The Case of the Frightened Lady

Penelope Dudley-Ward (Isla) is the frightened lady of the title. From the first shots of the film when she screams at the shadows that are following her in the house, you can't help but laugh and fear for your oncoming experience. It doesn't say much when the comedy detectives are the best thing about the film. It is woefully acted by all the main players who deliver their lines in that clipped English which is just plain fake – the word "exactly" becomes "exectly" – it's just nonsense. The film does keep you watching to see how things pan out but it ends just as badly as it started with some laughably crass dialogue being spouted by the appalling Helen Haye (Lady Lebanon) accompanied by a hysterical closing head shot of her. It's not meant to be funny, though. A nice, spooky venue is wasted in this badly acted effort.

This film, based on a stage play by Edgar Wallace, is one of those traditional British murder mysteries set in an enormous aristocratic mansion with all kinds of supercilious people, suspicious servants, stupid detectives, and maidens in distress. But it is by no means as corny as it sounds. The film is dominated by the powerful presence of Helen Haye, an actress with the cutting edge of a diamond blade, who lashes everyone in sight with her reproving tongue. She is Lady Lebanon, the matriarch of the establishment, and don't you forget it! Her friend is Dr. Amersham, played by Felix Aylmer, and he even outdoes her in supercilious arrogance. What a pair! Between them, they so dominate the screen that there is barely space for the other players to make their presences known much of the time. The maiden in distress (the one who is 'frightened') is played by Penelope Dudley-Ward (1914-1982, sometimes credited only as Penelope Ward), who only appeared in 12 films between 1935 and 1944, retiring after that. From 1948 to 1976, she was married to Sir Carol Reed, and during the time that I knew him towards the end of his life, I met her, though I only ever exchanged a few polite words with her, as she never joined me and Carol for our chats over gin and tonic in their vast living room with the enormously high ceiling in their splendid house in Kings Road. (They had removed the floor above that room so that the room was two storeys high rather than one.) Alas, I retain little impression of her, so must make do with what I see in these old movies instead. Now they are all gone, even Tracy Reed, Lady Reed's daughter, who died in 2012. Sic transit gloria mundi, I suppose. Helen Haye is so outstanding in this film that it is worth recalling some of her other notable film performances, of which there were 60 altogether. One particularly remembers Hitchcock's THE 39 STEPS (1935), THE SPY IN BLACK (1939), THE REMARKABLE MR. KIPPS (1941), THE MAN IN GREY (1943), ANNA KARENINA (1948), and HOBSON'S CHOICE (1954). What a career! However, the truly inspired performance in this film is by Marius Goring as the young Lord Lebanon, Helen Haye's son. He really outdoes himself in this one. (He had already appeared with Helen Haye the year before this in THE SPY IN BLACK (1939, see my review).) The reasons why the Lebanon family are called Lebanon in this story is that they 'go back a thousand years' and were active in the Middle East at that time as crusaders. Helen Haye is determined to 'continue the line' and keeps urging her bachelor son, who is obsessed with composing music, to marry Penelope Dudley-Ward, which he, unlike Carol Reed in real life, is strangely loathe to do. George King does an excellent job of directing this tale, which could easily have been creaky, but does not creak. King never rose to be one of the famous British directors, despite directing 54 titles, retiring in 1949. Many or most of his films are unavailable and no one alive has seen them, which makes it rather difficult to evaluate his contribution to the cinema. Certainly this film has countless twists and turns and surprises and never drags. Considering that it started out framed by a proscenium (as a stage play), King got it moving and avoided the claustrophobic feeling we often get from stage plays adapted for the screen. When watching this, be careful not to become 'a frightened lady'!

One of the several adaptation of the Edgar Wallace play is a typical, but unfortunately quite imperfect old dark house mystery about the last members of the once wealthy and prestigious Lebanon family. The family's head is Lady Lebanon, who rules the house with an iron fist and her sinister looking servants follow all her orders, that include keeping and eye on everyone, especially her only son, who is the last bearer of the name. She wants him to marry Isla Crane, her secretary, who also happens to be his cousin, but that seems to be no problem for Lady Lebanon, on the contrary actually, as we learn that it's been an on-going habit to marry family members.. which somewhat foreshadows the later turn of events.

A young lad called Richard Ferraby arrives to the house to discuss renovation plans and him and Isla, who is not too keen on the marriage idea anyways are immediately attracted to each other. Soon, the family's chauffeur gets killed, strangled with a scarf and Lady Lebanon's plan start to fall apart even further. It becomes obvious that she has many things to hide, including a locked room upstairs, some secrets with the family's doctor called Amersham and also, a scarf, that she tries to burn when police starts to investigate. While Lady Lebanon does everything to stop the investigation or at least make it as difficult as possible, both Ferraby and Lord Lebanon (who is clearly more interested in composing music than in the future of the family) try to help the rather incompetent police officers, but they can not prevent another murder from happening.

The film has everything that could make it a good old dark house mystery: family secrets, an old mansion, locked rooms, sinister butlers, secret passages and more-or-less likeable heroes, but it just does not work out at the end. The story has potential but it is heavily handled, dialogues are often awkwardly badly written, the acting isn't much better for the most part and director George King does not do a very good job either. He is well-known for his horror movies starring Tod Slaughter, so he should know a thing or two about scares and how to create a threatening atmosphere, but still, this movie completely lacks suspense.

And a friendly warning: if you watch this on Odeon Entertainment's Best of British DVD (that was actually the first time the film was made available for the public since its initial theatrical run), do not look at the photos on the cover unless you don't mind spoilers, as they give away both the movie's final plot twist and ending.

This entertaining British mystery has a great setting. Mark's Priory is an old country house. It is the home of the Lebanons. Lady Lebanon is a "blood-proud" widow who controls everybody with money. She is keen to see her son marry her niece to maintain and consolidate the Lebanon bloodline.

The house has a locked lumber room with "unique door handles." There are two dodgy footmen who appear a bit too sure of themselves. They have complete control of the house after the other servants have left at 8PM. Lady Lebanon's niece is terrified of them and of being locked in her room at night. A manic laugh can be heard in the corridor at such times.

The murders start at an Institute Dance 2 or 3 miles from Mark's Priory. There is some mystifying action involving Indian silk scarves used for strangulation.

Pick of the intriguing characters for me are Lady Lebanon played by Helen Haye. And the footman Gilder played in great commanding style by Roy Emerton with the most menacing and insolent smirk on his face.

Another lively potboiler from George King, in which the absence of Tod Slaughter is compensated by some ripe ham from a young and dashing Marius Goring instead.

The picture it paints of a decadent aristocracy on the brink of the cataclysm of a second world war is not a pretty one, with the men neutered by in-breeding (replenished only by strong women marrying into the House of Lebanon) while surrounded by muttering, disrespectful servants.