A free adaptation of Josephine Tey's brilliant thriller ;her admirers had rather see the miniseries which does the detective story justice. Daphné Du Maurier wrote another book about the subject of the impostor which might possess considerable appeal for fans of "Brett Farrar" :"the scapegoat" itself transferred to the screen with sir Alec Guiness as the lead.
But Jimmy Sangster's screenplay,as usual ,is smart and gives the story an eerie feeling the novel had not .The stand-outs are without a doubt Janet Prescott as sweet auntie Harriet,with a look as cold as Mrs Danver in "Rebecca" ;if looks could kill ,hers certainly would ;matching her every step of the way is the great Oliver Reed's alcoholic ,at once handsome and sinister-looking ,Simon; you should see him playing the organ during the memorial ceremony for his departed relatives. In real life ,this highly talented thespian was killed by alcohol too : in Malta ,you can see the cafe where he literally drank himself to death. The rest of the cast is just OK , but suspense is sustained till the last scenes and the sequences of the car the brakes of which have been sabotaged is a true cliffhanger!(no pun intended)
But Jimmy Sangster's screenplay,as usual ,is smart and gives the story an eerie feeling the novel had not .The stand-outs are without a doubt Janet Prescott as sweet auntie Harriet,with a look as cold as Mrs Danver in "Rebecca" ;if looks could kill ,hers certainly would ;matching her every step of the way is the great Oliver Reed's alcoholic ,at once handsome and sinister-looking ,Simon; you should see him playing the organ during the memorial ceremony for his departed relatives. In real life ,this highly talented thespian was killed by alcohol too : in Malta ,you can see the cafe where he literally drank himself to death. The rest of the cast is just OK , but suspense is sustained till the last scenes and the sequences of the car the brakes of which have been sabotaged is a true cliffhanger!(no pun intended)