Lady in Distress

From a train window, crane-driver Michael Redgrave thinks he sees a woman being strangled. What follows is an unusual and effective story involving a magician, his assistant wife and a subtle interplay of illusion and murder. Refreshingly directed by the overlooked Herbert Mason, and well performed throughout (particularly Redgrave and Sally Gray), this small gem benefits greatly from its varied and credible London backgrounds, including music halls (including magic shows), mundane work places not normally seen in British films of the period, and construction work on Waterloo Bridge, under which the National Film Theatre is situated (which is where I last saw this film).

Michael Redgrave is on the train to his job as a crane operator. He sees at a window Paul Lukas killing Sally Gray.

It's a great start for a movie, and it was used before. LADY IN DISTRESS is a remake of the French METROPOLITAIN. I'd like to offer you a comparison of the two movies, but I've never seen the earlier film. I do know that Michael Redgrave is miscast as a working stiff who rides around in taxicabs. Sally Gray, on the other hand, impresses me as more than eye candy with a sullen expression for the first time. She's very good as the unwilling femme fatale who drives her husband, stage magician Lukas, crazy with jealousy, talent manager Hartley Power, sad with hopelessness and Redgrave mad with the possibilities of a magical night.

There are many early noir elements in this movie, filled, as it is, with Gallic fatalism, and can be viewed as an important step in its evolution. It's just not a film noir in itself.

Herbert Mason's lustily performed, enjoyably light-hearted romantic thriller 'A Window in London' still retains its effervescence, being a vibrantly written, engagingly brisk, warmly nostalgic cinematic treat! This frequently refined vintage entertainment documents some truly evocative moments along with its beguilingly monochrome views of 1940s London! And certainly no less appetising is the vivacious, and disarmingly pretty Sally Gray who makes for an especially charming, drop-dead gorgeous heroine! With her crisply moustachioed, monstrously arrogant, ferociously jealous illusionist hubby brought to meticulous life by Paul Lukas, who energetically portrays the picture-perfect pantomime villain Louis Zoltini with a deft Lugosian panache! Far from primitive, Mason's pristine 'A Window in London' is not only a fascinating window into a bygone Britain, it also maintains lively interest as a pleasingly whimsical, sweetly romantic, deliciously theatrical romp in its own right, and while the tall, almost absurdly photogenic Michael Redgrave is, perhaps, a trifle miscast as the cavalier, rough-handed cockney crane driver, he nonetheless remains a sympathetic lead, whose gallantly dramatic intervention playfully heralds an eventful jaunt across the picturesque diorama of 1940s London.

Known in the U.S. as Lady in Distress, A Window in London from 1940 stars Michael Redgrave, Sally Gray, Paul Lukas, Patricia Roc, and Hartley Power.

Redgrave plays Peter, a crane operator who one day, on his way to work via train, thinks he sees a murder. He gets off the train, grabs a bobby, and takes him to the building and apartment where it took place - after barging in on a couple of the neighbors.

The residents are magician Zoltini (Lukas) and his wife Vivienne (Gray). She's still alive, and Zoltini explains what Peter must have seen - Vivienne is on the bed - we assume they had a physical fight. Zoltini is a washed-up magician, an angry, jealous man who ruins their bookings with his bad temper.

The story of Peter and his wife Pat (Roc) and Zoltini and Vivienne intertwine. Pat works nights at a hotel switchboard, and she and Peter don't see much of each other. Peter goes to see Zoltini's show; when it's time for Vivienne to disappear, she really does - into a cab with Peter. He takes her to where he works, and it's obvious he's smitten with her.

Zoltini tracks down Peter and a showdown ensues.

Thanks to a good cast, A Window in London comes off pretty well and moves at a decent pace. Redgrave is young and charming, Gray is beautiful, unhappy, and vulnerable. Roc is sympathetic as a hardworking woman who feels she is losing her husband.

The last few minutes of this movie are unexpected, to put it mildly.

Very good.

Crane operator Michael Redgrave (Peter) works on the construction of Waterloo Bridge during the day whilst his wife Patricia Roc (Pat) is a telephone operator on the nightshift. They only have one day when they actually see each other. Sounds like a perfect relationship. Anyway, they want to ruin this balance by spending more time with each other and the ideal would be for Roc to get a day job. One day Redgrave witnesses a man murdering a woman outside an apartment whilst he is travelling on the train to work and he goes to the apartment to investigate. This is when we are introduced to illusionist Paul Lukas (Zoltini) and his assistant Sally Gray (Vivian). These encounters are life changing for all involved.

The idea is a good one although it stretches belief and we follow a love triangle or 2 or 3 - Sally Gray seems to be popular with the fellas - and the film follows Redgrave on quite an eventful night when he attends a music hall performance. Blimey!

For those who are familiar with Redgrave's ventriloquist act from "Dead of Night" (1945), given that we enter the music hall/theatre environment you will excitedly will him on to produce his dummy and show everyone a true spooky act. However, he stays away from any such performance, preferring instead to give us a rendition of a stupid song at a late-night party - "Let's all sing like the birdies sing, tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet".

You won't expect the ending and it is a dark twist when set alongside the words uttered as the final line of dialogue. It makes it a good film and wraps things up nicely - ha ha!