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Initially there are shades of 'Jeeves and Wooster' with Murray Selwyn and his servant Twigg in this mildly amusing crime-comedy. Selwyn arrives home one day by taxi and Twigg carries his purchases into the house. However they soon discover they have also acquired a briefcase stuffed with five pound notes left in the taxi by the previous passenger. These are actually forged notes made on engraved plates by an expert engraver called Joe Pasquale who is currently doing 10 years in Dartmoor. The plates were never found by the police but they also fall into the possession of Selwyn by circumstances too complicated to explain here. The rest of the film is concerned with a criminal gang's efforts to acquire the plates (ably led by Elwyn Brook-Jones) and their frustration at always being one step behind the location of the plates.

Throughout the film, circumstances lead the police to suspect Selwyn of being implicated in the crime and much of the humour involves his truthful explanations to the incredulous police Inspector Archer (nicely played by the usually staid Clive Morton). Overall the acting is good with Guy Middleton as Selwyn being his usual suave self and the plot fast moving.

Apparently this ultra-rare film has not been seen since its initial release but if you're an aficionado of British second features of the 1950s I venture to say you will not be disappointed with this one

Eileen Hannay (Dinah Sheridan) is the singing star of an Irish operatic society but gives up to marry Terry O'Keefe (John Bentley) who, we soon discover, is something of a ne'er-do-well. Unbeknown to Eileen, Terry had been involved with Carole Wells, another singer in the society who had loaned him some money. Peeved at him now marrying Eileen she tells him to pay up, take up again with her or suffer the consequences. Meanwhile Terry and Eileen return to her late parent's run down estate in Donegal to start married life but thanks to Terry's intolerance of the local Romany's (Eileen's mother was a gypsy), his fondness for drink and pressure from Carole, things start to fall apart.

I could best describe this film as a very modest drama-cum-musical with a dollop of schmaltz here and there, particularly in scenes featuring the boy Paddy. In other words the hackneyed plot has a bit of everything in it yet probably appealed to a 1940s audience. With an operatic society and gypsy encampment featured, there are excuses for musical interludes of an Irish flavour but they don't blend in well with the action, rather they appear to be there just to prolong the film.

This was John Bentley's first film and he went on to become a stalwart of many a British second feature films particularly in the 1950s and often on the side of the law so it's unusual to see him play the 'baddie'. Dinah Sheridan was already a veteran of some dozen films by this time and she gives a competent if unspectacular performance but she does look lovely. We do, thankfully get some light relief in the form of Moore Marriot who seems to be reprising his popular character Harbottle from the Will Hay films albeit with an Irish accent.

All in all, a film of its time with curiosity value only.

The plot in this curiosity is simple enough. A cinema usherette is murdered immediately following a dalliance with the cinema manager and with the killer on the loose, we follow the police attempts to catch the person responsible and a newspaper's (ironically The News of the World) efforts to get the story. Some attempt was made to make a kind of semi-documentary out it (rolling printing presses etc) but I suspect it was hoped to deflect from the plot's deficiencies.

I'm really not sure why this film was ever made. It was released in 1947 when British Cinema was perfectly capable of making professional and entertaining films but this film is neither of those things. It looks and feels as though it was made at the dawn of talking pictures with some stilted performances, erratic editing and simplistic storyline.

There are some faults in the actual physical quality of the film but I'm not criticising those because this is obviously a rarity that must have been rescued from the darkest corners of Renown's vaults and if you are like me, curiosity means you must watch it for your own satisfaction.

So – accept this film purely as a rare curiosity and nothing more. However it is notable for one thing. The sharp-eyed viewer will see the very first screen appearance of the great British character actor John Le Mesurier. His first film is often quoted as being DEATH IN THE HAND from 1948 but he appears here as a newspaper employee called into his editor's office and has one line to speak.