging house; this is a peculiar comedy, because it doesn't treat gruesome events (murders, betrayal) as occasions for humor, but shows the unnervingly humorous side of some dramatic situations, it depends on the grotesque side of unnerving situations (more like in Poe and much 19th century chilling humor). Frieda Inescort makes a convincing matron, vulgar and likable, aware of her appeal; except for the youngsters, the portrayals aren't very flattering, the relations are sour (the Indian and the maid, Mrs. Armitage and the maid, the crook and the maid), but vivid (the maid spying because she believes the landlady and her lover are talking about her, the writer shaking the landlady's wrist), and the script presents this dramatic side, as from the outset the relations between those living in the house are defined by sourness, nervousness, uncharitable deeds, cheating, betrayal. In a boarding house live the family of the owners (a couple and their daughter), an interlope crook, an Indian, a spinster, a writer, and the maid. The maid, the interlope boarder, and another Indian die. The case is taken over by an inspector and a constable. As could be guessed, the script was based on a play: a domestic drama, a husband catches his wife with her lover (a long-time boarder), feigns leaving and returns and kills savagely his rival, after the maid has already killed herself in an access of despair.
Miss Snell reads often, yet she's surrounded by mysterious characters, who live puzzling lives. Brought to despair, the maid proves capable of suicide. A chess-player resorts to murder as soon as he finds out that his wife cheats him. When murdering somebody, the chess-player proves more efficient, abler than the Indian conspirator: he quenches his blood-thirst by stabbing his rival.
Frieda Inescort plays the landlady, Mrs. Armitage; Miles Mander: the husband, Cavanagh: the murdered boarder, Turhan Bey: the Indian lodger, Mary Field: Miss Snell (who has a blameless life), Phyllis Barry: the maid (her acting reminds the stage, as when she declares her despair to the insensitive crook ).
Miss Snell reads often, yet she's surrounded by mysterious characters, who live puzzling lives. Brought to despair, the maid proves capable of suicide. A chess-player resorts to murder as soon as he finds out that his wife cheats him. When murdering somebody, the chess-player proves more efficient, abler than the Indian conspirator: he quenches his blood-thirst by stabbing his rival.
Frieda Inescort plays the landlady, Mrs. Armitage; Miles Mander: the husband, Cavanagh: the murdered boarder, Turhan Bey: the Indian lodger, Mary Field: Miss Snell (who has a blameless life), Phyllis Barry: the maid (her acting reminds the stage, as when she declares her despair to the insensitive crook ).