Death Goes to School

I could only award this 1953 film 5/10.As the diner guest in Basil Fawlty's restaurant at "Fawlty Towers" said when asked by Basil "Did he like his meal?" he responded, (the way I felt when I saw this film today with my wife, an ex-teacher at a primary school); "Well it was adequate".So I appear to damn the film with faint praise but look at the obvious production budget.In the year of the coronation most British cinemas showed a cartoon, Pathe news, a "B" feature before "the big "A" picture" and I suspect this would have been a "B" picture then.We must therefore expect cheaper relatively unknown actors/actresses and virtually no locational shots filmed outside the studio system.Indeed the only actors I recognised were:Gordon Jackson, Sam Kydd, Beatrice Varley and Barbara Murray, hardly household names then and probably unknown to our American friends who saw this film.

Now having got the carping out of the way did it have some good points?Well yes, the screenwriters managed to keep "whodunnit" right to the end but the motive for murder was not sufficiently evident to me.There would be a job awaiting Miss Shepherd in the police if she wanted to give up music teaching but having teaching in my family, it tends to get into your blood.

Despite the flaws in the script and the improbabilities of this film, it comes over as a very good and uncomplicated murder mystery, with the only clue being the heel print of a size 5 shoe in the soil behind where the assailant may have stood behind the victim.

Despite the low budgeted production values, the film still had me guessing right up to the very end, leaving a conclusion that even the detectives were not able to come to.

It was surprising to see Gordon Jackson in one of his earlier films. He was a very fine actor and, at first, I thought that he was probably miscast in this film, but as his character developed you could clearly see why he was chosen for this role.

I am also surprised why the film was never remade, as with the right actors and director, the film could have become one of the great British classics.

All I can say, is this movie was taken from a book written by the author Stratford Davis - and it didn't do her justice. Yup, a little background. The male name Stratford Davis was actually the pen name of a female with the birth name Maisie Sharman who wrote several books under the male name just so she could be published during the thirties. She later penned several more books under the name Miriam Sharman (last name was real until she married a Bolton in Hampshire, and then went under the name Miriam Bolton for several screenplays for the BBC). The reason I know this trivia about a little known author is simply because she was my great-aunt on my maternal Grandfather's side. I have collected several of her books from her later periods (50's and 60's); and while they would never be on a par with Conan Doyle or P.D. James, I found them enjoyable for a short bout of escapism.

The scene is a girls school where a pupil discovers the strangled body of her teacher. The dead woman had made many enemies at the school during her stay so there is no shortage of suspects. Scotland Yard arrives with Inspector Campbell (Gordon Jackson) in charge of the investigation. Key to the probe is a small ladies footprint found at the scene of the crime, prompting Inspector Campbell to believe the woman was murdered by another staff member.

The print I saw was clear and crisp and the production values nice for a low budget British mystery. The cast was solid but not spectacular in their work. The screenplay is somewhat staid and lacking an energy. The film tells the story from the viewpoint of the Police Inspector and a young schoolteacher who is under investigation. This crossing of views should deliver a interesting journey, yet it remains quite sedate.

I enjoyed this film. It was nice to see Gordon Jackson in a lead role and it was nice to discover a rare, old British mystery. This is not a lost gem, but a nice film for fans of British mysteries, like myself.

This is typical whodunit in the grand tradition of Agatha Christie (but definitely inferior to her best murder mysteries ): a place where a murder was committed and where everyone's a suspect,for everyone bore a grudge against the strangled victim .

And the suspects are all teachers in a girls school , that is people who should be models to their pupils ; using flashbacks is quite derivative,but it allows us to make acquaintance with these women who are not exactly the persons they claim to be .

This is OK murder mystery and the murderess 's motive makes sense .