We watched this one back in the Netflix-on-DVD days, but had an itch for an Alastair Sim-as-a-detective film that this would scratch. And it turned out neither of us remembered that much about it, so could enjoy it afresh. It's a bit... campier than I remember, although that doesn't stop there being a genuine sense of menace in the moments that need it, and it also renews the Trevor Howard-and- Sally Gray (who again gets top billing) pairing from the last film we watched. Turns out Alastair Sim doesn't actually show up in the film until 37 minutes in (I checked), except for a framing device where you hear him dictating a letter about the events of the case and see hands typing, but not his face or any sign that the hands are his.
The setting is interesting: a small village hospital during 1944 (although the village seems to be a major target of V1 Doodlebugs, one of which really kicks events off when the village postman is trapped in rubble because of one), with a soap-opera's level of love triangles and intrigue (and even an evil twin!). No-nonsense brusque Sister Bates's one weakness is that she pines for lothario Mr. Eden (not doctor, I'm not sure why, because he certainly does operations), who has his eyes on Sally Gray's Nurse "Freddie" Linley, who is on-again-off-again with dashing (but apparently insecure) Dr. Barnes (Howard), who has a checkered past of a patient dying on the table, for which an investigation cleared him, but that didn't stop him getting hate mail, delivered by... the same postman who is wheeled into surgery and is not happy to see him.
There are also a couple of other nurses: plump, sensible Nurse Sanson (whose voice the postman swears he recognizes, just before he goes under anesthetic), and tragic Nurse Woods, whose mother died after being buried under rubble for two whole days while a rescue team failed to reach her, and who blames herself, and is perpetually on the verge of cracking, which causes Mr. Eden (showing redeeming qualities) to keep urging her to take a break.
ANYWAY, despite the surgery being routine, the postman dies under the anesthetic, which is administered by the Dr. Barnes
that he seemed so upset to see. And then, at a dance that was planned by the officious head of the hospital (who is seen leading a seminar on positive thinking at the start of the film) to raise morale (which needs raising after he more-or-less suggests Barnes should take a leave of absence
to preserve the hospital's reputation), the madly jealous Sister Bates (who has seen Eden kiss Freddie in the heat of a moment when a doodlebug explosion drove her into his arms,
and who relays this information to the also-jealous Barnes) stops the music and announces that not only was the postman's death a murder but she knows who did it! And off she runs into the night, pursued by Eden, who wants to smooth things over (or so he claims). And then the next thing we see is the Sister rooting around in the surgery presumably to find the evidence she's hidden only to hear something, and turn around to see a sinister figure in a surgeon's gown and mask. Cue scream! Cue Freddie entering the surgery and also screaming, as she finds the sister's body. And only then do we see Sim's Inspector Cockrill saunter into town, holding his briefcase hooked on his umbrella, slung over his shoulder (his jauntiness interrupted somewhat by doodlebug scares). He proves to be a unique presence - alternately bossy, boastful, smug, sinister,
amused, stern, and occasionally a bit buffoonish.
Oh, and definitely self-satisfied, although he also chides himself at certain junctures that if only he'd've been quicker on the uptake he could have saved a life. At this point we have a variant on the death-in-a-stately-home mysteries, with everybody confined to the hospital's outbuildings knowing that there is a killer amongst them. Tempers flare (leading to all-out fisticuffs between Barnes and Eden, to the great amusement of Cockrill) and Freddie is gravely hurt in a gassing attack! Will history repeat itself when she is operated on to fix her fractured skull? Who is doing this, and what is their motive? Well, watch it on YouTube and see! But be warned, it will make you wish that Sim had done a whole lot more Cockrills, because they were a series of books.
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