Murder at the Windmill

A Detective and his Sergeant investigate a murder at The Windmill Theatre, how in Earth was a man killed in the front row during a performance, surely one of the cast must have committed the act? The cast perform the show for The Police to determine when, where and whodunnit.

It's a charming film, a comedy, musical whodunnit. It's sentimental, funny and really sweet. Expect laughs, entertainment and a raft of famous faces. The identity of the killer almost becomes insignificant as you're lost in a raft of musical numbers and dances.

The best scene is surely the alluring tableaux, in 1949 that would have been incredibly risqué, it's somehow sexy, but classy and captivating, she had some real talent.

Some very fine performances, as a massive Jon Pertwee fan, I loved seeing him in an early role, it's crazy how much he and his son look alike.

Cameos for Peter Butterworth, who appears in some very funny scenes.

Charming.

6/10.

When a man is killed at the Windmill Theatre during a performance, the police have to discover which of the actors and stagehands is a murderer.

Murder at the Windmill is bad. Apparently someone thought the film would be better with musical numbers, so there's a couple randomly shoehorned in at various intervals. The numbers are horribly staged, and the songs are terrible. You also get to suffer through a terrible comedy routine by Jimmy Edwards and some guy doing a Jimmy Stewart impression.

Jon Pertwee is the only good actor in the bunch, giving a fun comedic performance as one of the policemen. The rest of the cast is pretty unmemorable, with the exception of Diana Decker, who is horrendously annoying. Peter Butterworth has a bit part as a policeman.

Unless you're a diehard Jon Pertwee fan, I'd avoid this one.

The actual Windmill theatre is London had a racy reputation. As this movie was made in 1949, the censorship laws meant it could only touch upon this with one fan dance.

The movie begins with an audience member found dead at the end of the show.

The police are called in which includes the unassuming Detective Sergeant (Jon Pertwee) anda blustering Detective Inspector. It seems the dead man was shot.

So the entire's night performances is recreated to smoke the murderer out. This includes dancers, singers and a very long, dragged out an unfunny comic routine by Jimmy Edwards. He should had been caned by someone!

Basically this contrived movie is a way to recreate a sanitised revue of the Windmill. I guess people were easily pleased in the old days.

The murder mystery itself is an afterthought. Even with the vintage theatrical performances this was a poor movie.

I believe this is the single worst movie I have ever seen. I kept hoping something would improve. Cant believe I sat through the whole thing. The acting was astonishingly horrible. The script ridiculous. The conclusion was improbable and not worth having suffered through all the previous minutes.

Well thats what the BBFC censor of the day would have said.I decided to make this post to correct some errors made in other posts.Up till 1967 when theatre censorship was abolished all stage performances came under the auspices of the Lord Chamberlain.Nudity on the stage was allowed provided that the nude did not move.So the maxim "if it moves its rude".So there were no strippers or nude dancing of any kind at The Windmill.There were "tableaux vivant" as they were called.Artfully posed nudes.So the show we see on screen is nothing like the one that would actually be performed on the stage.This film was made when the Windmill was still at its peak.In the fifties strip clubs would open up in adjacent Soho so men could go to see striptease without having to see variety acts,music hall at that time also dying.By the early sixties The Windmill had to close.The Theatre is still there but i believe that it is now a nightclub.This film is a historic reminder of what used to happen there.As they used to say "We Never Clothed".