I'm in a bit of a quandary here. I agree with all the previous reviewers, even the one who rubbished the film as well as those who gave it reasonably high marks. The only disagreement I had with any of the reviewers was with the one who praised Wilfrid Hyde-White's performance. (IMDb is of the opinion that that is not the way to spell "Wilfrid" but that is the spelling employed on the good quality Alpha DVD). I had the impression that Hyde-White was re- dubbing his lines as they seemed to be slightly out of sync. Or maybe he had mistakenly walked slightly out of range of the mike, but the producer-director Herbert Wilcox was forced to use the take anyway.
One also gets the impression that the movie was headed for a sweetness-and-light conclusion, when it was suddenly realized that the teen-age girl (superbly played by Sylvia Syms - was this her first movie?) was not such a bad girl after all, so a murderous conclusion was fabricated involving her boyfriend. But Sylvia still has nothing to do with the murder, so she's not really a bad girl at all. The only thing bad about her was that she occasionally talks back to her mother - drearily played by Ann Neagle. (I always thought her name was Anna Neagle, but the cover designer of the excellent Alpha DVD thinks otherwise). The cover designer has also used the film's front-of- house shot of Sylvia Syms looking both sultry and available, even though she doesn't appear anything like so so flamboyantly in the movie itself.
One also gets the impression that the movie was headed for a sweetness-and-light conclusion, when it was suddenly realized that the teen-age girl (superbly played by Sylvia Syms - was this her first movie?) was not such a bad girl after all, so a murderous conclusion was fabricated involving her boyfriend. But Sylvia still has nothing to do with the murder, so she's not really a bad girl at all. The only thing bad about her was that she occasionally talks back to her mother - drearily played by Ann Neagle. (I always thought her name was Anna Neagle, but the cover designer of the excellent Alpha DVD thinks otherwise). The cover designer has also used the film's front-of- house shot of Sylvia Syms looking both sultry and available, even though she doesn't appear anything like so so flamboyantly in the movie itself.