A Small Killing

I have seen Jean Simmons in most of her roles but this is a special treat. She was great already as a child actress ('Estella' inDavid Lean's "Great Expectations") but proved with the years to have almost an infinity of variety of roles, from the slave girl (in Startacus') to an abused mental patient (in 'Home Before Dark'), constantly varying her repertoire and always being excellent without ever winning an Oscar. Here she is the perfect bag lady joining hands with bums and other undesirables, one of them turning out to be a cop in disguise, masquerading to get at a gang of dangerous drug dealers. When one of the bag ladies gets murdered (Sylvia Sidney) in a brief but splendid performance, she decides to join hands with that cop bum just for the sake of Sylvia Sidney (which the entire gang of bums and bag ladies join in for her sake) risking her life, but there is still room for some wonderful comedy moments - Jean Simmons is seldom seen smiling on the screen, but here that smile is beaming. It's part thriller, part social documentary, part comedy and an interesting gutter view of New York, it is uplifting in spite of the serious trouble and argument, which no audience could possibly mind.