The Woman in Question

For the first twenty minutes or so, the film feels like a run-of-the-mill investigation film noir, but then it takes a unique spin, providing five different accounts of the events. It is quite interesting to watch from there on in, even though the male characters are rather thin and flat - the investigators in particular. The conclusion is also a bit disappointing and it is all a bit overly melodramatic at times, but the core of the picture - its middle section - is really quite strong, and that is what causes this film to be much better than the average piece of crime investigation film noir out there.

'The Woman in Question' shows the same person, the fairground fortune-teller Astra (real name: Agnes) as five different people saw her. Astra has been found strangled and the police chief tries to put together what has happened to her.

Jean Kent is excellent - for me, she was at her best in sleazy, tarty roles and the episode seen from her sister's (Susan Shaw) point of view is no exception. I love the moment when we first see this version of Astra, sprawled in bed in a messy room, drunk. The music is wonderful here.

Charles Victor plays Mr Pollard, the pet shop owner, with a fine degree of understatement. Hermione Baddeley is equally good as the nosy neighbour Mrs Finch.

Jean Kent (in 'Sixty Voices' by Brian McFarlane) felt the episode closest to the character in her view was the happy-go-lucky girl as seen by the Irish sailor played by John McCallum. Her least favourite was the Susan Shaw episode. Apparently Bette Davis had originally been in mind for the part.

A very cleverly made film and a classic British film.

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.

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.

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.