The Teckman Mystery

Nice post-war British espionage mystery. Clever and wonderfully acted. Margaret Leighton super (of course), but whole cast top notch.

In response to the review that felt this movie was slow: well, it didn't open with machine guns blazing, if that's what you mean.

For an older British espionage movie, this film actually moves along quite briskly.

If you like British movies, you are sure to like this. Even if you don't normally watch British film, you may well like this.

If you watched and enjoyed the original Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, you will certainly enjoy this, as the action is sizzling in comparison.

I just wanted to say a few words about this gem of a film. I gladly watched the 90 minutes and enjoyed all of the suspense. I ordered this film as I like British Film Noir and I happened to notice Margaret Leighton's name topping the cast. I am also a John Justin and Raymond Huntley fan too! It is always nice to see Jane Wenhem who is little known. The photography is really done very nicely. Once I started watching I had to see what happened to the brother who was suspiciously murdered. From the first engaging moments through the rest of the film I really got caught up in the suspense! I think the entire film was wrapped up in a tidy way. At the end we find that things work out unexpectedly! But we still have enjoyed watching.

Helen Teckman and Philip Chance are strangers sitting next to each other on a plane. She's reading a book which happens to be authored by him. He's been assigned to write a biography of test pilot Martin Teckman who died a few months earlier and happens to be her brother. He returns home to find it ransacked. He starts investigating Martin's crash of an experimental plane.

The start is intriguing. The investigating goes slowly. It's a lot of sitting around and talking. With all the murders and deaths, one expects more thrills. It lacks kinetic energy and falters in intensity. The characters are more likely to have a long relaxing smoke or drink tea than get into a fight. Time and time again. The movie likes to dwell on their boring static conversations. It's slow and the style isn't much of anything. I'm still interested in the central mystery but the movie is not making it that exciting.

John Justin is a writer flying home to London to argue that he shouldn't write the biography of a test pilot whose plane crashed. As he sits on the plane, Margaret Leighton is seated next to him, reading a magazine with a story by him. They get to chatting and he discovers she is the sister of the pilot. He decides to write the book, but as he does his research, the people he wishes to speak to keep dying.

It's a nice little mystery, with director Wendy Toye adhering to many of the conventions of the British film genre, including the police actually knowing how to do their job. It's not a terribly deep mystery, but it does turn into an interesting movie in terms of suspense: The audience and Justin have all the clues they need, and Justin's inability to see the solution puts him at risk. It makes you want to shout at him.