It’s time for an old school mystery thriller. This one definitely has a lot of characters running around which helps to enhance the mystery angle and I would say that it ends up working out really well. There are enough characters here where you can really start making your own guesses on what happened and who the true culprit is. There are a solid number of twists and turns here so it will be tough to really guess it all correctly but trying to come close is definitely the main objective here.

So the movie starts with a lady getting murdered. She was actually on the phone with someone but completely panicked and so while she was being murdered she didn’t yell out the person’s name, description, or anything like that. In fact she dropped the phone so only a scream was heard which didn’t seem to bother the other person on the line nearly as much as you would have expected it to. We then get to the main house where there is a big party for Victor ongoing. Just about everyone is here and it should be all good except a mysterious guy shows up. His name is Steven and he claims to be the husband of Matilda, the lady who died out at sea.

Nobody has been aware of her being married before and as it happens, she was quite rich. So naturally her family were expecting to get everything and now this guy has shown up? Is he just here for the money and is this some kind of a scam? They’ll need to figure it out quickly and does this have anything to do with the murder of the other lady? More and more characters enter the plot as the film goes on and the main thing I would say is that this is one of those films where you really can’t rust anyone. They’ve all got an angle that they are working on.

Each character appears to have some kind of motive and most of them just don’t get along at all. You have Althea who stole Matilda’s boyfriend from her right before they were to be married so there would definitely still be some resentment there. Unfortunately he fell off quickly so now Althea isn’t even happy. Steven’s motivations are obvious of course, if he is faking the marriage then he is here for money and if not, then he may be out for some revenge. He appears to be digging into the recent “suicide” as well which raises more questions. I should mention now that unfortunately the opening murder was ruled a suicide since there was no evidence of a struggle or anything. It’s a shame because the whole movie wouldn’t have happened in the same way if the victim had just yelled anything specific before getting bumped off.

Meanwhile Victor is naturally a suspect for generally being shady and also not reacting much to any of the news. He reads a lot of murder mysteries and different thrillers over the radio so he has experience in these kinds of scenarios. The film tends to open up more questions as it goes on as well when the various characters begin interacting with each other. There are so many secret conversations, layered threats, blackmail, etc. Everything is happening here. That is where the film shines though. The pacing is very fast and they manage to squeeze in many different plots before the film is over.

Naturally the writing is also really good although that should come as no surprise. These old films always tend to have a great script and was crafted with a lot of care. Most of the characters are written to be rather unlikable but it is done in a careful way where they aren’t obnoxious or anything like that. You are rooting for things not to go tooo well for them but they’re not actively hurting the film in the process. For example Althea’s husband spends the whole film being really drunk so he’s annoying and someone to root against but the film doesn’t overplay its hand by having him show up dozens and dozens of times over to beat you over the head with how annoying he is. You get the basis of his character right away. Likewise you see how Althea is always chasing different men and can’t really be trusted.

The flaws that the characters have are rather obvious without being overbearing and that’s absolutely the right away to do it. So in short, the film didn’t really have any negatives for me. Yeah I still think it’s a real stretch how in the first murder the girl didn’t do anything even while she was already on the phone. That whole thing felt more than a little sloppy to me and the film should have written the scene in a different way. Just don’t have her be on the phone you know? I feel like in part it was there to be a red herring as well and the problem is that it’s a little too good as a red herring to the point where it almost becomes a plot hole of sorts. Plot hole is too strong since you can explain it away but all I’m saying is that the first scene doesn’t work all that well despite the rest of the film being really strong.

Also there’s a major plot point/whole storyline that I didn’t mention because the actual plot would be a spoiler in itself. All I’ll say there is that you always have to trust your own recollection or lack thereof rather than someone else’s story. Even if it might work out sometimes, you see so many characters being gaslit because they didn’t trust their own instincts. That is always a problem. Just trust in your instincts and generally everything will work out.

Overall, This is the kind of film where I try not to give too much away because all of the twists and turns as a primary factor in how much you enjoy the film. It’s why a repeat viewing will never hit quite the same way as the initial watch. Still, it is done well enough where you would still have a good time either way. I definitely recommend watching this movie and extra credit to you if you guess who the main culprit is.

Overall 7/10