Tread Softly

There is virtually no part of this plot which has not been used better elsewhere.The basic premise of murders being carried out backstage at a theatre had been in constant use since the coming of sound.So the real shock comes when you see an ageing Frances Day at the beginning of the film.She was only in her early forties but looks much older.Apparently she was known as the Marilyn Monroe of the thirties.She had affairs with 4 royal princes,Anthony Eden and some well known female film stars.It is little surprise that she does not survive till the end of this rather moth eaten film.After all characters being murdered to try and preserve a secret is the basic premise of Gaslight.The pairing of John Bentley and Patricia Dainton fails to breath life into this film.

A musical is being rehearsed, and the blonde-haired diva (Frances Day) finally storms off in a huff, they subsequently lose the venue, and expressing the pluckiest 'the show must go on' tradition, the beleaguered theatrical company somewhat anxiously move the entire production to a phantasmagorically spooky, long-abandoned, darkly storied, creepily cob-webbed theatre wherein a dastardly murder had been vilely perpetrated many years earlier! Capable Director David McDonald's intriguingly odd, frequently bizarre, far from neatly coalesced admixture of rumbustious, toe-tapping musical, and ominous, shadow-soaked, Edgar Wallace-style haunted house murder mystery soon becomes a wickedly eccentric, terror-tinged vintage thriller whose narrative inconsistencies ultimately prove to be strangely endearing! While 'Tread Softly' stamps rather cumbrously over B-Thriller convention, this pleasingly noisome affair isn't without some interest to avid fans of macabre, but ever so slightly off-key 50s-era British murder mysteries! The standard of acting is generally robust across the well-trodden boards, with the ever reliable leading man John Bentley, and the luminously beautiful, splendidly vivacious Patricia Dainton making for an engagingly appealing couple now dangerously enmeshed within the murderous coils of some ever encroaching, life-threatening campaign of terror!

This curious mixture of light thriller, comedy, and mystery diffused with variety act musical numbers appears somewhat dated even at the time of release in late 1952. It's not unlikeable however, particularly with such a well-stocked cast. John Bentley is, as ever, supremely good at playing the decent (if slightly bland) and genuinely nice leading man, this time paired with Patricia Dainton. Frances Day is given lead billing in some notices, which must allude to her previous fame as a nightclub singer and cabaret performer, but really is only in the first part of this film. Nice to see John Laurie- later and unforgettably, the lugubrious Private Fraser in Dads Army- in an uncharacteristically light-hearted role as the long-suffering theatrical agent.

Harmless old-fashioned fun not to be taken too seriously- well why not?!

More a revue than a whodunnit. 'Tread Softly' makes good use of the deserted theatre as a setting; although it does rather go on, and the scenes with Nora Nicholson were so stilted I thought they were from a play within a play until I realised the police were still there asking questions.

In her first film since the war, blonde-maned Frances Day at 43 provides prewar thirties glamour as the diva whose position is soon to be usurped by ingenue Patricia Dainton. Betty Bascomb meanwhile displays the same menace she also did not long afterwards as one of the conspirators in Hitchcock's 'The Man Who Knew Too Much', while Harry Locke - in loud checks and a bow tie as the usual over-eager publicist, subtly named Nutty Potts ("There's nothing like a nice juicy murder to interest the public!") - gets a chance to show he can tap dance.

Very awkward in places to understand what this film foregrounds? Is it the weak plot, or is it to promote the life of the theatre? Certainly as it was filmed on the stage for most of teh film and saved money and nay further location shots? The film features an unmemorable music score - but the dance routines intrigue? Did Kenneth MacMillan (having a bit part in this film) play a role in their choreography? (uncredited if he did). No idea if the leads could sing, Bentley doesn't really solve anything other than the pursuit of the lead lady. I hope someone can investigate the link with a knight of British dance? KM ignores this in his biography. So the film is worth the visit.