Smart Alec

"Smart Alec" (1951) is truly an oddball, beginning with a Hitchcockian slyness and oiliness that leads us to believe that something grisly is going to happen to Uncle Eddie - uncle to Alec Albion. It looks like its going to be a very, very serious crime drama. But, then... The characters begin to have tendencies that border on comedic. Then a murder occurs. Then the film begins to have a surreal veneer - or is that the core? Is the veneer a crime drama, but the rest...? What IS this film?? I must say that at only 58 minutes the producers have reined in the film enough for a certain tautness that keeps the whole thing together, and rather well at that. It's a lot of fun getting to where we know the film is going to go, but the comedy ends up looking as if it came out of a 1918 Mack Sennett Studio script. Things happen that just - well - shouldn't... But they do. This stars Peter Reynolds. He'll remind viewers who've watched BBC "Masterpiece Theatre" for years of both young Christopher Cazenova and young Anthony Andrews, especially the latter. Reynolds, though named Alec in the show, behaves as any smart alec would, though he thinks he's smart, too. He is, but up to the breaking point... Along for the ride in the show are Leslie Dwyer (who is the most fun to watch), Edward Lexy, Kynaston Reeves (whose credits in Brit films and TV reads like a Who's Who - and long, too, going all the way back to 1931); others, including Peter Bull as a prosecutor, appear in minor rôles. If you're in the mood for slapstick to murder to mystery to class distinction, and more, and more, and more... This is your cup of tea. It's got a bit of Earl Grey mixed with China. India or China? Give me both, with a touch of Scotch tempered by Campari and soda, too. Oh, Kool-Aid, too? Well, why not! Oh, and, yes, there's an ending that looks as if the glue wasn't good enough to hold on...but there it is...oh, yeah, there 'tis...

Guillermin directed Smart Alec; a quick moving murder mystery. We know who did it, but how? Peter Reynols is the glib nephew of his rich uncle who sits on his apartment veranda. Reynolds takes a flat across from him and shoots him dead. Scotland Yard can't prove it. Although they have the gun, there is no bullet. There's Mercy Haystead Albion's wife who wonders who the woman is leaving the flat. Annette Symonds plays Slyvia, the mistress. David Hurst is the crying neighbor who has lost his car with 90% of his money in the car seat. This is an excellent film on all levels.

Peter Reynolds is a supercilious young man. He and his wife rent an apartment that faces his estranged uncle's apartment. He asks the head of Scotland Yard up to his flat, puts a record on the player very loud, disappears into his bedroom for a few seconds, and when he returns, his uncle, who has been sunbathing on his balcony has been shot dead. As his heir -- although he was about to be written out of the will -- he has motive... but there's no bullet. He couldn't have gotten to the apartment, so, despite the fact that he's clearly the one who did it, he's found not guilty.

It's a very nice little movie, carried on the obnoxious charm that Reynold oozes. I'm willing to forgive it on the absurdity of the performances; when he reveals how he did it -- because having been tried and found not guilty, he can't be tried again for killing the old man -- I was mildly disappointed. I had considered the method and rejected it on the grounds that tests had been made, and it wouldn't work. However, they didn't know that when they made the movie, and it's a beguiling movie.

This is a great B Movie, its only 58 minutes long, but you will WANT to watch it to the end. A young man decides to kill his Uncle Eddie so he can inherit as he wants the money now, he shoots him with a bullet made of ice so there is no evidence when the police arrive. Its a very watchable film, its in black and white and is a very English Film. Its also notable for a young Charles Hawtrey, who went on to make the Carry On Films.