A mild spy drama which turns into a courtroom drama in the second half. The screenplay is by Edgar Lustgarten, one of the best known on-screen law experts of the late '50s and early '60s. Anthony Quayle plays one of a number of spies, who just so happens to be posing as the husband of Zsa Zsa Gabor, a fellow spy. When Gabor is murdered, Quayle is blamed and is unable to defend himself due to the necessity of keeping everything secret. His canny defence lawyer works things out, however. I found this quite an average kind of film, not helped by an overly literary script and a lack of energy and life coming from the characters, some of whom are miscast. The slow pacing makes the whole thing flag before long.
8 Reviews
OK courtroom drama
gordonl5629 December 2007
Tony Qualye plays an American scientist brought to Britain to help the C.I.A. There is a defecting East block scientist they want him to debrief. The commies are less than amused and set Qualye up for a murder. The police catch him fleeing the country and charge him with murder. All he says is that he is not guilty and nothing else. His lawyer, Anna Neagle, can not get Qualye to help in his defense. It seems that Quayle was given a secret formula to a killer virus by the defector. He can not clear himself without giving away the dangerous formula. He would rather hang than let it fall into the wrong hands. Neagle manages to prove the killing was a set up and the red agents are grabbed up. OK time-waster from the husband wife team of Neagle and Herbert Wilcox..(Wait till you see Zsa Zsa Gabor as a C.I.A. agent).
Plodding
malcolmgsw3 February 2019
Zsa Zsa as a secret agent is a hoot.However it would have been better if they had shot the sonambulistic Anthony Quayle who struggles with an American accent.The second part of the film is the murder trial.Anna Neagle in her penultimate film does her best but is defeated by the plodding pace of director Herbert Wilcox.
Anna Neagle Saves the Day
drednm23 September 2014
Two-part drama that has Anthony Quayle as an American scientist helping a spy agency with a defector who has stolen some experimental killer virus samples. He needs to pass them on to Quayle so he can perfect a vaccine before the enemy uses the virus. He poses as a honeymooner with a blonde agent (Zsa Zsa Gabor) in London and makes contact. But something goes wrong and there is a killing for which Quayle is charged with murder. Enter Anna Neagle as a successful Brit lawyer.
All Quayle will tell her is that he is innocent. He also refuses to take the stand in his own defense because under cross examination he'd have to tell the story about the virus.
The case seems doomed until a witness (Katherine Kath) for the prosecution comes forward and claims she saw the murder from her apartment window. This finally gives Neagle something to work with since the witness seems a little shaky.
After Neagle visits the apartment and discovers a bullet hole, she's able to reconstruct the murder, but she has to get the witness to admit she has lied. But even this might not be enough to save Quayle if he has to take the stand.
What follows is a very clever use of legal precedence, a slight loophole in the law.
Neagle is excellent as the lawyer. Quayle's American accent seems oddly flat but he is otherwise solid. Gabor is surprisingly good as the agent. Kath is excellent as the witness. Others in the cast include John Le Mesurier as the judge, Dora Bryan as the silly switchboard operator, Hugh McDermott as the annoying Bernie, Patrick Allen as Kennedy, and Leonard Sachs as the defector.
All Quayle will tell her is that he is innocent. He also refuses to take the stand in his own defense because under cross examination he'd have to tell the story about the virus.
The case seems doomed until a witness (Katherine Kath) for the prosecution comes forward and claims she saw the murder from her apartment window. This finally gives Neagle something to work with since the witness seems a little shaky.
After Neagle visits the apartment and discovers a bullet hole, she's able to reconstruct the murder, but she has to get the witness to admit she has lied. But even this might not be enough to save Quayle if he has to take the stand.
What follows is a very clever use of legal precedence, a slight loophole in the law.
Neagle is excellent as the lawyer. Quayle's American accent seems oddly flat but he is otherwise solid. Gabor is surprisingly good as the agent. Kath is excellent as the witness. Others in the cast include John Le Mesurier as the judge, Dora Bryan as the silly switchboard operator, Hugh McDermott as the annoying Bernie, Patrick Allen as Kennedy, and Leonard Sachs as the defector.
Starts well
lucyrf2 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
With Anthony Quayle and Zsa Zsa Gabor as (alleged) newly-weds on a plane, interacting in that nauseating 50s style which is enough to put you off romance for life. But then they reach their hotel room and drop the pretence. She is an American agent, and he is a virologist. They chat with their controller, and arrange a meet with a Hungarian scientist in the underground at Victoria. When will spies learn how to have a vital conversation about bioweapons while appearing to be exchanging information about the 4.50 to Torquay? Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman did it much better in Notorious.
But then Ms Gabor (who's not bad in her role) is mysteriously shot, just as the couple decide to go through with the honeymoon charade for real. Quayle spends much of the rest of the film in the dock or in a cell, and Anna Neagle swans to the fore as his defending counsel. Katherine Kath appears in the witness box and gives a bravura display of overacting.
I was waiting for a Witness for the Prosecution type twist. SURELY Ms Gabor was a double agent? SURELY Quayle, once cleared, will confess he shot her deliberately to stop her giving away the germ secrets? But no - it looks like he is headed for the altar after all with Ms Neagle.
Ms Gabor had a certain style, and wears some sumptuous outfits. How did she fit that ballgown into her luggage?
But then Ms Gabor (who's not bad in her role) is mysteriously shot, just as the couple decide to go through with the honeymoon charade for real. Quayle spends much of the rest of the film in the dock or in a cell, and Anna Neagle swans to the fore as his defending counsel. Katherine Kath appears in the witness box and gives a bravura display of overacting.
I was waiting for a Witness for the Prosecution type twist. SURELY Ms Gabor was a double agent? SURELY Quayle, once cleared, will confess he shot her deliberately to stop her giving away the germ secrets? But no - it looks like he is headed for the altar after all with Ms Neagle.
Ms Gabor had a certain style, and wears some sumptuous outfits. How did she fit that ballgown into her luggage?
...Until the obviously lying witness did...
mark.waltz23 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This is a decent British crime drama featuring and an Neagle in one of her last films, playing a tough lady lawyer who takes on Anthony Quayle as a client for the murder of his wife, Zsa Zsa Gabor. Apparently Gabor was involved in something shady and on their wedding night, was found dad with Quayle indicating that they had a intruder and Gabor was shot accidentally. Outside of Gabor's lively performance, the first part of the film is rather dull, but then it really takes off inside the courtroom. The presence of the very animated Katherine Kath as a witness for the prosecution really liven things up, especially when Neagle goes in for the attack after finding some evidence inside Kath's apartment.
While the first half of the film is rather dull, the script is very intelligent and gets more so once the trial begins. Neagle plays quite a smart cookie, really knowing the ins-and-outs of her job, but she has a tough client with Quayle. He won't take the stand in his defense, and it's up to her to indicate why as she makes a plea for him through her looks and her words to get him to stand up to his defense. Coming out just a year after the film version of Agatha Christie's "Witness for the Prosecution", this is a very well done film with Kath as memorable as Dietrich was in that Billy Wilder classic. I would have loved to have seen what happened to her at the end as it was obvious she would be brought up on charges. Gabor is more than just a glamorous pretty faced in this, and I wish she had more opportunities to show that she could act.
While the first half of the film is rather dull, the script is very intelligent and gets more so once the trial begins. Neagle plays quite a smart cookie, really knowing the ins-and-outs of her job, but she has a tough client with Quayle. He won't take the stand in his defense, and it's up to her to indicate why as she makes a plea for him through her looks and her words to get him to stand up to his defense. Coming out just a year after the film version of Agatha Christie's "Witness for the Prosecution", this is a very well done film with Kath as memorable as Dietrich was in that Billy Wilder classic. I would have loved to have seen what happened to her at the end as it was obvious she would be brought up on charges. Gabor is more than just a glamorous pretty faced in this, and I wish she had more opportunities to show that she could act.
Classic Court Room Masterpiece
mikes_booze3 November 2019
Totally implausible and a waste of talent
marktorch-2574617 February 2020
Warning: Spoilers
It is a tribute to Anna Negle that it was possible to suspend disbelief at all during the film. We are expected to accept the Crown introducing an hysterical prostitute as a surprise (it certainly would have been) witness when the jury was already convicted of the guilt of the accused. To no one's surprise the defence demand to visit the prositutes flat to check her evidence. THe witness hasn't bothered to do anything about the bullet hole in her bedroom window or the bullet embedded in her wall which turns the case. Even more miraculously the jury then claim to have heard enough evidence to stop the case before the accused has to reveal that he was on a secret CIA mission, as they do. I started watching the film because the cast had a gravitas which was totally at odds with the preposterous plot. In the end the movie is just risible. Please don't waste your time by watching.
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