richardchatten

A garrulous Danzigers attempt at an Ealing comedy - dated by an annoying trad jazz score - that appeared in the same year that the Euston Arch was demolished in the face of widespread public opposition.

With a plot doubtless owing much to 'Arsenic and Old Lace', this particular pair of sweetly murderous siblings - whose house is equipped with bottles marked 'Poison' and a box marked 'Explosives' - although ostensibly motivated by a desire to prevent the removal of a Victorian gaslight, but also from "a pathological hatred of salesmen" - and started their killing spree with vacuum cleaner salesmen - evidently actively enjoy their work; a penchant made explicit when "baby brother" Albert observes "All the fun's watching them being carted away!"

This ornate version of Ian McEwan's novel - although for much of the time it constitutes a chamber piece - is not without its moments of spectacle; including a vivid recreation of the retreat from Dunkirk.

Much of the ambiguity of the novel has been lost, notably the precise viewpoint from which the events are being told. While (SPOILER COMING:): the cataclysmic revelation that in the book was almost casually thrown in at the last minute here provides the film with its core.

As conspiracy theories go this has to be one of craziest. The delirious tone of Cold War paranoia set right from the pre-credits sequence in this guilty pleasure depicting Peter Arne with his ear pressed to a pavement in Las Vegas breathlessly telling a crowd of passers by that he can hear the Chinese tunnelling; all to the accompaniment of a frenzied jazz score by Ken Jones.

As if that wasn't enough Vivienne Ventura gets to model the latest in boiler suits as a glamorous young lady scientist.