Meurtre à l'aube

Herbert Mason's lustily performed, enjoyably light-hearted romantic thriller 'A Window in London' still retains its effervescence, being a vibrantly written, engagingly brisk, warmly nostalgic cinematic treat! This frequently refined vintage entertainment documents some truly evocative moments along with its beguilingly monochrome views of 1940s London! And certainly no less appetising is the vivacious, and disarmingly pretty Sally Gray who makes for an especially charming, drop-dead gorgeous heroine! With her crisply moustachioed, monstrously arrogant, ferociously jealous illusionist hubby brought to meticulous life by Paul Lukas, who energetically portrays the picture-perfect pantomime villain Louis Zoltini with a deft Lugosian panache! Far from primitive, Mason's pristine 'A Window in London' is not only a fascinating window into a bygone Britain, it also maintains lively interest as a pleasingly whimsical, sweetly romantic, deliciously theatrical romp in its own right, and while the tall, almost absurdly photogenic Michael Redgrave is, perhaps, a trifle miscast as the cavalier, rough-handed cockney crane driver, he nonetheless remains a sympathetic lead, whose gallantly dramatic intervention playfully heralds an eventful jaunt across the picturesque diorama of 1940s London.

Crane operator Michael Redgrave (Peter) works on the construction of Waterloo Bridge during the day whilst his wife Patricia Roc (Pat) is a telephone operator on the nightshift. They only have one day when they actually see each other. Sounds like a perfect relationship. Anyway, they want to ruin this balance by spending more time with each other and the ideal would be for Roc to get a day job. One day Redgrave witnesses a man murdering a woman outside an apartment whilst he is travelling on the train to work and he goes to the apartment to investigate. This is when we are introduced to illusionist Paul Lukas (Zoltini) and his assistant Sally Gray (Vivian). These encounters are life changing for all involved.

The idea is a good one although it stretches belief and we follow a love triangle or 2 or 3 - Sally Gray seems to be popular with the fellas - and the film follows Redgrave on quite an eventful night when he attends a music hall performance. Blimey!

For those who are familiar with Redgrave's ventriloquist act from "Dead of Night" (1945), given that we enter the music hall/theatre environment you will excitedly will him on to produce his dummy and show everyone a true spooky act. However, he stays away from any such performance, preferring instead to give us a rendition of a stupid song at a late-night party - "Let's all sing like the birdies sing, tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet".

You won't expect the ending and it is a dark twist when set alongside the words uttered as the final line of dialogue. It makes it a good film and wraps things up nicely - ha ha!

Nifty little film with a surprise ending!

Michael Redgrave is on his way to work via train when he sees what looks like a murder in an apartment window. When he goes to investigate (with a cop in tow) it turns out to be something else altogether.

He meets a magician (Paul Lukas) and his beautiful wife/assistant (Sally Gray) and gets involved in their lives (and unhappy marriage). As he gets pulled into their lives, he becomes more and more attracted to Gray. Meanwhile, his own wife (Patricia Roc) is having her own problems at work.

What starts out as the act of a good Samaritan turns into a meandering tale of intrigue. This one never quite goes where to expect it o. Worth looking for.

Redgrave, Gray and Lukas are all especially good in this one. It's a wonder that Sally Gray wasn't scooped up by Hollywood.

This movie was excellently directed and acted, almost flawlessly so. Yet the plot lost focus along the way and created too many ambiguities.

Sally Gray was the primary interest in the film. Though compared to Ginger Rogers, she was more like Veronica Lake. Indeed, at the end she actually appears with her hair in a peek-a-boo style. She looked stunningly beautiful in the film throughout but also gave a superb performance.

The problem is it's hard to justify why she would stay with her husband/partner who showed almost no virtues throughout the film. To make a relationship like that work, the husband should have been written as loving for the most part with a little flaw of temperament. As it is it's hard to see what someone like Vivienne (Gray) could see in him, especially since he seems much older than her and is not especially good-looking. It's true she admires his illusionist artistry, but that's hardly enough to keep a woman attached to a man.

Also puzzling is the man-wife relationship of Michael Redgrave (Peter) and his wife, Pat, played by Patricia Roc. Their relationship is barely touched upon and seems out of place in the film. Moreover, the film apparently sees no problem in Peter's obsession with Vivienne, which actually amounts to adultery (he kisses her passionately) though they have no sex in the film. The failure of the film is it doesn't even address the implications of Peter's double romantic life as if it were of no consequence. Keep in mind the year the film was made, which makes Peter's potentially adulterous affair even more puzzling. Did audiences of the time care?

I also found the brusque ending a letdown. It's an ending that might work in a half-hour Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, but not in a feature-length movie where we develop an affection for the leading lady.

Finally the subplot regarding Pat's telephone job seems too episodic with the rest of the film.

But one can cast all that aside and enjoy the stunning beauty of Sally Gray, the fine direction, acting, and editing throughout and even some illusionist episodes,

From a train window, crane-driver Michael Redgrave thinks he sees a woman being strangled. What follows is an unusual and effective story involving a magician, his assistant wife and a subtle interplay of illusion and murder. Refreshingly directed by the overlooked Herbert Mason, and well performed throughout (particularly Redgrave and Sally Gray), this small gem benefits greatly from its varied and credible London backgrounds, including music halls (including magic shows), mundane work places not normally seen in British films of the period, and construction work on Waterloo Bridge, under which the National Film Theatre is situated (which is where I last saw this film).