The Woman in Question

When a fortune teller named Astra (Jean Kent) is found murdered, the police investigate and hear several versions of the kind of woman she was in "The Woman in Question," a 1950 British film directed by Anthony Asquith. Besides Kent, the film features the excellent Hermoine Baddeley and Dirk Bogarde, still in the early part of his career.

The police interview five women and therefore, get five different stories. To her neighbor Mrs. Finch (Baddeley), Astra was pure class, gracious and sophisticated with questionable taste in men.

To Pollard, the owner of the pet store who was crazy about her, she was pretty, quiet, and sweet (though the audience can see how manipulative she is); to Baker (Bogarde) who wants to do a nightclub act with her, she is a tart; to her sister, she's a slovenly drunk.

Finally, from a violent sailor, Mike Murray, she's a faithless woman who cheats on him while he's away. We do learn that Astra's husband is in a hospital, badly injured in the war and not expected to live, yet she doesn't visit him. She also lets Pollard do things for her for free and must realize he has a crush on her.

All in all, an interesting and sometimes funny film. Kent is excellent in all of Astra's manifestations, and, since I am a Dirk Bogarde fan, I loved seeing him and hearing him with an American accent (which he actually did pretty well). Baddeley, always excellent, is a riot.

"Five Angles on Murder" or "The Woman in Question" is not the most exciting film you'll ever see, and like a lot of British films, it's a bit slow in the beginning, but it's enjoyable.

This British mystery is clever in showing us the varying perspectives of five people connected to a woman who has been murdered, one flashback after another, as the police question them. It's amusing to see how each remembers their own behavior as better than others do, sometimes in subtle ways, and other times with larger distortions, and wonder how much of it they believe vs. Knowingly spin in their accounts. This is how it is in life; each of us are the stars of our own little shows, and our views of people or events can be wildly different, despite underlying commonality.

While many are quick to point out the parallel to Rashomon, released just a couple of months earlier, it's important to note that Kurosawa's film had its characters telling almost completely different narratives, whereas in The Woman in Question it's more of a matter of different perspectives. In Rashomon, there is no ultimate, objective truth, and it remains elusive. In this film, there is clear truth, and we are unsurprised when the detective gets things sorted.

The concept to this film was intriguing, and allowed the actors to show off their range, Jean Kent especially (the woman who gets murdered), but also Hermione Baddeley (the neighbor) and Dirk Bogarde (the sister's boyfriend), among others. The film is not quite as strong as the mystery is unraveled, though Duncan Macrae brings that classic British approach I'm fond of. Unfortunately, the final clue and killer's instant confession upon being confronted felt rather hokey, and the ending just a little too quick and tidy to feel completely satisfying. Not bad though.

Made the same year - 1950 - as Rashomon which is acclaimed for retelling the same story several ways, The Woman in Question does the very same, allowing Jean Kent to portray five rather different versions of Astra, the fortune teller. The women in the film are much better drawn than the men, despite both the director and writer being themselves men, and despite the narrative framework of the all-male police team. Some would attribute this to Asquith's gay perspective. The combined portrait of Astra is not very flattering, especially her refusal to visit her dying husband, and in her using Pollard, the pet-shop keeper, to work for her for free, but then refusing his polite advances, she is walking a dangerous line. The underlying sadness of her person comes through, but she is not as sad as Pollard.

The outstanding secondary character is Mrs Finch, the nosey neighbour from next door who never stops talking. Hermione Baddeley, in the part, practically steals the first part of the film to the extent that the rest almost seems like an anticlimax. Her characterization, her way of speech, the hairnet and the pinafore, owe a lot to the English tradition of comical working-class characters that goes back to renaissance theatre, was developed in the Music Hall, and is a precursor of the Monty-Python housewives chatting over the back fence. That is, it is very easy to see her as done by Dan Leno or Al Reid. A change of emphasis and we have a drag routine.

A Woman in Question (recently IMDb lists it as Five Angels on Murder) is a Rashomon like story told in flashback. The story develops after a women is found dead and police detectives question witnesses, each of whom provides a different account of events leading to the murder. Until the very end, the ulterior motives of each of the characters remain unclear.

It is a greatly underrated movie that is not easily accessible. Anthony Asquith handles the material really well and masterfully builds the suspense. In addition, solid performances are provided by the cast.

If you get an opportunity to watch this movie, do not miss it. Hopefully the movie will become more accessible in the years to come.

Both "Five Angles on Murder" and the Kurosawa film "Rashomon" came out the same year, so it's very possible that neither film influenced the other-- though they sure have a similar style. Both films consist of a mystery and you see the story through different folks' eyes...and they have extremely different views on exactly what ACTUALLY happened. Both are worth seeing, though by many "Rashomon" is considered a classic.

When the film begins, a child finds a woman dead in her flat. Apparently she was murdered and the police interrogate several people to try to determine what happened. First is the landlady and her interview seems to dubious value as she seems to let her emotions color what she thinks of everyone. She LOVED the deceased and HATED her friend, Mr. Baker (Dirk Bogarde). When the police talk to the deceased's sister, she sees Baker very differently...as she was in love with him. She also thought her sister was a shrill and vicious woman. And so the movie goes...with the police interviewing different folks and all having a very different view of the dead woman as well as their opinions about who was responsible for her fate.

Of all the folks in the film, Jean Kent really stands out as the victim. This is because she had to play such a different character depending on the viewpoint of the interviewee...ranging from almost sickly sweet and refined to coarse and god-awful! It takes talent to have such range! While I would never say the film is as good as the Kurosawa film, it IS very good and very well made...far better than most British pictures of the era.