Mystery at the Burlesque

In order to find out who fired the fatal shot during a performance the windmill theatre cast each have to go through their entire routine - in front of a police inspector.

This film is actually just an excuse for us to sit back and watch an entire Windmill theatre performance. The cast in the film are the actual girls who worked there and the routines are what they really did - week in week out.

The Windmill (now sadly long closed,) was in Soho, London - just off Piccadilly circus and a whole generation of actors and comedians got their first break there. The formulae was simple, strippers and erotic dancers would perform on the stage and a comedian would come on in between each act. So, to get the attention of a crowd of sleazy men who had snuck in for a glimpse of flesh you had to be good. And a glimpse was all they ever got - the British censorship laws prohibited anything else. There used to be a plaque of names outside the door with a list of who had played there with names like David Niven, Harry Seacom and a host of others (Norman Wisdom failed the audition). The plaque also boasted that during WW2 `We never closed'.

A lot of countries would think that a slice of history like this would be worth preserving but not us British. As with the Liverpool Cavern club (now replaced with a silly replica,) The Bronte museum (full of phoney replaced artefacts,) and other places where the short term profit from a slice of land or property was more important than any heritage.

So, if you can get a copy this film it is a (slightly sanitised) snapshot of a world long gone. When Piccadilly circus had a real round about with the Eros statue in its centre and every building in the circus had a huge fantastic neon advert. A very enjoyable old film with the subject matter not quite as sleazy as it really was.

When a man is killed at the Windmill Theatre during a performance, the police have to discover which of the actors and stagehands is a murderer.

Murder at the Windmill is bad. Apparently someone thought the film would be better with musical numbers, so there's a couple randomly shoehorned in at various intervals. The numbers are horribly staged, and the songs are terrible. You also get to suffer through a terrible comedy routine by Jimmy Edwards and some guy doing a Jimmy Stewart impression.

Jon Pertwee is the only good actor in the bunch, giving a fun comedic performance as one of the policemen. The rest of the cast is pretty unmemorable, with the exception of Diana Decker, who is horrendously annoying. Peter Butterworth has a bit part as a policeman.

Unless you're a diehard Jon Pertwee fan, I'd avoid this one.

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.

The Windmill Theater in London claimed they never closed. They certainly didn't on this night as all the performers and stagehands are kept behind after a member of the audience is shot through the heart. The CID Inspector insists they re-enact part of the show again. And that is the part when the police suspect the murder victim was shot from the stage.

You will need to be prepared for some song and dance numbers watching this. I was concentrating on the acts to see if I could detect the point at which a shot could have been fired at the audience. There are wise-cracking chorus girls but no famed Windmill nudity to be had. For a large part this can be seen as more of a slice of theater history than a mystery. But chances are you won't detect the murderer if you make the same mistake as I made.

There is an indication of what the Windmill Revues were like in the 1940s. American film stars of this period are impersonated on stage in one of the numbers which I thought was impressive. Among the performers is Jimmy Edwards who thrived on a terrible stage act for years which you can now see for yourself. Jon Pertwee is another known face as the police sergeant. And then there's Garry Marsh as the CID chief who British mystery fans will recognize from his many supporting roles in the 1930s and 1940s.

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.