Mystery at the Burlesque

I believe this is the single worst movie I have ever seen. I kept hoping something would improve. Cant believe I sat through the whole thing. The acting was astonishingly horrible. The script ridiculous. The conclusion was improbable and not worth having suffered through all the previous minutes.

Murder most foul as Miss Marple would say has been done at the famous Windmill Theater in London. The famed theater for which a very ambitious Rita Hayworth wartime film Tonight And Every Night used as a model is the scene of a homicide. The victim sat in the very front row and was shot as forensics would have it right from the stage during the last performance.

The victim was a makeup salesman who was always trying to make a sale among the chorus girls of himself and his products. The only way that Inspector Garry Marsh and Sergeant Jon Pertwee can solve this thing if the show is run again. So the weary cast goes through its paces again after the last show.

Murder At The Windmill is an interesting if strange film. The rather thin murder plot is just an excuse to put on the Windmill revue for our benefit. The numbers are nice but not spectacular and the murderer is extremely obvious from the start.

The film's best asset are the incredibly patient Garry Marsh and his assistant Pertwee who seems to think that he will dazzle his superior with all kinds of arcane knowledge. Marsh just takes it all in stride.

Murder At The Windmill is a curious little film, more musical than murder.

Well thats what the BBFC censor of the day would have said.I decided to make this post to correct some errors made in other posts.Up till 1967 when theatre censorship was abolished all stage performances came under the auspices of the Lord Chamberlain.Nudity on the stage was allowed provided that the nude did not move.So the maxim "if it moves its rude".So there were no strippers or nude dancing of any kind at The Windmill.There were "tableaux vivant" as they were called.Artfully posed nudes.So the show we see on screen is nothing like the one that would actually be performed on the stage.This film was made when the Windmill was still at its peak.In the fifties strip clubs would open up in adjacent Soho so men could go to see striptease without having to see variety acts,music hall at that time also dying.By the early sixties The Windmill had to close.The Theatre is still there but i believe that it is now a nightclub.This film is a historic reminder of what used to happen there.As they used to say "We Never Clothed".

A Detective and his Sergeant investigate a murder at The Windmill Theatre, how in Earth was a man killed in the front row during a performance, surely one of the cast must have committed the act? The cast perform the show for The Police to determine when, where and whodunnit.

It's a charming film, a comedy, musical whodunnit. It's sentimental, funny and really sweet. Expect laughs, entertainment and a raft of famous faces. The identity of the killer almost becomes insignificant as you're lost in a raft of musical numbers and dances.

The best scene is surely the alluring tableaux, in 1949 that would have been incredibly risqué, it's somehow sexy, but classy and captivating, she had some real talent.

Some very fine performances, as a massive Jon Pertwee fan, I loved seeing him in an early role, it's crazy how much he and his son look alike.

Cameos for Peter Butterworth, who appears in some very funny scenes.

Charming.

6/10.

An early indication that despite having served his apprenticeship at Gainsborough on the comedies of Will Hay Val Guest's crime films tended to be better than his comedies.

'Murder at the Windmill' rather unsatisfactorily combines elements of both by detailing a police investigation against the backdrop of the variety acts; one of which even manages to feature (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) a fleeting appearance by Jon Pertwee doing his impression of Danny Kaye.