Crow Hollow

You have to hand it to British audiences and producers in the 40's, 50's and 60's, they loved their murder mysteries, some were terrible, some iconic, fortunately for a whodunnit addict like myself there are still so many gems to discover.

Today I found Crow Hollow, and it is partly what you'd expect from a 1950's British mystery, The House is creaky, the characters are eccentric, everyone is in the exact place you'd expect them to be for the time, with the exception of Esma Cannon, Aunt Judith, who's a spider loving crazy Aunt, an actress I've always adored in comedy, she's fun to watch as always.

It's generally well acted, engaging, and certainly an entertaining watch. I wouldn't call it a classic, but I really enjoyed, 8/10

It's pretty slow much of the time, but this is a decent mystery story that has enough atmosphere and suspense to hold your interest. The story starts with a young bride coming to live with her husband at "Crow Hollow", which is dominated by his three aunts, none of whom are ideal in-laws. Gradually she realizes that her situation is not just unpleasant, but hazardous. It has quite a low-budget look to it, but the characters are interesting enough, and one detail that is done well is the presence of the many crows on the family property, whose constant racket parallels the anxiety building up inside the main characters. It might have been better if the first part had moved much more quickly, because they spent a lot more time setting up everything than they did with the actual mystery. But for a low-budget mystery, it's not bad at all.

Crow Hollow is home to a somewhat dotty and eccentric family -that belonging to a Doctor who takes his newlywed bride to live there.The home is largely occupied by his Aunts ,an outwardly genial but really rather peculiar breed.One is a devoted spider collector ,having several large poisonous specimens around the house ,another busies herself with "good works"and one is a home maker with an obsessive interest in order and tidiness.

Soon the new bride begins to feel unwelcome -not surprising given she has a close encounter with a venomous spider and is fed poisoned drinks .It seems the old dears want rid of her and to see her replaced by a nubile young woman named Willow The acting is okay but the script is too talky and rambling and the direction is slack.Watchable as B movie on a wet afternoon but nothing special

Talky but well acted English murder mystery that takes place in a large old country estate house. There is some suspense here but it's slow moving. Natasha Parry, who portrays the sweet & innocent new bride, is beautiful & also is a good actress, which is a bonus! Notable for its almost all-female cast. While I watched this film, I thought it was made 1940-1945 (even the hair styles convey this period), so I would have to call it somewhat old fashioned even for its time. Enjoyable, nonetheless.

Why did he even marry her? That's the question that soon comes to mind as you watch "Crow Hollow". After all, after a whirlwind courtship, Dr. Armour marries Ann and then barely shows her any attention at all and completely dismisses her concerns--and she has plenty! It's obvious this is no match made in heaven. So why did the Doctor marry her and exactly what is going on in this weird mansion filled with his strange aunts and that lousy maid? And, could someone really be attempting to kill her?

This is a pretty good mystery/suspense picture. Not a must-see by any stretch but exciting and with a nice ending. Worth seeing with nice performances all around and a well written story. And, one more reason why you should NEVER marry someone after knowing them only one week!!

By the way, at one point in the film Ann has a tarantula dropped on her. They then say she could have died and that the bug was poisonous. Well, tarantulas are mildly poisonous (like a bee sting) and you will not die from its bite. This is just bad writing and I've heard this repeated several times in films (such as "Dr. No").