Maggie Smith's astute performance as Susan Hayward's maid elevates this rather stiff and boring drawing-room comedy, a remake of the 1939 film "Volpone", in which Rex Harrison portrays a millionaire who fakes a fatal illness to test the reactions of his former girlfriends. Hayward plays one of the ex-flames who winds up dead for real. Rambling nonsense, with Harrison creepily mannered (though possibly on purpose). The story, whose origins lie in both the popular play "Mr. Fox of Venice" and the successful novel "The Evil of the Day", quickly tires one's patience. Reissued under the title "It Comes Up Murder", though audiences weren't fooled--the film flopped. *1/2 from ****
Review of The Honey Pot
