The Spider's Web

This being a Danziger film you don't have great expectations.Presumably most of the money was spent on buying the film rights and colour.So there is only one set and Johns only gets one frumpy dress.John's overreacting is matched by Courtneidge.The music will drive you round the bend.Almost continuous and very intrusive.The pace is leaden.So a disappointment.

Glynis Johns is the sort of sweet but vague woman who calls everyone 'darling'. So when a dead man turns up behind the couch, she calls her houseguests and has them move the body into the secret passage in the house.

It's based on one of Agatha Christie's lesser known stage plays. Like most of her writing, it is marvelously plotted, but indifferently written. It relies on a fine cast to bring this murder mystery to life, including Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Ronald Howard, Ferdy Mayne, and Peter Butterworth as the befuddled inspector.

It's been opened up slightly from the stage play, resulting in a four-set movie.

Sometimes it seems as if makers of mystery movies have two choices: they can make a good mystery or they can make a good movie. This one is enlivened by a fine cast, but not enough to make it more than an indifferent programmer.

It's one of Agatha Christie's lesser known stage plays, but it's quite an intriguing mystery, with some unexpected moments, and a rather surprise ending. Glynis Johns is utterly charming as Clarissa Hailsham-Brown, the whole film depends on her delivering, making the character insanely enthusiastic, energetic and hugely inquisitive, and that she does incredibly well. She is well supported and in good company, Cicely Courtneidge grabs my attention the most, with an excellent performance as Miss Peake. Peter Butterworth adds some wonderful humour as the bemused and baffled Inspector Lord.

It's definitely well acted, well produced, you can tell by the costumes and design that very early 1960's, as it has a wonderfully proper feel to it.

Previously made in the 50's with Margaret Lockwood, It would be remade by the BBC for Christmas in 1982, for what is my personal favourite adaptation, I adore Penelope Keith's interpretation of Clarissa.

Come on BBC this one could be remade rather easily :-)

Nice movie 8/10

Agatha Christie was a top-drawer playwright as well as a novelist, and this film is based on her successful comedy thriller 'Spider's Web' (there was no 'The' in the original title). It had a successful run in London in 1954-56 and starred the wonderful Margaret Lockwood, who also starred in a 1955 TV movie versiion (which I've never seen, alas).

In this very plush technicolor adaptation, Glynis Johns steps into Lockwood's shoes, and does a creditable job. It's a high-energy role, and she overplays her part just a bit. This was probably at the urging of director Godfrey Grayson, a competent director of crime movies who perhaps found himself in unfamiliar comedy territory. In fact, Godfrey's uninspired direction is probably why the film starts to plod about halfway through, and never really recovers.

For the complicated plot, Christie may have borrowed an idea or two from Jack Trevor Story's novel The Trouble With Harry, which of course was the foundation for Hitchcock's classic 1955 movie. The Spider's Web is no classic, however, and probably won't stick in your memory. But it makes for OK viewing, with some laughs and a few thrills. The acting all around is commendable, and, best of all, the sets are gorgeous and definitely worth a peek.

This comic adaptation of one of Agatha Christie's lesser-known (and just plain lesser) stories is a static piece of filmmaking (basically, it's just filmed theater), and suffers from an overbearingly incessant score, but Glynis Johns is a charming leading lady, and fans of the writer may want to take a peek anyway, for completion's sake. **1/2 out of 4.